With PLUMMETING Ticket Sales the Entire Houston Texan Team Takes in a Knee during the Anthem Because of the OWNERS Comments

The Houston Texans face a new wrinkle in the ongoing protest story facing the NFL: an owner who has, by some interpretations, slagged them as “inmates.” How do you respond to that?



Texans owner Bob McNair made nationwide news late this week when an ESPN report revealed he offered the highly unfortunate phrase, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison” in an owners’ discussion about players’ concerns. McNair apologized on at least two occasions, but that wasn’t enough for the Texans, who decided to stage some form of protest as a team.



Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks offered the first opportunity for that protest, and all but about 10 of the players on the team knelt during the anthem.



If the protests distracted the Texans, more teams could use this kind of distraction; Houston and Seattle played arguably the season’s best game on Sunday, a stellar exhibition of offense and QB play. After the game, though, talk returned to the protest.



“It was a lot of emotions going in for our team, just a huge sense of unity,” Texans offensive tackle Duane Brown said. “We all felt like playing for each other, forgetting everything else. Once kickoff was started, we tried to block out any more distractions we had.”