FOX News responded to President Trump’s decision to cancel the Eagles’ White House visit scheduled for Tuesday by running clips of Eagles players kneeling in prayer while a newscaster discussed the President’s aversion to players kneeling during the playing of the national anthem.
No Eagles players knelt during the playing of the anthem during the 2017 regular season or postseason, however, and that led to angry reactions from Chris Long and Zach Ertz about the network’s apparent attempt to suggest otherwise during their report.
During our report about President Trump canceling the Philadelphia Eagles trip to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win, we showed unrelated footage of players kneeling in prayer. To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or postseason last year. We apologize for the error.
The Steelers are transitioning with a new offensive coordinator, as Randy Fichtner was promoted from quarterbacks coach to replace Todd Haley, whose contract wasn’t renewed after the 2017 season.
While extra time in the offensive scheme might prove beneficial for Jones, Dobbs and Rudolph, the team’s established starter doesn’t believe he’ll require too much adjusting when considering Fichtner’s previous post.
If Coach asked me to be here every day, I would be here every day, but they haven’t asked me to do that, Roethlisberger said. I’ve worked with Randy for eight years now, so it’s not like he’s a new guy just coming in that work is necessary. So, we’ve got a lot of same guys back on offense and a lot of the stuff is plays that we’ve been doing before a lot of guys got here, that I’ve been doing a long time.
Outside of the voluntary nature of OTAs, the Steelers starting quarterback raised another valid point on the offseason workout program, where players are practicing without pads and in no-contact situations.
NFL teams typically utilize OTAs to get players back on the field for conditioning, familiarization and installation periods, among other areas. And Roethlisberger points out the true evaluations don’t begin until training camp.