14 Saints players join protest during national anthem before game at Carolina

Ten New Orleans Saints sat on the bench during the national anthem and four more players who stood near the group before the team’s game against the Carolina Panthers as part of a league-wide protest in backlash to comments made by President Donald Trump this weekend.

Rafael Bush, Kenny Vaccaro, Chris Banjo, Sheldon Rankins, Alex Okafor, Cameron Jordan, Adrian Peterson, Alvin Kamara, Brandon Coleman and Mark Ingram all sat. Thomas Morstead, Marshon Lattimore, Craig Robinson and Coby Fleener stood nearby with hands on teammates’ shoulders.

The Saints and Pelicans organizations released a statement roughly half an hour before the start of Sunday’s game, saying that the comments were “disappointing and inappropriate.” The statement expressed support for the players, and also expressed the team’s respect for the flag and the anthem.

Statement from New Orleans Saints and Pelicans

September 24, 2017

New Orleans, La. – Our organization takes great pride in equality and inclusion and find the comments by the President disappointing and inappropriate relative to our players on this issue. Tom Benson served in the military and continues to this day to support all military branches and feels strongly that we honor those men and women who defend our freedoms and our freedom of speech. He also believes that the very players that represent the Saints and Pelicans organizations should be allowed to share or express their feelings. We prefer to take this moment in time and work together, all of us, to stop the divisiveness. Our players and our organization serve the New Orleans community selflessly and do so without care of race, creed or sexual orientation and that makes us a better city and a better team. We believe strongly in honoring our flag and the national anthem and what it represents and we support our players. We all must strive to show that we are all Americans and continue to work towards equality for all. The NFL and NBA, perhaps more than any sports, have the power to bring communities together.