Following a NFL-wide protest during pregame national anthems on Sunday, several players came forward to speak about their reasons for taking part.
More than 200 players sat or kneeled during the Star Spangled Banner on Sunday, days after President Donald Trump implored team owners to ‘get that son of a b**** off the field’ for protesting during the national anthem.
While his line drew loud applause at his rally in Huntsville, Alabama, the words cut deep into America’s most popular sports league, where the majority of players are black and many of them grew up in tough neighborhoods, raised by strong women.
Dolphins safety Michael Thomas teared up as he spoke about the political landscape in the United States and the example he wants to set for his daughter.
Dolphins safety Michael Thomas teared up as he spoke about the political landscape in the United States and the example he wants to set for his daughter
Buffalo Bills Running Back LeSean McCoy, who stretched during the pregame national anthem, slammed Trump in his post-game comments to the press
‘It just amazes me with everything else going on in this world, especially involving the US, that’s what you’re concerned about, my man?’ Thomas said. ‘You’re the leader of the free world and this is what you’re talking about?
‘As somebody in the NFL who is one of those ‘sons of b******’, yeah I take it personally. But it’s bigger than me. I’ve got a daughter. She’s going to have to live in this world. I’m going to do whatever I’ve got to do.’
Buffalo Bills Running Back LeSean McCoy also slammed Trump in his post-game comments.
‘I can’t stand and support something where our leader of this country is just acting like a jerk,’ McCoy, who performed stretched during the national anthem ahead of Sunday’s game, said.
An emotional Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett said: ‘I’m the son of a queen.’
More than 200 NFL players who either knelt, sat, stretched or prayed during the Star Spangled Banner to defy Trump’s remarks on Sunday.
Three teams didn’t even take the field until the national anthem was over.
Several players raised their fists during the protest, while others did so after scoring touchdowns during the game.
‘There are no SOBs in this league,’ Lions coach Jim Caldwell said Sunday following the league-wide protest.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Marcus Peters (22) protests next to running back Charcandrick West (35) and defensive tackle Roy Miller (98) during the National Anthem prior to the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at StubHub Center
The Cleveland Browns team stand and kneel during the National Anthem before the start of their game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium
The protest campaign against racial inequality was started last year by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Only six players participated last week.
But Trump’s weekend attack on athletes sparked angry reactions from around the sports world and drew defiance from most of the NFL.
He suggested the NFL was going soft for cracking down on big hits. He uninvited the NBA champions Golden State Warriors to the White House after Stephen Curry and other players indicated they weren’t sure they would accept the invitation.
Players, owners and commissioners past and present chastised the president for his divisive remarks.
‘Once again, this is a tragedy in this country that we have to sit here and still have these discussions,’ Browns rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer said following a 31-28 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
He added: ‘I know for a fact that I’m no son of a b****, and I plan on continuing forward and doing whatever I can from my position to promote the equality that’s needed in this country.’
After calling for NFL players who protest to be fired, Trump tweeted Sunday that the league should make it mandatory to stand for the national anthem and that fans should shun anyone who doesn’t.
Detroit Lions defensive end Armonty Bryant (97), defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson (91) and defensive end Cornelius Washington (90) take a knee during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons
Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston (left) kneels as other Chiefs’ players sit during the National Anthem prior to their NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers at StubHub Center in Carson, California
The issue reverberated across the Atlantic, where about two dozen players took a knee during the playing of the US anthem at an NFL game between the Ravens and Jaguars in London.
‘We stand with our brothers,’ Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said. ‘They have the right, and we knelt with them today.
‘To protest, non-violent protest, is as American as it gets, so we knelt with them today to let them know that we’re a unified front. There ain’t no dividing us. I guess we’re all son-of-a-b******.’
Buccaneers wide receivers Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson, who knelt at the Bucs-Vikings game, said Trump’s remarks were especially disturbing when juxtaposed to his recent comments equating white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, with counter-protesters.
‘Why is he singling out athletes?’ Evans asked. ‘I really don’t really see him tweeting about all the other things going on, the neo-Nazis, the situation in Charlottesville.
‘I don’t really see him talking about that much. But he has the time and the nerve to call out the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, all of us in the NFL that took a knee out of protesting.
‘He has the time to do that? It’s not right. And he called us SOBs, so that was very disrespectful.’
Member of the Washington Redskins stand arm in arm during the playing of the National Anthem before an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Landover, Maryland
Some members of the Oakland Raiders kneel during the playing of the National Anthem before an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover
Jackson said: ‘It’s just blatant disrespect. I look at it as my mom’s the queen. (We’re) not sons of any ‘B’s.’
Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said he’ll go back to standing for the anthem next week but was eager to join in the protests on Sunday, noting that he supports the military, considers himself a patriot and loves his country.
He said he just wanted to show solidarity with his colleagues ‘especially in the backdrop of our president making the comments about our players, about their mothers. And then you put that in conjunction with how he tried to gray-area Nazism and KKK members as being fine people, I had to take a knee.’
Linebacker Brandon Marshall, who hands out winter coats in Denver alongside his mother as part of his charity work, said the Broncos gathered Saturday night to talk about their reaction.
‘We talked about the fact that while he called the (white supremacists in) Charlottesville very fine people, but we are sons of b******,’ said Marshall, who received the 2017 Courage Award from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Alumni of Color for his stance against social injustice.
Marshall was a college teammate of Kaepernick, who remains unsigned. Many supporters believe teams are avoiding Kaepernick because of his protests.
On Sunday, some Dolphins players wore shirts supporting Kaepernick and even league owners and officials stood with players. Almost universally, owners and coaches criticized Trump’s comments.
‘For me to single out any particular group of players and call them SOBs, to me, that is insulting and disgraceful,’ Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. ‘So I think the players deserve credit for what they do.
‘And when it comes to speech they are entitled to speak. And we are entitled to listen. We are entitled to agree or disagree. But we’re not entitled to shut anybody’s speech down.’