The Bengals and Browns stand together for the singing of the national anthem

Coaches and players from both teams stood together at midfield of FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland in a display of unity—similar to that which was seen by the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans last week during Thursday Night Football, according to 10 WBNS. The outlet added that the demonstration, which was to bring unity, drummed up boos by some fans at Arrowhead Stadium.

The outlet added that Myles Garrett of the Browns kneeled before his team's season opener against the Baltimore Ravens, qualifying his actions by saying that it was not his intent to offend military members or police officers.

"Just a message," Garrett said. "No disrespect to anybody who's served or anybody who's in law enforcement or is serving right now. Anybody who's served that I know, I don't think they take it as a disrespectful thing. It's not that. If we continue to switch it up, we'll worry about that next week. But my decision to do that has been no bearing on my game or it doesn't bear on my conscious either. After that, I'm in game mode."

The act of kneeling during the national anthem was spearheaded by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to protest police brutality in 2016. Kaepernick has remained unsigned since the end of 2016 season.