The explanation for how Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva came to stand by himself for the national anthem — a move he says he now regrets because it put his teammates in an uncomfortable position– is, like most things in this surreal week of sports, more complicated than the headlines it created.

The former Army Ranger, who earned a bronze star in Afghanistan, apparently had planned to stand near the front of his teammates as they waited in the tunnel. The team had decided to not take the field for the anthem as a way of showing unity; some players wanted to stand, others wanted to kneel and they ultimately decided instead to skip any visual that would show them on different sides of the issue.

The plan was flawed from the time coach Mike Tomlin announced it to the world. And then Villanueva apparently became separated from the group and unwittingly became the face of the most fervent anti-NFL backlash we’ve seen.

This was the image those who couldn’t believe that anyone would kneel during the national anthem craved and it immediately took on the meaning they needed. Villanueva was the bearded, stoic face who fought for our freedom breaking ranks because the Star-Spangled Banner and the flag are sacred.

It felt like validation for anyone who agreed with President Donald Trump that those who knelt were “sons of (expletive)” who deserved to be fired. It was a bright spot on a day when many found themselves suddenly at odds with 200 protesting athletes instead of a handful.

By Monday, Villanueva — the subject of widely shared memes on social media — had the most popular jersey in one online sports gear store. He became the perfect anti-Colin Kaepernick. He was celebrated on Breitbart, the right-wing media site that helped galvanize many of Trump’s most controversial supporters and broke records for reader engagement with its NFL coverage Sunday.

JUST IN: Steelers lineman Alejandro Villanueva is the best selling NFL jersey & T-shirt over the last 24 hours, according to @Fanatics pic.twitter.com/VpN1bG39Hn — Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 25, 2017

A few hours later, Villanueva changed the narrative completely with a moving and difficult and complicated and thoughtful press conference.

It is worth watching — or reading the transcript of — the whole thing.

Villanueva apologizes over and over again for ending up apart from his team. But he also says “I’m always going to stand up for the national anthem.” As for whether he’s offended by those who don’t, he was unequivocal:

“I take no offense. I don’t think veterans at the end of the day take any offense. They actually signed up and fought so that somebody could take a knee and protest peacefully whatever it is that their hearts desire.”

This is the only way for an American to feel about this issue; to think otherwise is to believe the 1st Amendment to the Constitution should be dramatically altered in a way that would fundamentally change how this country operates and what it stands for. Or to not understand what it means at all.

Villanueva knows as much, and discussed it with this aching and honest passage that I wish could become the final words on all of this:

What people don’t understand is that people who are taking a knee are not saying anything negative about the military. They’re not saying anything negative about the flag. They’re just trying to protest the fact that there are some injustices in America. And for people to stand up for the national anthem, it doesn’t mean that they don’t believe in these racial injustices. They’re just trying to do the right thing. So we as a team tried to figure it out, obviously butchered it. But I’ve learned that I don’t know what it’s like to be from Dade County, I don’t know what it’s like to be from Lakeland. I can’t tell you that I know what my teammates have gone through, so I’m not going to pretend like I have the righteous sort of voice to tell you that you should stand up for the national anthem. It is protected by our constitution and by our country. It’s freedom of speech. People felt that based on the comments that the president made, that they had to go out and protect and support Colin Kaepernick. And that’s completely in their right, but it’s not something we were trying to do with the Steelers. We were trying to be unified, and unfortunately, I made the team look sort of all over the place and not unified.

Whether these thousands of words Villanueva gave us yesterday will travel as far or have the same impact as the picture of him watching the anthem did is hard to tell, of course.

Villanueva’s press conference — again, I urge you to watch the whole thing — will probably stand as the last authentic moment in this bit of NFL “unity.”

Hours later, Jerry Jones — an early critic of the protests during the anthem — joined his team as every player took a knee prior to the anthem but stood for it. And thus the NFL had done what it does to serious issues: made it part of the presentation, the storyline, the product worth billions. A controversy started by a few players setting themselves apart — deliberately, with clear purpose — and ignited by a president forever in need of distraction had been erased with the optic that matters most: Of players and their team’s owner doing whatever they must to be palatable to the most people. Because in the end, the NFL is a business.

At least we’re left with Villanueva’s words.

He is right to say that he will always stand, and to explain why. And he is right to say that Kaepernick and any other citizen of this country is right to not stand, if that is what they want to do.

And you are right for feeling anger at the league, or shutting off the TV, or feeling pride at this progress, or buying a Villanueva jersey, or returning that jersey, or burning it, or calling your friends who don’t look like and you and saying, ‘Do you have time to talk?’ or doing the same with your uncle who was in the Marines.

Do whatever it is your heart desires — other than agreeing that the government should feel emboldened to suggest limiting how and when a citizen of this country can protest. Not here. Not under our flag.