President Trump's condemnation of NFL players that choose to kneel, rather than stand for the national anthem, reignited a national debate that began with Colin Kaepernick's decision not to stand for the anthem last season as a protest against police brutality.

Over the weekend a plethora of players and even entire teams chose to either kneel or stay in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem – while many NFL owners released statements eliciting support for players who choose not to stand.

What many people are missing in this debate is the fact that prior to 2009, NFL teams did not generally stand for the anthem. While having the option to do so individually if they chose to, most of the time they stayed in the locker room during this pregame ritual.

In fact, Tom E. Curran of Comcast Sportsnet New England reported, in August 2016, that NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed that the now common practice of players standing on the field together for the national anthem only began in 2009.