The national anthem controversy that has now plagued the NFL for the better part of the past two years isn’t going away any time soon.
Earlier this offseason, the NFL announced a new slate of rules that will lead to fines for teams should players protest during the anthem this coming season (more on that here).
All of this was taken to a whole new level with various reports on Thursday surfacing that the Miami Dolphins plan to penalize their players should they protest during the anthem. One report noted that said punishment could include a four-game suspension.
As the controversy was playing out in real time Thursday, the NFL and NFLPA released a joint statement noting that no new rules will be enforced for the time being.
“The NFL and NFLPA, through recent discussions, have been working on a resolution to the anthem issue. In order to allow this constructive dialogue to continue, we have come to a standstill agreement on the NFLPA’s grievance and on the NFL’s anthem policy,” the statement read. “No new rules relating to the anthem will be issued or enforced for the next several weeks while these confidential discussions are ongoing.”
As the joint statement notes, the union had filed a grievance against the NFL stemming from the rule change. Obviously, said grievance will no longer go forward as the two sides look to work this whole thing out.
It will certainly be interesting to see what comes of these talks over the next several weeks. Training camps got going around the league this week with preseason set to open within a matter of two weeks.