By Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed a decision by the National Football League to fine teams if players on the field refuse to stand for the national anthem, saying if they do not want to stand maybe they should not be in the country.

Last season some NFL players kneeled during the anthem to protest police shootings of unarmed black men, provoking a controversy. Trump denounced the players as unpatriotic and repeatedly demanded an end to such protests.

Under the new policy unveiled on Wednesday by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, teams will be fined if players on the field fail to stand during the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Players who choose not to stand may remain in the locker room until the anthem is finished.

“I think that’s good. I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms but still I think it’s good,” Trump told Fox News in an interview taped on Wednesday and broadcast on Thursday.

“You have to stand, proudly, for the national anthem. Or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country,” the president said.

The NFL Players Association said it was not consulted on the new policy and may issue a challenge should it violate the collective bargaining agreement.

The NAACP also criticized the decision.

“Instead of coming together to address an issue disproportionately plaguing the African-American, the NFL owners have chosen to bury their heads and silence players,” the United States’ oldest civil rights organization said in a statement.

“Players cannot disconnect from the aggression African-Americans face every day.”

Democratic U.S. Senator Ben Cardin said the president’s words were “inflammatory” but not unexpected, and added that Trump’s suggestion that players’ should be ousted is “never going to be acceptable to me and, I think, to many Americans.”

“This country stands for the constitutional protections of the First Amendment, the right to freedom of speech. That’s what this country is about,” Cardin told CNN in an interview.

Still, Cardin added, “what the NFL is doing right now is moving in the right path,” noting that employers can establish reasonable standards over employees’ expression.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Jonathan Oatis)