During the playing of the National Anthem prior to the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Chicago Bears game on Sunday, left tackle Alejandro Villanueva was the only Steeler to come out and stand.

According to Pennlive.com, Villanueva’s action caught teammates by surprise — as it had been voted on a day earlier, and decided by a slim majority that the team would remain in the locker room.

“I was looking for 100 percent participation,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said during his post-game news conference. “We were going to be respectful of our football team.”

On that basis, Fox Sports 1’s Skip Bayless agreed that Villanueva — a former Army Ranger with a distinguished service record in Afghanistan — should not have come out for the Anthem.

“It didn’t work for him to step out of the tunnel,” Bayless said during Monday’s edition of Undisputed. “If, in fact, you had all agreed, you had voted whether a majority or unanimously, to do this as a team to stay up in the tunnel until the Anthem was done. And Mike Tomlin was clear.”

Bayless’s colleague, Shannon Sharpe, agreed.

Teams, they always take the military mentality, because it’s all for one, one for all. Whatever we decide to do that’s what we’re going to do. He went on his own. I get it. He was in the military. I commend him for his service. But in this situation if the team decided that we, all of us, were going to wait in the tunnel while the national anthem is being played, that was the protocol that should have been followed.

Watch above via Fox Sports 1.

[featured image via screengrab]

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