Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva is being lauded for his patriotism by some groups after the U.S. Army veteran chose not to stand with his teammates in the tunnel during the national anthem and instead take the field.
Alejandro Villanueva has the Steelers’ No. 1-selling jersey after going out for anthem without teammates
Villanueva’s jersey sales are following in Colin Kaepernick’s footsteps.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
That decision is already having a major impact — on his jersey sales. Overnight the obscure offensive lineman went from the depths of Steelers’ jersey sales to its No. 1 seller in the men’s and women’s categories on both Fanatics.com and NFLShop.com. It’s also the No. 2 youth jersey on both sites behind Antonio Brown.
Villanueva’s sales mirror that of Colin Kaepernick, whose jersey became the No. 1 seller for the 49ers after his protests during the anthem began in 2016. Kaepernick’s critics said at the time that his protests were designed to get attention, so he could sell jerseys. Ultimately Kaepernick donated all the money from his jersey sales in 2016 to community projects.
The Steelers held team-wide discussions prior to their game on Sunday with players trying to reach an agreement on how they would conduct themselves during the anthem. Head coach Mike Tomlin wanted the entire team to be united, regardless of the decision — and when the team was split between kneeling and standing they elected to remain in the locker room, which was commonplace in the NFL before 2009.
Villanueva’s teammates were surprised that he elected to leave the tunnel and stand alone on the field, but supported his decision. This from Cam Heyward:
”I don’t want to go into that, but we support our guy Al. He feels he had to do it. This guy served our country, and we thank him for it,” Heyward said when asked about it after the game.”
A day later, Villanueva explained that it was a misunderstanding and he’s embarrassed by the photo that shows his standing alone. The plan was reportedly for team captains to join the offensive lineman at the end of the tunnel, but circumstances delayed their exit from the locker room, leaving Villanueva alone.
Villanueva is donating the money from his jersey sales to the USO, but it’s important to note that he did this even before sales spiked in popularity.
