Trump Continues Slamming NFL Following Cowboys' Display Of Unity Before Anthem
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WASHINGTON (KDKA/AP) - President Donald Trump is up and tweeting, and his target is the NFL.
Trump says "ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected."
Ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts, when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017
He also says that booing at the Dallas game Monday night when the team dropped to its knees was the "loudest I have ever heard."
The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017
Following a weekend of kneeling and protesting across the NFL, the Cowboys and their owner displayed their own version of unity Monday night by kneeling on the field before rising as a group before the playing of the national anthem.
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Trump noted in this tweets that the team stood for the anthem: "Big progress being made- we all love our country."
But while Dallas dropped to its knees as a team, they all stood up for our National Anthem. Big progress being made-we all love our country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017
Only one of the Pittsburgh Steelers' players took the field for the national anthem on Sunday in Chicago. But, Alejandro Villanueva is now apologizing for his actions.
"Unfortunately, I threw my teammates under the bus, unintentionally," Villanueva said in a press conference Monday.
He said the team had a meeting Saturday night before the game to discuss what they were going to do.
"Coach Tomlin gave us the guidance that we had to do it all as one, so 100 percent, in whatever it is that we had to do. There was a disagreement in what we were going to do and the only course of action was to go inside and remove ourselves from the situation," Villanueva said.
Villanueva says he asked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger if he could be out in front with the captains during the national anthem and they agreed to it, but when he went to the front of the tunnel to see the flag, he went too far unintentionally.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)