Judge: Yankees made 'united decision' to kneel before anthem

Before the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals took the field for the first game of the 2020 regular season on Thursday, the two teams kneeled before the national anthem while holding a single length of black fabric - a move aimed at recognizing the racial inequality that has risen to the forefront of society following the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge explained why the decision was made by both teams to kneel before the anthem and why neither team took a knee while the anthem played.

"We got a lot of guys in this clubhouse with different beliefs and different feelings and different walks of life and they're from different countries," the 28-year-old said, according to James Wagner of the New York Times. "We wanted to respect all of that. As a team, we made a united decision to kneel right before the anthem."

Judge's teammate Giancarlo Stanton led the charge behind the decision and also convinced the Nationals to follow the Yankees' lead, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.

"I thought … it would be good to show unity to have everyone kneel at the same time with everything going on: The road it took us to back here, the injustice going on across the country and the globe," Stanton said. "It’s just a way to bring hope."