So the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially their coach, wanted to show support for a player's right to kneel, stand, or whatever by encouraging and pressuring all of their team members to boycott the national anthem 'to remove themselves from the circumstance'. .
Offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva, however, wanted to exercise HIS right to go out, stand, and put his hand over his heart in respect to the flag. Villanueva, by the way, served his country as an Army Ranger and, respectfully, he wanted no part of a team 'show of unity' by disrespecting the flag.
To Villanueva, to stay in the locker room during the anthem was pretty much the same as taking a knee on the sideline. So, he, on his own, came out and honored the flag. Tomlin 'took a swipe' at him when talking to the media for not joining with his team in protest.
Umm, I thought the point was players should not be maligned for their choices, Coach Tomlin? Or maybe you were saying loyalty to team is more important to country?
Kudos to Villanueva for standing up and putting nation / patriotism over 'team solidarity' when, in his opinion, what they were doing was the wrong move...at least it was for him.