"It appears some fans are confusing the league rulebook for the NFL Game Operations Manual, which includes nearly 200 pages of procedures and policy for regular-season games. Among the arcane details: each team must provide 600 towels and 500 pounds of ice to the visiting team.
In an email, Brian McCarthy, the NFLâs vice president of communications, shared the portion of the manual that addresses the anthem, and that language is what has been shared on social media but mistakenly attributed to the rulebook.
McCarthy stressed that passage about the national anthem is a guideline and not a requirement. The key words in the operations manual are âshouldâ and âmayâ and not âmust.â No player is required to stand at attention.
Thatâs why the league has never issued a punishment for a player who didnât follow the recommendation.
âThere is no discipline being considered for any action yesterday,â McCarthy said Monday.
Troy Vincent, the NFLâs executive vice president of football operations, told The Sporting News in March that âthe league didnât discuss setting a standard protocol for all players during the pregame playing of the anthem.â
That Sporting News story said Vincent told Vic Carucci and Alex Marvez: âFrankly, the players have that right. Theyâre asked (to stand), but not required.â
When former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat down during the playing on the national anthem last year, the NFL issued this statement said the same thing: âPlayers are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem.â"
My understanding is the rule book governs player behavior etc. The operations manual is just that... an operations manual for the teams.
It all just comes down to political correctness and the incessant demand for PC from many in here.
By the way... isn't there an issue with holding the flag horizontal which is common?
Edited by user
8 years ago |
Reason: Not specified