With President Trump's attacks against protesting NFL players still reverberating, the league's TV partners decided to air playings of the national anthem before games this week. But they left out a key element of the coverage: crowd shots of angry fans. One behind-the-scenes TV staffer told Sporting News that camera operators were ordered to avoid panning the stands. At other stadiums, cameras were similarly crowd-shy.
From the Sporting News:
During NBC's telecast of "Sunday Night Football" in Landover, Md., we got plenty close-up views of Raiders and Redskins sitting or linking arms during the anthem. The fans were strictly in the background.
Fans booing Jets and Dolphins players were loud and clear during CBS's telecast from East Rutherford, N.J. But we never saw them. Instead, we got a lot of field-level shots of linked arms players and saluting police officers.
During the singing of the anthem before Giants-Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Fox stuck to up-close, ground-up shots of players, coaches and owners. The only image of fans was one long shot showing them clapping before the network cut to commercial.
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