Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews drew widespread controversy on Thursday, when comments that he would be "done playing football" if forced to stand for the national anthem blew up in the national media.
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BREAKING: Titans player tells News 4 he 'will be done playing football' if NFL requires he stand for anthem https://t.co/6kltqRrJpc pic.twitter.com/9QJffX23sc
— WSMV 4 Nashville (@WSMV) October 12, 2017
Per Terry McCormick of Titans Insider, Matthews has now tried to distance himself from the comments, saying that he hope it "doesn't get to that" and that he takes full responsibility for the "ignorant thing I tweeted out".
"Not right now. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. I know the owners have got a meeting next weekend, so hopefully it won't get to that," he said. "Sometimes people, as you all know, tweet some ignorant things out at some moments, and that was an ignorant thing I tweeted out that that given moment. I take full responsibility. That's why it went down (was deleted), but somebody caught me with a screen shot."
Matthews' original comments come after it was reported that commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL owners would be looking into potential changes they could make in the league's anthem policy. While the NFL owners originally supported some of the protests following President Donald Trump's comments on the league, many have since tried to backtrack as reaction to the story has varied across fan bases.
