Wingnuts have a new hero:
By one metric, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Alejandro Villanueva has emerged from the NFL’s current controversy as the most popular player in the league.
In the last 24 hours, Villanueva’s No. 78 is the best-selling jersey on Fanatics, the biggest retailer of sports merchandise, after the offensive tackle and ex-Army Ranger stood on the field for the national anthem while his teammates stayed out of sight.
And, as heroes go, he’s really not that bad a choice. But wait, it gets better:
Villanueva says he asked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger if he could be out in front with the captains during the national anthem and they agreed to it, but when he went to the front of the tunnel to see the flag, he went too far unintentionally.
“When we came out of the locker room into that tunnel, it was a very small area. There was a flag or something coming off the field so there were a bunch of Bears fans, coming off the field holding that going in front of us, so it kind of held us up,” Villanueva said.
The rest of the team remained in the tunnel.
“I made my teammates look bad, and that is my fault, and my fault only,” Villanueva said. “We as a team tried to figure it out, but obviously butchered it.”During his press conference, the former Army Ranger says he is absolutely okay if teammates kneel or sit during the national anthem.
“People that are taking a knee are not saying anything negative about the military, they’re not saying anything negative about the flag, they’re just trying to protest that there are some injustices in America,” Villanueva said.
He says some players who have been kneeling during anthems have even approached him before or after games and thanked him for his service including other players in the NFC North.
I wonder how many of those jerseys will now be cancelled.
On a side note, there is no fucking aspect of this country that Trump is not going to fucking poison.