The National Football League left it to individual clubs to decide whether to stage pre-game tributes on Sunday for Charlie Kirk, and five home teams did not hold a moment of silence while many others did. The Bengals, Lions, Ravens, Colts and Vikings were among the 13 clubs hosting games that had no in-stadium minute’s silence specifically for Kirk, according to game-day rundowns from the league’s broadcast partners and team communications. Other home teams, including the Cowboys, Dolphins, Saints, Jets, Titans, Chiefs and Cardinals, observed a period of silence or otherwise marked his death before kickoff. A league-directed moment of silence had already been held at Thursday night’s game at Lambeau Field.
The arrangement reflected a two-step approach. On Thursday, the league made the decision centrally and asked the stadium to pause for “silent reflection” following the killing of Kirk the previous day. For Sunday’s fixtures, the NFL said individual teams would determine how to proceed. “Last night’s moment was the league’s decision,” the league said in guidance circulated to media on Friday. “It’s up to the clubs for this Sunday’s games.” The note referenced prior practice of holding tributes after events that rise to a national level, including shootings, natural disasters and other major incidents.
By kickoff of the early window, club-level decisions produced a patchwork. In Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore, there was no minute’s silence specific to Kirk before play began. In Arlington, Miami Gardens, East Rutherford, Nashville and New Orleans, stadiums paused for a tribute; in several of those venues, public-address scripts broadened the moment to include references to the September 11 anniversary or to victims of gun violence. A later slate added two more tributes in Kansas City and Glendale and a non-observance in Indianapolis, completing the list of five clubs without a Kirk-specific silence across the 13 home games played on Sunday.
The decision by Minnesota not to stage a separate silence at U.S. Bank Stadium had been signalled ahead of their evening kickoff. The club informed reporters it had already committed its pre-game recognition to victims of the Annunciation Church & School shooting in south Minneapolis and would proceed with that plan. The Steelers, who were also at home, lowered stadium flags to half-staff and conducted a pre-planned in-stadium remembrance for former player Craig Wolfley; some national roundups nonetheless counted Pittsburgh among teams that “recognized” Kirk, while others restricted their lists to clubs that staged an explicit minute’s silence.
Owners and executives who opted to hold a silence framed the decision in non-partisan terms. “We just all abhor violence,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when asked about the pre-game pause at AT&T Stadium. “And it’s impacting us all. And, certainly, we all stand together on any front, relative to the threat of violence.” The Cowboys’ tribute, captured by local broadcasters, preceded Dallas’s home opener and included a stadium message before the national anthem.
The Jets displayed multiple images of Kirk and his family on the video board at MetLife Stadium before their game against the Bills. In Miami Gardens, the Dolphins framed their silence as a remembrance of victims of violence alongside the 9/11 anniversary. The Cardinals and Chiefs confirmed their own minutes of silence later in the day; the tribute in Glendale took place roughly 18 minutes before kickoff rather than immediately prior to the anthem.
Sunday’s mixed approach followed a uniform start to the weekend. On Thursday night in Green Bay, the public-address announcement directed by the league asked spectators to join in a moment of quiet “following the murder of Charlie Kirk,” the text that set the tone for tributes across U.S. sport in the days that followed. The White House later published a statement praising teams and leagues that chose to pause, calling the commemorations “profound tributes that celebrate Kirk’s enduring legacy” and reflect his impact on supporters.
The choices by the five clubs that did not hold a Kirk-specific silence prompted swift debate. Supporters argued that a league-wide directive would have ensured consistency and avoided singling out teams whose pre-game programmes were already set. Critics accused the clubs of failing to meet a moment of national mourning after a political assassination on a college campus. Headlines on Sunday alternately listed three, four or five non-observing teams as game windows progressed and later games kicked off, reflecting the rolling nature of game-day reporting. By evening, roundups that combined the early and late slates identified the Bengals, Lions, Ravens, Colts and Vikings as the five home teams without a minute’s silence for Kirk.
The league’s stance did not prohibit other forms of recognition. Clubs typically have discretion to lower stadium flags, dim lights or carry videoboard messages outside the formal pre-anthem moment. In Pittsburgh, for example, the pre-game silence that was already scheduled honoured Wolfley, who died in June, while flags at Acrisure Stadium were flown at half-mast for Kirk. Other teams added player-worn decals or ribbon graphics to in-stadium LED signage without a spoken invocation. Those variations contributed to conflicting social-media lists on Sunday afternoon as fans compared what had happened in different venues.
Kirk, 31, died on Wednesday after being shot while speaking at an outdoor campus event at Utah Valley University. Investigators said the shot was fired from an elevated position overlooking the stage and that the gunman fled across a rooftop before descending on the far side and moving into a nearby neighbourhood. A bolt-action rifle was recovered along the suspected escape route, and state and federal agencies subsequently released a short video and still images of a person of interest, appealing for public help to identify the individual. The league acknowledged the killing with Thursday night’s uniform silence; on Sunday, decisions reverted to club level.
By mid-afternoon Sunday, live rundowns of the early window showed the following pattern: Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Tennessee observed the silence; Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore did not; Pittsburgh’s in-stadium moment was dedicated to Wolfley while flags were lowered for Kirk. Later, Kansas City and Arizona held their pauses, while Indianapolis did not. Minnesota did not add a separate silence to its programme for the evening game. That left five non-observances across the 13 home venues that staged games on Sunday.
Clubs that paused before kickoff generally kept remarks brief and avoided political framing. Some paired the silence with 9/11 remembrances given the calendar proximity, a formulation also used in college football over the weekend. The Jets displayed a montage including family photographs, and the Cowboys followed their silence by returning to normal pre-game presentation without additional commentary. Stadiums that did not pause proceeded with standard introductions and the anthem.
The debate over in-game tributes is familiar to the league. Centralised moments of silence are common when the NFL or a club loses a current or former player, coach or executive, or in the immediate wake of mass-casualty events. Decentralised decisions often produce uneven outcomes, especially when events are national in scope but not directly tied to a particular club or community. The NFL’s Friday guidance placed Sunday’s response in that latter category, leaving clubs to weigh local considerations, pre-existing plans and the anticipated reaction of the home crowd.
Game-by-game reporting revealed modest but visible differences in execution even among clubs that did pause. In Miami Gardens, both teams stood on the field during the silence; in Glendale, the moment occurred earlier in the warm-up window; in East Rutherford and Arlington, the silence immediately preceded the anthem. In Kansas City, the announcement referenced the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks alongside recent victims of violence, including Kirk. Those details reflected the latitude clubs retained over phrasing and timing once the league devolved the decision.
The handling by the five non-observing teams drew immediate reaction online. Posts directed at the clubs alternated between criticism and support, with some season-ticket holders saying they preferred that pre-game moments be reserved for local tragedies or for losses within the sport, and others saying a uniform pause would have been appropriate given the national prominence of the killing. By Sunday night, several teams that had held silences had posted short video clips of their tributes; the Bengals, Lions, Ravens, Colts and Vikings did not announce any late additions.
The NFL’s approach over the weekend matched practices seen in other leagues. Major League Baseball clubs and some college football programmes also staged silences, while others incorporated acknowledgements into broader commemorations. In college football, South Carolina paused before its game against Vanderbilt. The White House highlighted the range of sports-world tributes and reiterated the administration’s plan to posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a step announced earlier in the week
With two Monday games still to be played, the league had not indicated any change in guidance. The Buccaneers, Texans, Chargers and Raiders were scheduled to host, and clubs retained discretion to add acknowledgements to standard pre-game scripts. A formal league statement about Sunday’s choices was not expected; officials had already set the framework by directing the Thursday silence and leaving subsequent decisions to the home teams. As the weekend concluded, the practical effect was clear: a majority of NFL home clubs marked the killing before kickoff, while five did not hold a specific minute’s silence for Kirk.