re: Mike Tomlin has issue with Alejandro Villanueva coming out for the National Anthem?

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Question: Re: Villaneueva being on the field for the anthem:

Tomlin: Like I said, I was looking for a hundred percent participation. We’re going to be respectful of our football team. Man, these are divisive times in the United States. and it’s a shame, but it is, but we’re not politicians. We’re coaches and professional athletes. If those of us are individuals choose to participate in politics in some way, I’m going to be supportive of that, butut when we come out of locker rooms, we come out of locker rooms to play football games, and to be quite honest with you I didn’t appreciate our football team being drug into politics this weekend. And I’m sure that’s a global perspective. But, we’re blessed to do this for a living, and so with that blessing comes responsibility. We understand that. We understand that we’re given a platform that’s a unique one. Many of us are called to maybe do things that we wouldn’t normally do because of that platform, where people apply pressure to us to do things because of that platform. The bottom line is we chose not to play ball today in that regard. Maybe we will, but today, we just said no.

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For Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, being “respectful of our football team” trumped the right of Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva to show respect for the national anthem.

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Tomlin says he wanted it to be an all or nothing team decision. That's it. He doesn't criticize Villanueva.

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