At this point, as sad as it sounds, we’re no longer surprised when a football player takes a knee during the national anthem. But the timing of some New Orleans Saints players in this week’s edition of “Who Wants to Be a Kneeling Millionaire” has left football fans with a bad taste in their mouths.
Before their home game, in which the Saints took on the visiting Detroit Lions, the anthem was preceded by a moment of silence for fallen Police Officer Marcus McNeil, who was shot and killed delivering a routine warrant last Friday in New Orleans.
A good number of Saints players decided to take a knee during the moment of silence for McNeil -- and according to the boos from fans, that was a bad move.
Here is video of the scene:
The Times-Picayune placed the blame on the fans for booing during the silence and downplayed the players kneeling in a series of comments cherry-picked from Twitter. But judging by the video above, fans began to cheer the players after they stood up.
It's not exactly clear why some Saints players chose the moment of silence for McNeil as their time to take a knee. But, just to play devil's advocate, players have often taken a knee over the years when a player is badly hurt during a play, so their rationale -- however optically poor -- might not have been quite as ill-intentioned as it seemed.
However, no matter if the players took a knee or not, the boos should have been held off until the moment of silence was over. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
McNeil lost his life last Friday after being shot “several times” by a man who opened fire on officers in an ambush. He was 29 years old, and leaves behind a wife and two young children.