Rivera supports players kneeling for anthem: 'It's their choice'

Washington Redskins head coach Ron Rivera will support his players if they decide to kneel for the U.S. national anthem this season.

"It's their choice, it's their decision and, again, I support it because it's in our Constitution and that's what our military personnel fought for: for our rights, for our safety," Rivera said Wednesday in a video conference with reporters.

Rivera was the head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2018 when they signed Eric Reid, who went on to kneel during the anthem that season.

"I was fortunate enough to have Eric Reid with me in Carolina. ... We went and decided we were going to sign Eric only on football," Rivera said. We weren't going to talk to him about what his intent was as far as the anthem was concerned until after, and then he and I had a great conversation."

The coach said his dialogue with Reid was "an eye-opener" and compelled him to read the U.S Constitution, the Bill of Rights and other amendments, and the oath of office. He came away supportive of players exercising their right to protest, including Redskins running back Adrian Peterson, who recently said he plans to kneel this season.

"(Reid) helped me to really truly understand what the protest was about in terms of taking the knee and that it had nothing to do with our military, it had nothing to do with our first responders, and it had nothing to do with the flag," Rivera said.

"It all had everything to do with social injustice and police brutality and working to get that corrected. And so I was fine with it, I had no issue with it because of what I had read, because of what the Constitution said, what the Bill of Rights talked about."