AP reporters counted more than 200 NFL players who did not stand during the national anthem before their games on Sunday.
Americans are split in a new poll on rules that would require professional athletes to kneel for the national anthem, a real shift in favor of their right to protest, NBC News reported.
Fifty-one percent of respondents to an HBO Real Sports/Marist poll said they opposed leagues requiring that players stand, while 47 percent supported such rules.
The four-point difference is within the Oct. 15-17 poll's margin of error, which makes it a statistical tie. But when the poll was conducted a year ago, a clear majority supported rules requiring players to stand, by a mark of 52 to 43.
Since then, President Donald Trump threw a spotlight on the athletes following the example of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling for the anthem in August 2016.
