Kaepernick took a knee for the national anthem during San Francisco exhibition games and questioned whether the country represented “what it’s supposed to represent”.
Advertisement
Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid once again kneeled during the national anthem before the San Francisco 49ers’ season opener against the Los Angeles Rams. He handed the ball off three straight times to mixed reaction from the hometown fans before San Francisco punted. The players protested as military personnel held up a football-field-sized flag feet above the field.
Joining Kaepernick in protest were his teammates Erick Reid, who also knelt and Antoine Bethea and Eli Harold who raised their fists.
Players from both teams remained standing for the anthem but elected to raise fists in the air instead.
Seventeen NFL players and other USA athletes have joined the protest in the past week. Quinn and Britt adopted the lofted fist that some had displayed Sunday, a motion long associated with the Black Power movement.
There were no such constraints on Monday, so four more players joined the cause. Harold, meanwhile, had made his support of Kaepernick obvious a day earlier, when he’d called ESPN anchor and former National Football League quarterback Trent Dilfer an “idiot” on Twitter, a response to Dilfer’s on-air assertion that Kaepernick, as a backup QB, was supposed to “Be quiet and stay in the shadows”. The Orioles veteran said he doesn’t plan on following in Kaepernick’s footsteps, but he respects what the San Francisco 49ers quarterback is doing.
Britt made the hands-up-don’t-shoot gesture two seasons ago along with several teammates when the Rams played in St. Louis in response to the police shooting of Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown.
Advertisement
ESPN noted that a fan reacted to Monday night’s demonstration by yelling, “Kaepernick, why don’t you stand up?” They were the only players who were shown taking a knee, but others recognized the protest over racial injustice.
