[10] The protests began in the National Football League (NFL) after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and later knelt during the anthem, before his team's preseason games of 2016.

[17][21] Kaepernick and his 49ers teammate Eric Reid said they choose to kneel in San Diego during the anthem to call attention to the issues of racial inequality and police brutality.

"After hours of careful consideration, and even a visit from Nate Boyer, a retired Green Beret and former NFL player, we came to the conclusion that we should kneel, rather than sit, ... during the anthem, as a peaceful protest," said Reid.

"[24] Kaepernick has said on numerous occasions that the sole purpose of kneeling during the national anthem is not to disrespect the military personnel at all, but rather that his goal is to use his social platform to bring topics regarding police brutality and oppression of people of color to light.

[37] Kaepernick has been following through on his commitment and has donated $900,000 (~$1.1 million in 2023) as of September 2017 to groups including Meals on Wheels, United We Dream, Black Veterans for Social Justice and many others.

[40] The camps include legal education from attorneys that give advice on how to interact with police when being detained and lectures from prominent academics on the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

[69] At the same time, a group of Jacksonville Jaguars players, led by cornerback Prince Amukamara, initially planned to join the protest but chose not to do so after photographs of Kaepernick wearing socks with a crude anti-police message during training camp were made public.

[70] On November 13, 2016, five days after Donald Trump was elected President, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide-receiver Mike Evans decided to sit during the national anthem.

"[72] Cleveland Browns tight end Seth DeValve became the first white football player to kneel or sit during the anthem on the team's August 21, 2017, preseason game against the New York Giants.

[101][102] In disagreement with the policy, several players on the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles indicated that they would decline an invitation from Trump to visit the White House on June 5, leading the President to rescind the offer the day before the event.

[103] The Eagles were the second sports franchise that Trump had uninvited, joining the 2017 National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Golden State Warriors, whose visit was cancelled after several players publicly declined to attend.

[106] On February 3, 2019, Maroon 5 headlined the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in Atlanta, Georgia, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with American rappers Big Boi and Travis Scott.

The musicians who pulled out did so to show their support for Colin Kaepernick and others who protested police brutality and racism by kneeling during the U.S. national anthem and faced repercussions by the NFL for doing so.

The investigation was rapidly dropped after Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world governing body, publicly stated that such protests are worthy of applause not punishment.

[161][162] The NCAA football rulebook does not address the issue of pregame ceremonies (patriotic or otherwise) at all, except to say that team captains must be present for a coin toss three minutes before the first-half kickoff.

[citation needed] On September 24, 2016, Michigan football players Jordan Lewis and Khalid Hill raised their right arms in the air in support of the Anthem Protests.

[184] Niko Goodrum, Cameron Maybin, Jeimer Candelario, Joe Jiménez and Dave Clark of the Detroit Tigers knelt during the national anthem prior to their game against the Cincinnati Reds.

[185] Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio, Anthony Alford and Santiago Espinal of the Toronto Blue Jays knelt during the anthem prior to their game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

[197] Seattle Mariners players Kyle Lewis, J. P. Crawford, Shed Long, Mallex Smith, Dee Gordon, and Justus Sheffield raised their right fists.

[198] On September 24, 2017, prior to Game 1 of the 2017 WNBA Finals, players from the Los Angeles Sparks chose to stay in the locker room during the national anthem, while members of the Minnesota Lynx locked arms on the court.

"[203] Upon the resumption of the 2019–2020 season in the NBA Bubble, the entire ensemble of players, coaches, and referees in the first game knelt for an instrumental version of the National Anthem, which featured elements of rap music, pre-recorded by Jon Batiste.

[212] On August 3, 2020, Ryan Reaves and Robin Lehner of the Vegas Golden Knights and Tyler Seguin and Jason Dickinson of the Dallas Stars knelt during both the American and Canadian national anthems.

[228] "Taking a knee" became a wider social phenomenon beyond the sports field and outside of the United States, especially in the wake of actions related to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

[229] Major sports sponsors Nike, Under Armour, and Ford all issued statements in support of athletes' freedom of expression after Trump's comments regarding the NFL.

"[231] In September 2016, after Brandon Marshall knelt during the national anthem, Century Link and Air Academy Federal Credit Union dropped him as a paid sponsor.

"The big thing that hit me through all this was this is a backup quarterback whose job is to be quiet, and sit in the shadows and get the starter ready to play Week 1," Dilfer said on Sunday NFL Countdown.

[263] On September 26, 2017, Joey Odoms, the national anthem singer for the home games of the Ravens, resigned citing the "tone/actions of a large number of NFL fans in the midst of our country's cultural crisis".

"[265] On June 3, 2020, during the protests over the murder of George Floyd, Drew Brees told Yahoo Finance that he stood by his 2016 opinion that kneeling during the national anthem was disrespectful to the flag and to the US.

[276] The same day Sonequa Martin-Green posted in her Instagram account a picture of several members from Star Trek: Discovery's cast alongside producer Akiva Goldsman and herself kneeling.

Cattani later apologized, on June 3, to his fellow officers for his "horrible decision", stating that he had not thought of the "consequence" of his action, which was not specified; that having knelt "goes against every principle and value that I stand for", and that his kneeling had ruined his "reputation as a good cop".