At a closed-door meeting earlier this month, NFL owners gathered to discuss players protesting racial inequality during the national anthem. Among the several voices in the room who opposed the protests was Texans owner Bob McNair, who said of the protesting players, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”The account was relayed by ESPN, which published an article Friday detailing the league’s internal handwringing over the protests. McNair’s comments stunned some in the room, ESPN reports, with Patriots owner Robert Kraft delicately moving the conversation forward afterward. Troy Vincent, a retired NFL player who now works as an executive for the league, told those in the meeting he’d been called all manner of slurs when he was a player, but he never felt like an “inmate.” (McNair later offered Vincent a personal apology.) “I could never characterize our players or our league that way and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”

Source: Huffington Post October 27, 2017 17:01 UTC