Inside the Steelers' meeting that led to them staying off the field during national anthem
By Jacob Klinger
jklinger@pennlive.com
CHICAGO -- No one person called Steelers players together Saturday night.
Chris Hubbard found out there would be a players-only meeting because fullback Roosevelt Nix texted to tell him as much. Teammates spread word of the meeting organically, passing word onto one another when they were told of it.
Every player that traveled with the team to Chicago attended. And after their regularly scheduled game day eve session with the coaching staff - but before bed checks - they gathered in a meeting room at the team hotel, the JW Marriott at 151 W. Adams St. downtown, to debate, then vote on how they would respond to comments made by president Donald Trump suggesting NFL owners "fire" players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality.
Multiple players said that before the vote they had come to the understanding that whatever the team ultimately decided, by popular show of hands, would determine what they would all do while the "Star-Spangled Banner" was sung before Sunday's 1 p.m. ET kickoff with the Chicago Bears. Some disagreement remained after the game on if left tackle and Bronze Star Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva would be exempt from the collective decision.
Ben Roethlisberger introduced the players' three choices, Hubbard said.
They could stand along the sideline holding hands.
They could stay off the field, which they did.
Or they could take the sideline with some players kneeling, some standing and some of the standing putting their hands on the shoulders of the kneeling.
"The mixed one, that really got eliminated," Hubbard said.
About 15 players, Hubbard said, spoke before the vote, including Ramon Foster, James Harrison, Cameron Heyward, Vance McDonald, Mike Mitchell, Maurkice Pouncey, Roethlisberger, Villanueva and Vince Williams.
McDonald said he did not advocate for any particular position other than following through with the result of the vote. The tight end was traded to Pittsburgh on Aug. 29 from the San Francisco 49ers, where Colin Kaepernick kickstarted the movement of players protesting racial inequality and police brutality during the 2016 preseason -- first by sitting, then by kneeling during the anthem.
He made two points to the teammates he's had for less than a month.
"The position I took was that A.) I was happy with the situation I was currently in of having a meeting, a players' meeting about the topic, was great. Because that's not something that we did in San Francisco," McDonald said. "And the second part of that being that the majority of the room, or really everyone in the room, wanted to do the same thing.
"So again, not taking away anyone's place of having a platform through social media, through whatever they want to do in the community, whether it's off days or whatever, but what we were going to do before the game: Because in that place we are all together, we are all one, we are all one single thing and that's the Steelers."
The debate itself was uncomfortable in spots, but constructive, Coty Sensabaugh said. There was no yelling or anger with one another, he said.
Those who did address the group before the vote, Heyward said, challenged each other and their fellow players not to broken by whatever outcome they reached.
He personally insisted his teammates do more than whatever act of solidarity it chose to perform during the performance.
"Whether it's racial inequality or inspiring others to grow up and be leaders in our community, and there's multiple ways you can give back. And all over this world we've been affected," Heyward said. "In Virginia, in hurricanes, there are multiple people that need our help.
"And it doesn't matter if you're black, white, Mexican, Asian, doesn't matter what you look like or how you grew up, everybody deserves help and everybody deserves to be inspired. And to not feel that from the president, that's unacceptable."
The meeting lasted 15 minutes, Williams said.
It ended with a team of players that had never personally or collectively demonstrated during the national anthem deciding to stay out of sight while the song was sung. Yet there was no shift that prompted the decision, Williams said.
"Nothing changed," he said.
The vote was split nearly in half, Hubbard said. The part-kneeling, part-standing choice never made the verbal ballot. Sensabaugh confirmed the narrow majority.
Villanueva went on to stand outside the away team tunnel with his right hand over his chest at 12:57 p.m. while his teammates stayed in the bowels of Soldier Field. He was OK with everyone else not appearing for the anthem and everyone else accepted there would be an exception for Villanueva, Hubbard said. Ramon Foster also said the team supported Villanueva standing just off of the field during the anthem performance.
"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.
"We thought we were all in attention with the same agreement, obviously, " he said. "But, I guess we weren't."
Villanueva was not seen in the locker room after the game. He has previously stated he agreed with Kaepernick on issues of racial inequality, but not his method of not standing for the anthem.
The players' decision was relayed to Mike Tomlin and Tomlin called league commissioner Roger Goodell on Sunday and told him his players' plan.
He, running backs coach James Saxon, offensive coordinator Todd Haley and offensive line coach Mike Munchak stood in the middle of the sideline while his players stood elsewhere.
And Tomlin, who said he wanted the team's actions to be collective, also said he stood by his players' decision.
"We will not be divided on this," Tomlin said. We got a group of men in there that come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, creed, 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 bulls---, to be quite honest with you.
"Some have opinions. Some don't. We wanted to protect those that don't. We wanted to protect those that do
