http://pit.247sports.com/Bolt/Inside-the-Pittsburgh-Steelers-National-Anthem-decision-107944191
Alejandro Villanueva's and the Steelers' National Anthem decision was the result of a 15-minute players' only meeting on Saturday night that finished with a vote on what Pittsburgh would do as a team the following day.
Here are some key highlights from PennLive.com Jacob Klinger's in depth-story on what went down during Pittsburgh's players' only meeting:
The Steelers voted (by a show of hands) on three options for Saturday's National Anthem that were introduced by Ben Roethlisberger:
-- They could stand along the sideline holding hands
-- They could stay off the field
-- Players could take the sideline with some kneeling, some players standing and some of the standing players putting their hands on the shoulders of the kneeling
"The mixed one, that really got eliminated," Chris Hubbard said after the game.
-- Some disagreement remained after the meeting on if Villanueva would be exempt from the team's voted-on decision. "Al was cool with it, with whatever we went through. He was on board. That's Al, man," Hubbard said. "He's a good guy."
Harrison did not think anyone was exempt from the team's decision.
"We thought we were all in attention with the same agreement, obviously, " Harrison said. "But, I guess we weren't."
-- Hubbard said about 15 players spoke before the vote that included Ramon Foster, James Harrison, Cameron Heyward, Vance McDonald, Mike Mitchell, Maurkice Pouncey, Roethlisberger, Villanueva and Vince Williams.
-- According to Cameron Heyward, those who did address the group before the vote "challenged each other and their fellow players not to broken by whatever outcome they reached."
-- According to Hubbard, the vote was split nearly in half, with the decision to stay off the field edging out holding hands while standing on the sideline.
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The end result was Villanueva standing outside the Steelers' tunnel with his right hand over his chest with his teammates just out of sight nearby inside the tunnel.
Hubbard said that Villanueva was OK with his teammates not appearing for the anthem while adding that each of his teammates accepted that there would be an exception for Villanueva. Foster added the team supported Villanueva taking the field to take part in the National Anthem. Villanueva was not available for comment in the locker room after the game, but Roethlisberger offered his thoughts on his team's decision.
"We knew some guys wanted to take a knee, some guys wanted to stand," Roethlisberger said. "We said whatever we do, we need to make sure we stay unified as one group, because that’s what we’re about and that’s what we should be about, being together and staying together one unit, one brotherhood.
"So instead of having some guys kneel and some guys stand, the conclusion was made by everybody to stay in the locker room, stay in the tunnel, if you will, and show our respect that way."
Mike Tomlin, running backs coach James Saxon, offensive coordinator Todd Haley and offensive line coach Mike Munchak were the only members of the team that stood on the Steelers' sideline for the playing of Sunday's National Anthem.
“This big thing is that we remain united," said Tomlin, who added that he spoke to commissioner Roger Goodell about his team's intentions on Sunday morning. "These teams, man, this game of football is a unique one. We’re all blessed to be part of it, man. We all get tolerances because of people that are different because of our association with ball. I think abandon that’s involved with ball, has a high level of tolerance, has a high level of understanding. We feel bad for people who aren’t involved in football. Who don’t have the opportunity to have a brother that is very different next to him that he can rely on to gain understanding.
“We will not be divided by this. We got a group of men in there who come from different social-economic, background, races, creeds, ethnicities, and religions and so forth. That’s football. That’s a lot of team sports. but because of our position, we get drug into the (expletive), to be quite honest with you. And so some have opinions, some don’t We wanted to protect this that don’t, we wanted to protect those that do. We came here for a football game today, and that was our intentions.”
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