Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Marcus Peters sat during the national anthem on Thursday in the opener against the New England Patriots
The 2017 NFL season got underway on Thursday night, and we get quite the opener as the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, though, as it pertains to the NFL, not everything recently has centered around the action on the field. No, with quarterback Colin Kaepernick still not able to find a roster to call home, more emphasis has been put on player protests more than ever before.
So on Thursday night, aside from watching two of the best teams in the AFC do battle, all eyes were on whether or not a player — or players — from either side would take a stand during the playing of the national anthem for the first game of the season. And yes, that is something that did take place, as Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Marcus Peters took a seat during the national anthem on Thursday night.
Marcus Peters sits for the National Anthem pic.twitter.com/akOVPOJmjj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 8, 2017
Now of course, because Peters is a big name in the league, this will be one of the top storylines to come out of the NFL opener on Thursday night. Some people might think that it’s irrelevant, but unfortunately, as we see on a daily basis with the constant rumblings surrounding Kaepernick, it means a lot more than some people may realize.
Maybe the craziest part of all this here, however, may have been that the cameras initially didn’t pick up on Peters taking a seat. They had the cameras on the players that were standing, but as soon as the anthem was over, it was Al Michaels on the broadcast who immediately let everyone know that Peters was the one player who decided to take a seat on the bench.