The Pittsburgh Steelers were not excluded from teams breaking from convention to make a statement during the playing of the National Anthem in Chicago on Sunday, September 24. But they were for the most part absent from the field; all but one player from the first place NFC North team.
Fourth-year offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva was the sole Steelers player to come out of the tunnel in order to observe the Star Spangled Banner. And he did so with his hand placed over his heart, in the traditional manner. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin provided some unique reasoning as to why the team chose to stay off of the field, stating: "We're not going to play politics. We're football players, we're football coaches. We're not participating in the anthem today - not to be disrespectful to the anthem, but to remove ourselves from the circumstance."
"People shouldn't have to choose. If a guy wants to go about his normal business and participate in the anthem, he shouldn't be forced to choose sides. If a guy feels the need to do something, he shouldn't be separated from his teammate who chooses not to," Tomlin continued on to say.
Villanueva's choice to come out and stand for the National Anthem is not surprising. He is a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, who has been critical of Kaepernick's protest in the past. But while he has expressed a having a difference with players who sit, kneel, and raise their fists, Villanueva has also acknowledged that there is a ways to go in terms of racial equality, and has espoused his solidarity on the issue.
"I don't know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that's providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year ... when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year," Villanueva is on record as saying. "I will be the first one to hold hands with Colin Kaepernick and do something about the way minorities are being treated in the United States, the injustice that is happening with police brutality, the justice system, inequalities in pay. You can't do it by looking away from the people that are trying to protect our freedom and our country."
