Rooney: Steelers' intent was to avoid political statement

Sep 26, 2017 - 3:00 PM Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II issued an open letter to the team's fans on Tuesday, two days after the club elected against taking the field for the national anthem.

"I want to reach out to you, the members of Steelers Nation, based on what I believe is a misperception about our players' intentions in not taking the field for the national anthem in Chicago," Rooney wrote in a letter that was published on the team's official Twitter account.

"The intentions of Steelers players were to stay out of the business of making political statement by not taking the field. Unfortunately, that was interpreted as a boycott of the anthem -- which was never our players' intention."

Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva, a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, was seen as the only Pittsburgh player to stand on the field for the national anthem Sunday.

On Monday, Villanueva said his separation from the team was unintentional and blamed himself for the occurrence.

"I also know that our players have tremendous respect for the members of our military services, including their teammate Alejandro Villanueva," Rooney wrote in his letter. "There was never any desire on the part of our players to show disrespect for our service members.

"Yesterday, I received an email from a Steelers fan who said tell the players to just play football. That is exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted their sole focus to be on playing the game, while also coming together as a unified team."