THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams are not expected to take part in any specific team-wide demonstrations before Sunday’s road game against the Dallas Cowboys. Sean McVay, who addressed the situation with his team Monday, said the Rams would have “standard operating procedures with the way that we’ll handle the anthem.”
Earlier in the week, the Rams also held a brief, players-only meeting to discuss President Donald Trump, the national anthem and all the demonstrations that took place throughout the NFL on Sunday, three days after the Rams played their Week 3 game against the San Francisco 49ers. Rams quarterback Jared Goff called the whole experience “very healthy, very enlightening for myself and a lot of people.”
“I think more than anything, you see how unified the league is,” Goff said on Wednesday. “We may play on different teams, but at the end of the day, we’re all in the NFL and all have similar goals.”
Several teams locked arms and various players knelt during the national anthem on Sunday and Monday, days after Trump suggested that team owners should fire players who protest while others honor the flag. The Steelers remained in the locker room for the anthem Sunday afternoon, and the Cowboys knelt as a team before the anthem was played Monday night.
Rams players typically stand along the sideline and outside linebacker Robert Quinn raises his fist, with punter Johnny Hekker recently putting his arm on his back in a sign of support.
Other Rams players might take part in their own demonstrations Sunday.
“If somebody feels differently, we’ll talk about that amongst each other,” McVay said Wednesday. “But I think the important thing is what you’ll see from us as a Rams organization is that unity, and we’ll all be in it together. As far as what we’re going to do moving forward, it’ll be exactly how we’ve always handled the national anthem.”