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San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York reportedly abstained from voting for the national anthem mandate that the NFL passed Wednesday morning.
The new rule states that teams must stand for the national anthem on the field, but they are allowed to remain in the locker room if they choose. If players remain on the field and choose not to stand, however, the organization will be fined.
Interesting detail in today’s #NFL anthem rule vote. The #49ers abstained. So the league’s “unanimous” approval was only unanimous among the teams that actually voted on the rule. But not all 32 teams voted.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) May 23, 2018
“I don’t think we should be profiting if we’re going to put this type of attention and focus on the field and on the flag,” York told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times.
“I think there are a lot of reasons, and I’m not going to get into all of those reasons,” York told reporters on Wednesday, according to ESPN. “But I think the gist of it is really that we want to make sure that everything that we’re doing is to promote progress. And I think we’ve done a good piece of that so far.”
The 49ers brass has long supported their players’ rights to peacefully protest and stand up for a cause in which they believe. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began the movement of kneeling during the anthem to protest police brutality during the 2016 NFL preseason. The movement has since swept the league. Many 49ers players continued to kneel throughout the 2017 season, including Eric Reid, who filed a collusion grievance against the NFL earlier this month similar to Kaepernick’s.
Each team is allowed to implement its own guidelines according to the new anthem rule, meaning the 49ers could choose not to take the field during the national anthem.