Steelers president offers statement on team's decision to skip anthem

Team president Art Rooney II wants to clear up any misconceptions about the Pittsburgh Steelers' intent after they chose not to appear on the field during the national anthem on Sunday.

After head coach Mike Tomlin said the team would remain in the locker room, tackle Alejandro Villanueva - an Army veteran - appeared in the tunnel to stand for the anthem while the rest of his team stayed out of sight. Villanueva said on Monday a mix-up led to the disconnect between he and his teammates and he unintentionally made the rest of the roster look bad.

Rooney cleared it all up with a statement on Tuesday morning.

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

Rooney said the team never meant to disrespect any members of the armed forces by staying away from the anthem.

"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," Rooney wrote.