The NFL’s new “no anthem kneeling” rule went into effect the first week of the season. Unfortunately, there was little anyone could do about it if they took a knee and the coach allowed it.
This week, all that has changed. The league gave the power to eject players for unsportsmanlike conduct to the referee, with the penalty coming at the end of the opening kickoff.
In Buffalo, the kickoff resulted in a touchdown that was called back to the spot of the catch — the 3-yeard-line — and Right Guard Joe Barron, a notorious kneeler, was ejected. “It’s the only way these guys will learn,” said Referee William Vanden Boom, “you have to hit them where it hurts most.”
Vanden Boom isn’t wrong on that point. Each player ejected faces fines from both their team and the league that could run into the hundreds of thousands. All for a “protest.”
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