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The national anthem protests that many NFL players have participated in over the first portion of the season have apparently drawn the ire of CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz.
On Thursday, an audio clip leaked of Nantz, reportedly during the Thursday night game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins, criticizing the coverage of the protests and how that fuels them to continue. In that game, a number of Dolphins were shown kneeling as the anthem played.
Here's the exact quote, said in the clip originally obtained by Deadspin:
Article Continues Below“They're gonna keep kneeling as long as they have cameras right in their face.”
During the anthem before yesterday's game between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, no protests were shown live, but recordings of Brandon Marshall kneeling and various Chargers players raising their fists were aired later in the broadcast.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted that Nantz did attempt to make a point countering the idea that the protests are unpatriotic last night:
“By the way, a lot of discussion and scrutiny about the national anthem,” Nantz said. “Just to be fair here, during the quarter change they played God Bless America. Philip Rivers, in the middle of a drive, he paused and was singing. You see in the background, Melvin Ingram along with Jatavis Brown with their hands over their heart.”
“Good sight,” Phil Simms added.
The exchange, along with Nantz’s suggestion that “fairness” in some way required the footage to be shown, could be interpreted as an effort to underscore the perception that those who stand for the anthem (or who sing God Bless America) are patriotic — and that those who don’t aren’t.
The protesting players (and many others) believe that there’s nothing unpatriotic about exercising the right to protest the anthem.
