Eagles players drag Fox News for airing misleading photos of them kneeling in prayer

The Philadelphia Eagles may have won the Super Bowl, but that doesn't mean they're without a feud. Several of their players are now taking Fox News to task for apparently misrepresenting images of them kneeling.

On Monday night, after the president "disinvited" the Eagles from the traditional Super Bowl champion White House visit, Fox News aired several photos of Eagles players apparently kneeling during a segment on the kerfuffle.

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Except, according Eagles player Zach Ertz (shown in at least two of the photos), the pictures of him kneeling weren't of an anthem protest but, rather, were of him kneeling in prayer.

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Ertz's teammate Chris Long, who's been critical of the league's handling of the protests in the past, also fired on Fox for the misleading photos.

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At least one of the photos Fox aired did appear to show two players, Malcolm Jenkins (No. 27) and Rodney McLeod (No. 23), protesting with raised fists during the anthem. Jenkins has been a constant critic of the NFL's handling of the anthem protests as well as the league's new, terrible rules addressing future protests.

But, according to another Eagles player, Torrey Smith, not a single Eagles player actually kneeled in protest during the 2017 NFL regular season. (One player knelt during a preseason game but was cut from the roster before the regular season began.)

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Smith also noted that none of the players or team staffers who didn't want to attend refused to go simply because of Trump's stance on the anthem.

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Late Tuesday morning, Christopher Wallace, Executive Producer of FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream, issued the following statement regarding the photos:

“During our report about President Trump canceling the Philadelphia Eagles trip to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win, we showed unrelated footage of players kneeling in prayer. To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or post-season last year. We apologize for the error.” 

Making matters even messier for the president, if you can believe that, is last week's report that Trump actually got directly involved with NFL owners over those new anthem rules, pressuring them to adopt tougher punishments for players that protest.

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If Trump throwing a tantrum and canceling a championship team's visit seems familiar, it's because that's exactly what happened back in the fall of 2017 with the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

This time, though, Trump will be going hardcore America by throwing a MAGApalooza event that will apparently feature lots of American flags and the singing of the national anthem.

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Authoritarian despots around the world are surely reading Trump's actions with smiles and nods of familiarity.

UPDATE: June 5, 2018, 11:46 a.m. EDT Updated to include the statement from Fox News.