Former NFL player Michael Strahan said he likely would kneel during anthem if he played
Former NFL player Michael Strahan said he probably would kneel during the national anthem if he still played football.
Strahan, who played as a defensive end for the New York Giants from 1993 to 2007, made the comments during an appearance Monday on "The Ellen Degeneres Show."
"If I was still playing football today ... I think I would have," Strahan said, answering a question Degeneres asked.
The two were discussing Nike's new "Just Do It" campaign that features Colin Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback.
Strahan, 46, said he would have had a conversation with his father, who retired from the military.
"When my father, who's 81, can look at me and tell me that he's not offended by it because he understands, then how could I, who didn't do that service, be offended?" Strahan said. "I know why (Kaepernick) knelt was not in any disrespect to the military or anybody in the armed services."
In Week 1 of the NFL, a handful of players protested during the national anthem, including Miami Dolphins players Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson, who took a knee during Sunday's game.
When Degeneres asked Strahan if Nike could suffer from the company's latest ad campaign featuring Kaepernick, he said he didn't think so.
"They're smart. They know what they're doing," said Strahan, who started this week as co-anchor of ABC's new "GMA Day" program 바카라 게임 웹사이트 an extension of the network's morning news program, "Good Morning America."
Strahan said both players and owners in the league should work together.
"I also would have been proactive in ... getting more organized because I do believe that there needs to be more organization between the players and the ownership," he said. "They need to get that together in order to get the message out there in the right way and not letting the message become hijacked and turned to something that it was never intended to be.
"When you look at other sports, they kind of have it together. Football, there seems to be a fracture there between player and ownership."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.