Orchard Park, N.Y. -- Sean McDermott and every other NFL coach has a decision to make.
This week, the NFL owners passed a new rule regarding the national anthem. All players who are on the field will be required to stand for the national anthem. They will have the option to remain in the locker room if they want. The NFL will fine teams if a player or anyone else on the team decides to "not show respect" for the anthem. While the rule doesn't specify how much the fine would be or what constitutes a lack of respect, the rule is in place to prevent players from kneeling, which dozens of players did last season to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
Now NFL teams have to decide how they are going to handle this with their players. New York Jets acting owner Christopher Johnson has said he won't fine players and he will pay the fine if they choose to kneel during the anthem. McDermott said it's too early to say if the Buffalo Bills would be willing to do the same.
"Yeah, you know, the news is somewhat fresh," McDermott said. "Just finishing up practice yesterday and coming off the field and I have had conversations, brief conversations, with Kim (Pegula). At this point, those conversations are very early or in their early stages. Wanting to fully understand all of it thoroughly, that's really where we are right now. We'll have those good conversations as we always do; Terry and Kim [Pegula] are very supportive and up to date on this situation in particular. We'll move forward once we've had those internal conversations in more context."
The NFLPA was not consulted on this rule. But McDermott said he will have conversations with his players.
"Listen, you've seen how we handled last year's situation and that, we felt, worked well in giving our players the dialogue, the respect of the conversation, and some ownership there," McDermott said. "I anticipate that at some point, just not at this point."
At this point, the Bills have said a lot of words but not committed to too much. They haven't taken a hard stance on the rule one way or another other than Pegula calling it a "great compromise."
"We are proud of the work the league and our players have done over the course of the year to help strengthen our communities, raise awareness on issues of social injustice, and help find solutions," Pegula said in a statement. "The policy instituted today will have no effect on that whatsoever. Our communication has been strong with the leaders of our team and that will continue. I plan on meeting with Coach McDermott, Brandon and players in the near future to reiterate that."
Most Bills players toed the company line when asked about the rule on Thursday. They said they will follow McDermott, who has done a fine job navigating this issue over the last year-and-a-half. Lorenzo Alexander said he expects players to continue to do work in the community rather than protesting on Sundays.
"There's plenty of ways and plenty of different platforms that we have," Alexander said.
While this issue had started to die down, the NFL put it back at the forefront of the NFL conversation with this rule.