Sunday’s noon kickoff between the Vikings and Panthers in Charlotte is still on, despite a state of emergency being declared and National Guard troops being deployed to help contain violent protesting after a recent police shooting. Bank of America and Wells Fargo were among the businesses that instructed employees to remain at home.
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The NFL intends to play Sunday’s game between the Carolina Panthers and Minnesota Vikings in Charlotte as scheduled, a league spokesman said Thursday.
The meeting comes after protests erupted Tuesday and Wednesday in Charlotte over the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by police at an apartment complex in University City.
Controversial fatal police shootings of black men across the United States have sparked more than two years of protests asserting racial bias and excessive force by police and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Newton went on to say, “From being a black person, there is a lot of black people that don’t do right by black people, so you can’t be a hypocrite and just say ‘Oh a white man or a white police officer killed a black man.’ Now that’s still messed up and I’m not sitting up here and saying that’s ok”.
Carolina Coach Ron Rivera, meanwhile, said violence was not the “right way” to protest injustice. And he will, as long as the peace is kept over the next three nights and police believe they can protect fans at the game and citizens around Charlotte.
We know that the Vikings are good, but we don’t know if the 2016 Panthers are an elite team like they were past year. And so to ask our opinion on things we don’t really know about, we don’t have all the answers. As an African-American male, we can’t allow that to happen.
“It’s a very hard time right now”.
“I think Kaepernick is being creative in what he wanted to do and made a statement on his platform and made it be seen for people that aren’t able to see these things”, Johnson said.
“While the circumstances now are obviously different, playing again was an important step in that community’s healing process”, Rivera said.
On what athletes can do: “One of the things I had to do yesterday as a parent was go home and talk to my boys who watched the news and explain to them that not all cops are bad cops”. “We were just talking upstairs about when we get to Charlotte, like, ‘Are you going to go outside?’ People are like nervous are nervous and talking about that, so anytime you have an issue where you’re talking about a person’s safety you definitely have to take that to heart”. And I think last night some agitators, some people who had their own agenda, their own narrative, took over and created a situation that wasn’t Charlotte. Like I said, vote.
Brissett, who played at Florida before transferring to North Carolina State, got the start over injured Jimmy Garoppolo, who inherited the starting job when Brady was suspended for four games to start the season. During pregame introductions, five Rams players raised their arms in a “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture that had been used by protesters.
“Our relationship just grew”, Munnerlyn said.
“We all have to be held accountable and when is enough enough?”
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Panthers quarterback Cam Newton also spoke at length on the topic of Scott and other social justice issues during his Wednesday news conference.
