Alejandro Villanueva said he never intended to stand alone during the national anthem on Sunday and apologized to his teammates and coach Mike Tomlin for what he called "a very embarrassing" butchering of the team's pregame plan.
"Every single time I see that picture of me standing by myself, I feel embarrassed," Villanueva said.
Villanueva, an Army Ranger who was deployed in Afghanistan, said he asked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the team's leaders to amend their original idea, agreed upon on Saturday night, which was to stand in the locker room during the anthem in an attempted show of unity.
Villanueva's suggestion, he said, was to stand with Roethlisberger and the team's other captains at the front of the tunnel. That didn't work out due to, as Roethlisberger said, pregame "chaos" in a small area, and Villanueva was left to stand alone with his teammates about 20 feet behind him.
"The crazy thing about that is, when we came out of the tunnel, we told Al to come stand up front with the captains. Cam, myself and (Tyler Matakevich)," Roethlisberger said.
"When we came out of the locker room into that tunnel, it was a very small area. There was a flag or something coming off the field so there were a bunch of Bears fans, coming off the field holding that (and) going in front of us, so it kind of held us up."
Villanueva took sole responsibility for the mix-up.
"I made coach Tomlin look bad, and that is my fault and my fault only," he said. "I made my teammates look bad, and that is my fault and my fault only."
