The NFL’s non-compromise compromise regarding the national anthem consisted of the owners deciding to tell any player who would be inclined to protest during the anthem to take it to the locker room. Steelers cornerback Artie Burns thinks that this approach unfairly stigmatizes the players who would like to peacefully and silently protest.
“It makes you look bad,” Burns said Thursday, via Lauren Kerschman of PennLive.com. “You got your whole team out there. You come jogging out and it’s, ‘Oh, he’s the guy who left the field.’ Who wants to go through that, man? That’s humiliating us as a person.
“We’re trying to stand for something and you’re going to single us out in front of everybody. You talk about bullying, man. That’s bullying. That’s my opinion.”
Burns sees the entire issue as many do -- an effort to further divide a country that’s already so divided that it’s essentially two distinct countries whose residents are intermingled.
“I feel that’s just a topic to get everybody against each other,” Burns said. “I hate that we have to go down this route but it is what it is.”
Burns eventually cut off the topic, explaining that it was making him too angry. As players have a chance over the coming three-day weekend to further process what the owners have done, maybe even more of them will be angry come Tuesday, when they return to “voluntary” offseason work.