Week one of the 2020 NFL season kicked off Thursday September 10, with two of the most dominant quarterbacks facing off against each other.

Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans, and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs, were both coming in hot for pre-game until the National Anthem began. Where were the Texans going? Why were players walking back to the locker room? A lot of controversy took place at the time, but the Houston Texans marched their way back into the locker room until the Star Spangled Banner and Black national anthem was finished.

On the other hand, Chiefs players stayed on the field during the anthems, but some players decided to either kneel or continue standing until both were finished.

Kneeling for the National Anthem would be considered the new “norm” in athletes considering that nearly 50% of all athletes are black. With this, comes a statement from President Donald Trump stating, “Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart?”

We all grew up practicing and learning to stand with our right hand over our heart every time for the National Anthem, so to see players kneeling is considered disrespectful to some fans. Is Trump really taking into consideration the “kneel, no play/no pay rule?”

As the first week of the season continues Sunday, teams continue to decide whether to stay behind in locker rooms or stay on the field and take a knee during the anthem. Though, kneeling may show some type of disrespect to the fans out there, it may be in the athletes best interest to do what they think is right, which is kneeling instead of standing.

As week one of the NFL wraps up with a double-header Monday night, several players are still kneeling and fans are continuing to react. Is this really how the NFL season will turn out? No fans in stadiums, and even more so athletes kneeling is what not just the NFL is dealing with, but with other professional leagues such as MLB and NBA are dealing with.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, we will start to notice more and more athletes kneeling during National Anthems and doing what’s in their best interest for themselves and the communities and families that they come from.