What Muschamp said to Gamecocks about national anthem protests

The South Carolina Gamecocks get to, to a degree, sidestep the national anthem issues that drew headlines in the NFL this weekend. College football players remain in the locker room during the playing of the anthem.

That didn’t prevent USC football coach Will Muschamp from addressing it with his team.

As a coach, he’s been pretty hard and fast about certain procedural things, shaking hands before a game and the like. But on this issue, his outlook rested with the players.

“I addressed the team this morning, obviously after this weekend,” Muschamp said. “One of the great rights as an American citizen is freedom of speech, one of the things that makes this country what it is. Standing up for what you believe in, to me, is freedom of speech, and it’s a right that every American citizen has.

“I talked to our team about the people that stood up for what they believed a long time ago about this country. That’s why we are where we are today. My point would be, ‘Listen, we can agree to disagree.’ At the end of the day, that’s one of my favorite sayings. We don’t have to agree. It doesn’t makes someone right. It doesn’t make someone else wrong.”

Players across the NFL made choices to stand, kneel or remain in the locker room for the national anthem after President Donald Trump brought up the protests that started with Colin Kaepernick last season.

Muschamp didn’t address that, but had a simple message.

“Standing up for what you believe in is extremely important, and I expressed that to our players,” Muschamp said.

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 1:28 PM with the headline "What Muschamp said to Gamecocks about national anthem protests."