Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins recently skipped practice in wake of the controversial comments team owner Bob McNair made regarding protests during the national anthem.

As expected, Twitter was set ablaze after McNair's comments surfaced online Friday, Oct. 28 that criticized players protesting.

“We can’t have the inmates running the prison,” McNair said during a meeting with NFL owners and executives last week, according to USA Today. His comments also outraged players who were persuaded to not walk out of practice in protest of their team owner's statements.

Hopkins may be the second most popular player on the team after J.J. Watt. His absence from practice on Friday was related to Bob McNair's comments, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

After the uproar and a heated argument with Troy Vincent, a former NFL player and current NFL executive, McNair backtracked and apologized for making the insensitive remarks.

“I regret that I used that expression. I never meant to offend anyone and I was not referring to our players,” McNair wrote in a statement released by the Texans. “I used a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our players or our league that way and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”

This latest development adds a new wrinkle to the ongoing protests in the NFL started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The movement started by Kap has always been about protesting the racial injustices in America and stopping police brutality. But critics, like McNair, President Donald Trump and others have made the protests about the national anthem and flag.

Bob McNair

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