PITTSBURGH, PA (WCMH/AP) — According to the site that runs the NFL’s gear shop, Alejandro Villanueva now has the NFL’s best selling jersey, after he was the lone Pittsburgh Steelers player to attend the singing of the national anthem at Sunday’s game.
Villanueva, an offensive lineman for the Steelers, was the team’s only player to come on to the field while the “Star Spangled Banner” played before Pittsburgh’s game against Chicago. Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh’s coach Mike Tomlin said the team decided to stay in their locker room for the national anthem before their game against the Chicago Bears.
A spokesperson for Fanatics told ESPN, that since yesterday, Villanueva gear was the most ordered from the online store.
President Donald Trump’s criticism of players who protest during the national anthem incited a mass increase in such activism Sunday, with more than 100 NFL players sitting or kneeling, others raising their fists and whole teams standing with locked arms to display unity.