Exactly this. Go even further. Remember, the only reason "kneeling" became a thing was he initially just didn't do anything during the national anthem, and when someone spotted him sitting on the sideline going over the playbook during the anthem they asked him about it and off we went. It just took off from there, with taking a knee being something he came up with to be more respectful than just blowing the whole thing off. If anyone had just sort of said "oh, ok, that's why" and rolled their eyes, this never would have been an issue.