Kansas City Chiefs players link arms prior to their NFL match against the Houston Texans. Photo / Supplied
Kansas City Chiefs players link arms prior to their NFL match against the Houston Texans. Photo / Supplied
Kansas City Chiefs fans booed the reigning Super Bowl champions and the Houston Texans as the two teams lined up for a "moment of unity" before Friday's NFL season-opener.
Scattered booing could be clearly heard coming from sections of the reduced-capacity crowd of 15,985 at Arrowhead Stadium as players from both the Chiefs and Texans linked arms for the pre-game gesture.
Before the ritual, both teams had taken contrasting approaches to the playing of the US national anthem and a rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing", a song regarded as the black national anthem.
Texans players remained in their locker room for both anthems while the Chiefs players stood on the field.
One Chiefs player, defensive end Alex Okafor, dropped to one knee during the playing of the US national anthem.
The booing was greeted with dismay following the Chiefs 34-20 win.
"The moment of unity I personally thought was good," Texans star J.J. Watt told NFL Media.
"I mean the booing during that moment was unfortunate. I don't fully understand that. There was no flag involved. There was nothing involved other than two teams coming together to show unity."
Wow. There appeared to be loud boos from the Kansas City crowd during “the moment of unity,” a call for social justice, as the Chiefs and Texans lined up and linked arms before the NFL opener.
Player protests have divided the NFL and its followers since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took up the cause against racial injustice and police brutality in 2016.
Kaepernick was widely vilified for his protests and has effectively been shut out of the NFL since being released by the 49ers in 2017.
The NFL initially opposed Kaepernick's protests, with league commissioner Roger Goodell saying players should stand for the US anthem.
However, after months of protests across the United States following the death of George Floyd during his arrest by police in Minneapolis in May, the NFL relaxed its rules and said protests would be allowed.
Goodell has said he now regrets the league's failure to support Kaepernick and admits the quarterback's protests had been mischaracterised as unpatriotic.
In June, Goodell issued a statement saying the league had been wrong and saying the NFL believed "black lives matter".
Goodell's statement followed calls for an apology led by Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and other players.
This season, the NFL has launched a number of initiatives to demonstrate its support for activists campaigning against racial injustice.
End zones across the league will bear the words "End Racism" and "It Takes All of Us", while players will be allowed to wear helmet stickers featuring the names of victims of racism.
Chiefs players celebrate during their opening win over the Texans. Photo / AFP
Patrick Mahomes threw three touchdowns as the Kansas City Chiefs launched the defence of their Super Bowl crown with a comprehensive 34-20 defeat of Houston.
Mahomes, the star of the Chiefs victorious Super Bowl campaign last season, picked up where he had left off with an assured display to pick apart the Texans.
"It's fun to be back out here given the off-season that we had, as a world, as a nation, to be doing something normal again," Mahomes said. who finished with 211 passing yards from 24 completions.
It was the opening skirmish of an NFL season kicking off under a cloud of uncertainty as the league attempts to plot a course through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
