Vice President Pence Celebrates NFL’s New Anthem Rule Banning Protests

Mike Pence
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Warner Todd Huston

Vice President Mike Pence quickly fired up his Twitter account on Wednesday, to celebrate the NFL’s new rule banning players from protesting during the playing of the national anthem.

Pence tweeted the hashtag “#Winning” on the heels of the NFL’s decision to penalize teams and even fine players who refuse to stand during the anthem, according to The Washington Times.

On May 23, Pence tweeted an image of CNN’s headline adding his celebratory hashtag and a small American flag emoji.

On Wednesday, news broke that the league will allow players to remain in the locker room during the national anthem if they don’t want to honor the song. However, if they come out on the field, they will have to stand. And if they protest during the anthem, their teams will get fined.

On Wednesday morning the league released the following policy:

Pence found himself in the middle of the NFL’s anthem controversy last season. On October 8th, Vice President Mike Pence, a native and former Governor of Indiana, walked out of a Colts-49ers game after witnessing one of the larger anthem demonstrations of the 2017 season.

After walking out, Pence tweeted:

The rule change comes on the heels of two seasons of players protesting against the United States during the playing of the anthem, a practice invented by former San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick.

After inventing the national anthem protest in 2016, Kaepernick turned free agent but was not able to find a team to sign him either in 2017 or so far for this coming season. He has since filed a grievance against the league claiming owners have “colluded” to keep him out of pro football.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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