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Jets acting owner vows not to punish players who protest during anthem

Christopher Johnson said he hopes Jets players will stand but understands if players feel the need to protest.
Credit: Brad Penner, USA TODAY Sports
New York Jets acting CEO Christopher Johnson on the sidelines before a game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium.

The NFL passed its revised national anthem policy, mandating all team personnel who choose to be on the field to stand, but at least one franchise won’t dissuade its players from protesting.

New York Jets chairman and acting owner Christopher Johnson told Newsday that players who feel the need to protest during the anthem won’t face repercussion from the team.

“I do not like imposing any club-specific rules,” Johnson said. “If somebody (on the Jets) takes a knee, that fine will be borne by the organization, by me, not the players. I never want to put restrictions on the speech of our players. Do I prefer that they stand? Of course. But I understand if they felt the need to protest. There are some big, complicated issues that we’re all struggling with, and our players are on the front lines. I don’t want to come down on them like a ton of bricks, and I won’t.

"There will be no club fines or suspensions or any sort of repercussions. If the team gets fined, that’s just something I’ll have to bear.”

The NFL’s policy, which was passed Wednesday at the spring league meetings, stipulates that players who choose not to stand for the anthem will be allowed to remain in the locker room. But the revision puts the onus on the individual teams to instill their respective protocols.

“I seriously struggled with this,” Johnson told Newsday of the revised policy. “You know my position on the anthem, and you have to understand that the plan we ended up with, due to some serious work in the (meeting) room, was vastly less onerous than the one that was presented to me late last week. In the end, I felt I had to support it from a membership standpoint.”

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