By Bob Glauber and Mike Rose

Newsday

NEW YORK — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, team owners and players met at league headquarters in New York City on Tuesday for nearly four hours to discuss player protests during the playing of the national anthem.

Giants co-owner John Mara and 10 other owners attended the meeting. Giants player Mark Herzlich and Jets players Kelvin Beachum and Demario Davis were among 13 players at the meeting.

“I think they wanted to get a better understanding as to what it is that we were looking for as players and support our voices,” Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said when asked about his general observations of the meeting. “I think we’ll continue to work that out and what that looks like … it was good to finally meet face to face, get some understanding and move on from there.”

Indianapolis Colts safety Darius Byrd attended the meeting and said the players had a message to get across to the owners.

“Just our perspective,” Byrd said. “Obviously, it’s a different perspective. I think that’s the most important thing, when it comes to the issues and perspective and respecting everyone’s rights and how they feel, whether it’s peacefully protesting or speaking on these issues.”

Several NFL players continue to take a knee or raise a fist on the sidelines during the anthem as their way of protesting racial injustice in America. NFL guidelines say players “must” appear on the sidelines for the anthem and that they “should” stand when the song is played.

Jenkins said there was not much discussion about the anthem during the meeting.

“Very, very little of the meeting was about the actual anthem,” he said. “We were talking about solutions and how we get the results that we want to get.”

Byrd was asked after the meeting if players will continue to take a knee during the anthem.

“That’s going to come down to the individual,” he said. “It’s going to be an individual choice. But I think the ownership, the teams and the league, I think we’re all going in the right direction.”

Byrd added that he was happy with the results of the meeting.

“I am,” he said. “I think it will be more positive moving forward.”

Goodell wrote in a memo to all 32 teams last week that the league had a plan in place that would be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.

“There were things we discussed about how we could move forward,” Jenkins said. “We’ll continue to work through that. We have the unique ability to bring people together from all walks of life, whether it’s in our locker rooms or it’s in our stands. We see that responsibility as players and a league to do that with our country and it starts with having some tough conversations. That’s where we started today.”

The NFL and NFL Players Association released a joint statement after the meeting had concluded.

“Today owners and players had a productive meeting focused on how we can work together to promote positive social change and address inequality in our communities,” the statement said. “NFL executives and owners joined NFLPA executives and player leaders to review and discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effecuate positive change. We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together.

“As we said last week, everyone who is part of our NFL community has a tremendous respect for our country, our flag, our anthem and our military. In the best American tradition, we are coming together to find common ground and commit to the hard work required for positive change.”

NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent joined Goodell and the 11 owners representing the league at the meeting.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA president Eric Winston and Don Davis, the NFLPA’s senior director of player affairs, also attended the meeting.

“We feel like the most American thing to do is to use your platform and influence,” Jenkins said. “With the stage that we have as NFL players and as a league in general, we feel a real responsibility to our country, to our communities so we’re working for ways to have long-lasting, real changes.