Almost the entire Houston Texans NFL squad took a knee during the national anthem on Sunday after one of the team’s owners said that allowing the protests to continue would be like having “the inmates run the prison”.
Kneeling protests, intended to draw attention to racial injustice, have become a regular sight at American football fixtures across the country in recent months, but until Sunday the Texans were not among the teams participating.
On Friday, 11 NFL team owners met with 12 players representing the dozens who have joined the protests to discuss a resolution to the stand-off, following reports that angry fans were beginning to desert the league.
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As they discussed the protests, McNair said “we can't have the inmates running the prison,” reports ESPN, which added that his comment “stunned” the room.
The analogy was seen immediately condemned in light of the fact that racial inequality in the criminal justice system were major motivators for the Black Lives Matter movement that inspired the kneeling protests.
African-Americans make up 13% of the general population but 37% of prison inmates, according to US government statistics.
“Decades of research have shown that the criminal courts sentence black defendants more harshly than whites,” the New York Times reports. One Florida study cited by the paper found that black people convicted of robbery were sentenced to almost six months longer on average than white defendants.
After locker room discussions of how to respond to the comments, the Texans decided to join the kneeling protests.
More than 40 Texans players knelt at the edge of the field before their match against the Seattle Seahawks, while the handful who remained standing linked arms with their teammates in a show of solidarity.
McNair has said that he was referring to the NFL’s league office - which has refused to take action to end the protests - rather than the players themselves, but the Texans were not convinced.
Offensive lineman Duane Brown told reporters that McNair’s language was “ignorant” and “embarrassing”, says the New York Times.
“We put our bodies and minds on the line every time we step on that field, and to use an analogy of inmates in prison, that’s disrespectful,” he said.
Tensions between owners - who fear that the divisive protests are driving fans away - and players who accuse them of putting profit above social justice, have reached boiling point in recent weeks.
President Donald Trump has been accused of fanning the flames with tirades in which he has equated kneeling for the anthem as an insult to the American flag and the military.
At an Alabama rally last month, Trump referred to the protesting players as “sons of bitches” and called for fans to boycott teams whose players refuse to stand for the anthem.
