Back in October, Bob McNair apologized for using the phrase “We can’t have the inmates running the prison” in relation to NFL players protesting during the national anthem. But now the Houston Texans owner is expressing second thoughts about saying he was sorry for making the remark.

“The main thing I regret is apologizing,” McNair told the Wall Street Journal during an interview published Thursday. “I really didn’t have anything to apologize for.”

McNair was quoted in an Oct. 27 article in ESPN the Magazine as making the inflamatory comment during a fall meeting of NFL owners and executives. He told the Wall Street Journal that the “inmates” he had referred to were team executives, not players.

“We were talking about a number of things, but we were also washing some of our dirty linen, which you do internally,” McNair said. “You don’t do that publicly. That’s what I was addressing: The relationship of owners and the league office.


“In business, it’s a common expression. But the general public doesn’t understand it, perhaps.”

McNair issued an apology on the same day the ESPN article was published. Two days later, however, more than 30 of his players took a knee or sat during the national anthem as an apparent response to McNair’s original remark.

“I regret that I used that expression,” he stated at the time. “I never meant to offend anyone, and I was not referring to our players. I used a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our players or our league that way, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”

McNair told the Wall Street Journal that his stance all along has been that the NFL and politics shouldn’t mix.


“As employers, we set conditions for all of our employees,” McNair said. “We don’t allow political meetings or statements or that sort of thing during working hours. You wouldn’t let somebody working at McDonald’s, when somebody pulls through, give them a hamburger and say, ‘I don’t know why you’re eating that beef, why aren’t you a vegetarian?’ You don’t allow that. Well, that’s freedom of expression.”

He added: “We need to stay out of politics. That’s been my message.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii