You removed their option to choose. Which quite frankly was worse than letting them do as they would.
Via NY Post:
“Some guys wanted to take a knee, guys wanted to stand,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “We said whatever we do we need to make sure we’re unified as one group because that’s what we’re about, and that’s what this should be about is staying together as one unit and one group and one brotherhood, things like that.
“So rather than have some guys kneel and some guys stand, the conclusion was made kind of by everybody that the best thing to do was just to stay in the locker room or in the tunnel if you will.”
Instead, Villanueva, a former Captain in the U.S. Army and an Army Ranger who earned a Bronze Star for Valor in serving three tours of duty in Afghanistan, emerged from the tunnel to stand with much of the crowd during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He instantly became a cult hero, his jersey becoming the sixth-best selling on the NFL website not even 24 hours removed from existing in offensive-line obscurity.
“We thought we were all in attention with the same agreement, obviously, ” longtime Steelers star linebacker James Harrison told Penn Live. “But, I guess we weren’t.”