--- title: Donald Trump: NFL Owners Are 'Afraid of Their Players' description: In his latest commentary on on NFL national anthem protests, President Donald Trump said that team owners are "afraid" of their players canonical: https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-28T12:45:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:38:24.966Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump: NFL Owners Are 'Afraid of Their Players' og:description: "I think they're afraid of their players, you want to know the truth" og:url: https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9c83915c4e7856/6988df8ebc6cfcc2eb3e342f/donald-trump-tax-reform-livestream.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Prime Minister Of Spain og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump: NFL Owners Are 'Afraid of Their Players' twitter:description: "I think they're afraid of their players, you want to know the truth" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9c83915c4e7856/6988df8ebc6cfcc2eb3e342f/donald-trump-tax-reform-livestream.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump: NFL Owners Are Afraid of Their Players by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 28, 2017 12:45 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 26, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 26, 2017 in Washington, D.C.Alex Wong/Getty Images by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Sep 28, 2017 12:45 PM UTC In his latest [commentary on NFL national anthem protests](http://time.com/4960638/donald-trump-latest-battle-against-nfl/), President Donald Trump said that team owners are “afraid” of the players on their teams. “I have so many friends that are owners. And they’re in a box. I mean, I’ve spoken to a couple of them. They say, we are in a situation where we have to do something. I think they’re afraid of their players, if you want to know the truth,” [Trump said during an interview on _Fox & Friends_](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/28/trump-nfl-owners-afraid-to-take-action-against-kneeling-players.html) Thursday morning. Trump doubled down on his comments that [protests during the National Anthem](http://time.com/4955544/trump-nfl-kneeling-anthem/) disrespect the American flag. “The NFL cannot disrespect our country. They cannot disrespect our flag or our national anthem. And they can’t have people sitting down or kneeling down during our national anthem,” Trump said. Trump also reiterated his claims that the [protests have been driving the NFL’s ratings down](http://time.com/4955913/trump-nfl-ratings-week-3/). He also added that there should be a rule mandating that players be present and stand for the national anthem. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/"},"headline":"Donald Trump: NFL Owners Are Afraid of Their Players","datePublished":"2017-09-28T12:45:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:38:24.966Z","description":"\"I think they're afraid of their players, you want to know the truth\"","url":"https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9c83915c4e7856/6988df8ebc6cfcc2eb3e342f/donald-trump-tax-reform-livestream.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba9c83915c4e7856/6988df8ebc6cfcc2eb3e342f/donald-trump-tax-reform-livestream.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Prime Minister Of Spain","caption":"President Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Prime Minister Of Spain","creditText":"Alex Wong/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4960713/donald-trump-nfl-owners-are-afraid-of-their-players/","name":"Donald Trump: NFL Owners Are Afraid of Their Players"}}]}] ```