It all happened slowly, until it all happened quickly. “Last week across the entire NFL,” the Associated Press reported, “only four players knelt or sat, and two stood with their fists raised. In the nine early games Sunday, AP reporters counted 102 players kneeling or sitting, and at least three raising their fists.” (Later in the day, the AP modified its estimate to “more than 130.”)

Football is a sport, in the most literal of ways, about progress: Its players move yard by yard, methodically and strategically, down the field, for first downs and then second and then third—a game of steady movement and minute measurement. But the drama of the sport often comes in those instants when, indeed, the slowness of progress becomes quick: the moment the arcing pass finds its recipient. The moment the tackle is evaded and the field is clear and the runner, weaving and winding, makes it to the 15-yard line, and then the 10, and then the 5, and then the end. Those are the moments that make the difference between wins and losses. They are the moments that make the game what it is.

History moves in a similar way. Its events proceed methodically until, inspired by a split-second happening—a perfect pass, a surprise tackle, a moment of quiet human ingenuity—they race forward. This weekend, #TakeAKnee—the small protest turned into a widespread one—became one of those moments.

It started, as things so often will, with the president. On Friday night, at a rally in Alabama, as one U.S. territory reeled from a humanitarian crisis and another lay under threat of a nuclear attack, Trump spoke of NFL franchise owners, encouraging them to fire players who kneeled in protest during the singing of the national anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out? He’s fired,’” the president said, efficiently combining a slur with a reality-TV catchphrase. He continued. “You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s gonna say, ‘That guy disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’re friends of mine, many of them. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in the country.”

On Saturday, the president repeated the sentiments, this time on Twitter. Among tweets mocking John McCain, Iran, and the leader of North Korea—“Little Rocket Man,” the president taunted—Trump doubled down on his Friday-night slights. “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues,” he wrote, “he or she should not be allowed to disrespect … our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”