Texans’ Owner Compares NFL Anthem Protesters to ‘Inmates’

Bob McNair later apologized for the comments made at last week's owners meeting in New York.

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair has come under fire for comments he made at last week’s owners meeting in New York City.

In a newly published ESPN The Magazine story, McNair said of the protesting NFL players, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.” The statement didn’t go over too well with some people in the room, including executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, who told McNair he was offended by what he’d said. “Vincent said that in all his years of playing in the NFL—during which, he said, he had been called every name in the book, including the N-word—he never felt like an ‘inmate,’” per the publication.

McNair later apologized to Vincent for making the statement—and has since released a formal apology, saying “I regret that I used that expression. I never meant to offend anyone and I was not referring to our players. I used a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our players or our league that way and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”

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