Lions lock arms, kneel before game in nationwide protest of President Trump's rant

Their gestures were silent yet they rang louder than any boos or cheers ever heard at Detroit’s Ford Field.

In a show of defiance against President Donald Trump’s criticisms of NFL players and the league, Detroit Lions owner Martha Ford locked arms with coach Jim Caldwell and other members of the team in a row of solidarity that also included Ford’s three daughters and quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Nearby, eight Lions players knelt on one knee for the national anthem, then joined their fellow players in linking arms before Sunday’s heartbreaking 30-26 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Even Ford Field’s anthem singer Rico Lavelle took a knee as he sang the word “brave,” lowering his head and raising his right fist into the air.

In stadiums across the National Football League, and nowhere more than at Ford Field in Detroit, the response was riveting and all but unanimous to Trump’s demand that NFL teams rid themselves of any players who “take a knee” or otherwise express personal views during the playing of the national anthem.

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From arms that locked and knees that dropped in Detroit to the almost complete refusal of the Pittsburgh Steelers team to be seen at all during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, it was a remarkable day of politics and protest getting prime time on the national stage of televised professional sports.

Trump, in a series of escalating statements beginning on Friday, had demanded that swift punishment be given to those who refuse to stand during the national anthem – a gesture that began last season among some African-American players, after Colin Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback, began kneeling in what he said was a protest against racial injustice. The gesture is seen by critics as a sign of disrespect for the nation and its leaders as well as a slight to the country’s military and first-responders.

Others, including civil rights groups, have said that professional athletes and anyone else has the right to express personal views, and such expressions can be acts of protest by prominent athletes, even at times when they are in the public eye.

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By mid-afternoon Sunday, presumably after seeing the NFL responses and possibly the start of the Lions game, Trump tweeted: "Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"

Trump had been praised on social media and radio talk shows for criticizing the player protests. He used an expletive Friday night to refer to players who protest during the anthem. On Saturday, he criticized the NFL as well as the National Basketball Association. By Sunday, he raised the stakes, first advising fans to boycott NFL games until the teams "fire or suspend" any player who continues to show defiance during the anthem, and then — in another two tweets — slamming the entire NFL as "boring," asserting that attendance and ratings are "WAY DOWN," and suggesting that "many stay away because they love our country."

Attendance and television ratings for the NFL have declined in recent years, but league officials have said that the slippage began before the anthem protests began.

By mid-morning Sunday, the response to Trump's tweeting was a flurry of phone calls around the National Football League and among team officials, discussing how to take on the unprecedented presidential tongue-lashing. By 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Lions owner Martha Ford became one of numerous NFL owners to issue a statement repudiating the president’s comments, although without naming him.

"Our game has long provided a powerful platform for dialogue and positive change in many communities throughout our nation," Ford said in the statement.

She went on: "Thanks primarily to our players, the NFL also has been a unifying force in our country and impactful change has and hopefully will continue to be the result of peaceful expression, done so in order to highlight social injustices of all kind.

Negative and disrespectful comments suggesting otherwise are contrary to the founding principles of our country, and we do not support those comments or opinions."

At least 15 NFL teams issued statements Sunday and more than 130 players expressed some form of protest — by sitting, kneeling or raising clenched fists in defiance during Sunday’s games, according to a USA Today report. A week earlier, just four players declined to stand and two raised fists during the national anthem, USA Today reported.

Trump’s call for firing or suspending protesting players came Friday at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Ala., where the president was stumping for Luther Strange, a candidate he’s endorsed in Alabama's upcoming Republican primary election to fill a key seat in the U.S. Senate. Trump has endorsed a conservative Republican who is running against what political pundits have said is an even more conservative candidate who has been endorsed by former presidential adviser Stephen Bannon. The president’s comments, beginning with his speech in Huntsville, are said by some commentators to be aimed at voters in the party’s extreme right wing who currently support the candidate endorsed by Bannon.

Prior to Sunday, no Detroit Lions players had taken part in protests during the national anthem over the last year, team officials said. But several hours before Sunday’s close loss to the Falcons -- last year’s runner up in the Super Bowl -- team president Rod Wood said that the Detroit team's top management would support anyone who might feel the urge to protest.

"They’re all individuals," Wood said before the game. "They’re entitled to their opinions, and free speech is part of what this country is about, so whatever they decide to do is up to them and as I said, we support the players."

Wood said he’d had numerous conversations with others in the Lions organization, including coach Caldwell, and with team officials throughout the league on Saturday and Sunday about Trump’s comments and the expected responses by players. He also said that he’d reviewed a statement by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, prior to the Lions releasing their statement on behalf of owner Martha Ford.

As with others in the NFL who opined, Goodell did not name the president. His statement said, in part, that professional football can help to "create a sense of unity in our country and our culture," but that – in contrast – the recent divisive comments from the White House "demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in their communities."

Several White House officials defended Trump's statements, contending Sunday that pro athletes have numerous opportunities off the field to express their views without showing disrespect to the flag and the nation during pre-game ceremonies.

Marc Short, the president's legislative director, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that high school coaches are often punished for leading their players in pre-game prayers, "and yet, when an NFL player takes a knee, somehow that player is presumed to be a martyr for a social cause."

USA Today contributed to this report.

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