--- title: Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem | TIME description: The NFL is not changing its national anthem policy to require players to stand during the national anthem. canonical: https://time.com/video/GhIk3xgP/ og:title: Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem og:description: The NFL is not changing its national anthem policy to require players to stand during the national anthem. og:url: https://time.com/video/GhIk3xgP/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GhIk3xgP/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem twitter:description: The NFL is not changing its national anthem policy to require players to stand during the national anthem. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GhIk3xgP/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem [Watch (HLS stream): Roger Goodell Says the NFL Will Not Force Players to Stand for the National Anthem](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GhIk3xgP.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2017-10-18. The NFL is not changing its national anthem policy to require players to stand during the national anthem._ --- Jul 27, 2023 10:49 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The NFL’s National Anthem Non-Policy](/video/IB6HsmNQ/) ### The NFL’s National Anthem Non-Policy [Lone Steelers Player Who Stood During the National Anthem: 'I Feel Embarrassed'](/video/CEdGaziH/) ### Lone Steelers Player Who Stood During the National Anthem: 'I Feel Embarrassed' [NFL, Players React to Trump's Comments on National Anthem Protests](/video/iCLdv7pF/) ### NFL, Players React to Trump's Comments on National Anthem Protests --- ## Transcript Well I think one of the things we need to keep the focus on is, again, we believe that our players should stand for the national anthem. That's an important part of our game and our moments. And we believe in that. I think we also have to keep focus on is, we have about six or seven players. That are involved with this protest at this point. And this is something that what we try to do is deal with the underlying issue and understand what it is that they're protesting and try to address that matter. And so, let me finish if you can. So the important thing for us is to be able to do that and take that opportunity to make real differences in our community And that is really what's gonna ultimately be the important aspect for us in long term, because this is a long- term issue. We need to make sure we do that in the right way. I understand where our fans feel about this issue and we feel the same way about the importance of a flag, about the importance of patriotism. And I believe our players feel that way. They will state to you, and they have stated to everyone publically, they are not doing this in any way to be disrespectful to the flag, but they also understand how is being interpreted. And that's why we're trying to deal with those underlying issues. Yes. They're very clear about it. And they're actually, incredibly knowledgable, articulate. And they spent that time to go into other communities to talk about that. And so they really truly understand that they are talking about, criminal justice reform. Whether it's bail reform, whether it's talking about mandatory sensing. They are talking about changes that I think would make our communities better. That there is bypass and support for it. Across our nation and that need focus. They're talking about what we can do to support them to effectuate that legislative change and that's again, very, very positive. They're talking about the quality issues, making sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to give people an opportunity whether it's in education or economic. And what we can do to try to fluctuate that. And we believe with the players that we can help them. We can support them. And those are our issues, national issues, American issues. 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