Texans president Jamey Rootes: NFL feeling impact in wake of protests

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Texans president Jamey Rootes, speaking at a sports industry conference in Atlanta, acknowledged that the NFL is feeling the impact from customers in the wake of NFL players’ protests during the playing of the national anthem.

Rootes, speaking Wednesday at the AXS Ticketing Symposium in Atlanta, was asked during a panel discussion if the controversy had impacted the NFL’s business.

“I think it’s starting to,” he said. “No-shows have not been an issue for us. We’ve had capacity crowds. We haven’t lost any sponsors. ... It’s just in feedback we’ve gotten, like, ‘Hey, this is not good for the game.’ Or ‘This is not good for my connection to the Houston Texans.’”

No Texans players have joined the hundreds of players who have knelt during the anthem to protest what they perceive as racial injustice and inequality and in response to President Donald Trump’s use of the phrase “son of a bitch” to describe protesters.

Rootes added, “We’ll get through this like we have with other challenges before. The question is how quickly we’ll get back to normalcy.”

Rootes’ comments were reported by Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily, which is sponsoring the conference.