Number of NFL players taking the knee during the anthem WAY down from last week

Jacob B. | 3:29 PM on October 01, 2017

ESPN reporter Darren Rovell is apparently keeping track of all the NFL players who take a knee during the national anthem. He calculates that only 11 players knelt during the anthem this week, in contrast to 180 last week. Of course, his tweet was published after the early NFL games but prior to the afternoon games, which means there could be additional kneelers later in the day. Still, it is a significant decrease. You can see the numbers from the individual teams from his graphic.

Last week, about 180 NFL players didn't stand for the National Anthem. This week? 11. pic.twitter.com/L1NAIXKyZx

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 1, 2017

So it turns out that disrespecting the nation’s symbols is not good for business. Who could have predicted that?

So Trump won this debate. NFL got crushed and player protest crumbled. https://t.co/yUxLtexu4N

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 1, 2017

I can't imagine why… https://t.co/rNQ7ZiNGP7

— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) October 1, 2017

But principled stand against racist country… https://t.co/IGrXclDvPr

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 1, 2017

So how’s that protesting working? Just giving up after one week I guess… https://t.co/uUVPfl3Llp

— Dean Eisold (@dean_eisold) October 1, 2017

https://twitter.com/NotEricWagner/status/914569381308399616

It really speaks to how poorly the NFL seems to know its audience. How could they not have understood that attacking the things that represent the United States of America would be deeply offensive to a large portion of their fanbase?