Houston Texans players kneel and stand during the singing of the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 29, 2017, in Seattle. (Elaine Thompson/AP Images)

Well, that escalated quickly. When multiple outlets reported that Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison” in a closed-door “special privileged session” after owners met with players to discuss protests during the national anthem, he assumed that a simple apology would suffice in getting him back in good graces with his chattel employees.


When it didn’t, he issued another apology explaining what he meant, that he misspoke, that he doesn’t know what came over him, how it must’ve been the medication, the devil, ISIS or his Wi-Fi that caused him to refer to gainfully employed people working their asses off for his literal profit while protesting injustice and equality as “inmates.”


Reports began surfacing of plans by Texans players, still unswayed, to protest. Some said that they would take the logos off their helmets, reminiscent of the radical statement made by Los Angeles Clippers players when they turned their shirts inside out in protest of ex-owner Donald Sterling’s comments in 2014. Others said that they wouldn’t do anything at all, reminiscent of the toothless statement made by Los Angeles Clippers players when they turned their shirts inside out in protest of ex-owner Donald Sterling’s comments in 2014.

As the players filed onto the field for the pregame warmups and the playing of the national anthem during the game against Seattle on Sunday, all but 10 Houston Texans players took a knee to protest the offensive comments by the ...

... wait. I think I read that wrong. I know the Houston Texans have some white players. Maybe they didn’t count them. Let me go back and do some research.


Yep. Even the majority of white players took a knee, which means either that the players on the Houston Texans don’t believe that kneeling during the anthem is disrespectful to the flag when it comes to Houston Texans players, or it was never disrespectful at all.

Or maybe they just believe that a decrepit, old, Trump-supporting white man talking shit in a group of other decrepit, old, Trump-supporting white men is a more pressing issue than black people getting shot in the face.


Either way, good for them.

Here’s to the brave inmates in Houston.

Read more at the Associated Press.