【Dear Utol (2025): Doctor, Doctor I'm Sick Episode 41】

UPDATED(8:45 p.m. ET): Added Patriots players' protests from Sunday night game

As the NFL kicked off the first Sunday of the 2016 regular season,Dear Utol (2025): Doctor, Doctor I'm Sick Episode 41 several players and teams took part in small protests that echoed the preseason protests of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Sunday also marked the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, with games marking the occasion with moments of remembrance for the victims and survivors -- timing that caused the league to worry this week.

During the first set of games on Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs locked arms during the national anthem. And though no players sat or knelt during the anthem, Marcus Peters raised a black-gloved fist, a throwback to the actions of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympics.

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Before the game, Peters told the Associated Press he was "100 percent behind" Kaepernick.

"He spoke up about something he felt he needed to speak up about," Peters said. "I salute him for that."

Kicking off the late afternoon set of games, both the Seattle Seahawks and the Miami Dolphins made their own small protests during the anthem before their game in Seattle.

The entire Seahawks team stood for the anthem and locked arms in solidarity, a plan that player Doug Baldwin, Jr., who had joined Kaepernick in protest during the preseason, had detailed earlier in the week.

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Meanwhile, on the other sideline, several Dolphins players -- Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas, Arian Foster and Jelani Jenkins -- took a knee during the anthem. Foster had previously said he would hold a different form of protest but took a knee with his teammates on Sunday.

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After the anthem, as the game kicked off, the Dolphins posted a statement on Twitter, saying the organization encourages its members to stand but acknowledges the players' right to freedom of expression.

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And before the Sunday night game between the New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals, two Patriots players, Devin McCourty and Martellus Bennett, held gloved fists up just as Peters had earlier in the day.

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Meanwhile, their teammate, Danny Amendola, took part in the festivities by holding the flag during the pre-game ceremonies.

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On Thursday night, before the league's opening game between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, Broncos player Brandon Marshall kneeled during the anthem, a move that cost him an endorsement deal with the Air Academy Federal Credit Union.

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After losing the endorsement, Marshall said:

“Absolutely they were worth the consequences,” Marshall said Friday. “I lost an endorsement, but that’s OK. I figured some sort of repercussion would happen. It’s what I thought about, and I still made the decision to do it. I can live with it.”

One outspoken opponent to any protest on September 11 was actor Rob Lowe, who has served for the past few years as a pitchman for DirecTV's NFL television package.

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There are still three games left for the NFL's opening weekend. One includes Kaepernick's 49ers, who will close out week one action on ESPN Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams. Two weeks ago, ESPN said it would not be showing the anthem before the 49ers game, as it does not typically show the anthem before its televised games.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press

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