Jeff Fisher’s tenure with the Rams was not a great one. He never won more than seven games, never finished higher than third in the NFC West and was often criticized by the media and fans. He was fired by the team last year as the coaching staff received a complete makeover, and has remained without a job for 2017. However, he’s found his way back into the eye of the public.

Fisher opened up about players protesting the national anthem in a post for Sports Illustrated. He experienced a protest firsthand last season when Robert Quinn and Kenny Britt raised their fists during the song’s playing. It wasn’t necessarily the same as Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the anthem, which spurred action by several players across the league, but it was still a form of protest, nonetheless.

I want to show respect for the anthem, the flag, our country and our freedom. I love our country, and even in unemployment this year I’ll be taking a USO tour. But this is also a special moment to take a deep breath and realize just how lucky we are to be doing what we’re doing. Every single anthem since 2009, I’ve thought about Steve McNair and said a prayer for his family. I don’t want to call it meditation, but it almost, in a sense, is for me and also for our players. It’s the last opportunity to focus and realize where you are and how lucky you are to be doing what you love.

Fisher is very structured when it comes to the national anthem. Every preseason, he gave a presentation about how the team would line up before each game.

“Defense is on the left, offense is on the right and all the players are standing side by side on the sideline,” Fisher said.

Because of the way Fisher made it clear to his players how they would be arranged for the anthem, he believes Kaepernick’s protest would have been different had he played for the Rams. That doesn’t mean Fisher would have prevented Kaepernick from kneeling, but he believes it would have been addressed early on.

Normally I don’t deal in hypotheticals, but if I had Colin on my team last year, how would I have reacted? I’d like to think the issue would have been raised during my preseason presentation, or possibly in private afterward. We would have had a deep one-on-one discussion that would have remained private, and hopefully we would have heard each other’s side so we knew where we stood.

That’s not to say Fisher doesn’t believe players should protest the anthem. He just believes they should back up their stance with “words and actions.” Kaepernick did that by speaking out on inequality and the issues in the U.S., which is why many don’t have an issue with his protest.

Fisher just isn’t sure if that’s where a player’s focus should be right before an NFL game kicks off.