Ross: When kneeling for the anthem is no longer enough
Sep 11, 2020, 7:08 AM | Updated: 11:00 am
A moment of silence taken before the Chiefs/Texans NFL season opener. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
The NFL season started last night 鈥� Kansas City versus Houston. Chiefs won, 16,000 fans showed up, and you could almost pretend it was football as usual.
But 鈥� not quite. Instead of one anthem, there were two 鈥� beginning in Week 1. And stenciled on either end of the field were the words 鈥淓nd racism,鈥� and 鈥淚t takes all of us.鈥�
During huddles you could see names on the backs of players鈥� helmets: Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd.
The Chiefs鈥� Patrick Mahomes appeared .
“We鈥檒l be playing sports, but at the same time we鈥檙e gonna be taking action and we鈥檙e gonna be making change in this world so that it’s a better place when we leave it,” Mahomes said in the ad.
But at the same time, other players aren’t buying it.
Eighteen players for the Miami Dolphins appeared in this video:
BREAKING NEWS: The players will stay inside for both national anthems. They express their discontentment with what they call 鈥渇luff and empty gestures鈥� by the
— Jay Williams (@RealJayWilliams)
“Lift Every Voice and sing is just a way to save face,” one player says in the video.
“So if my dad was a soldier, but the cops killed my brother, do I stand for one anthem, and kneel for the other?” another posited.
And so, they won鈥檛 be on the field for either anthem.
“This attempt to unify only creates more divide, so we鈥檒l skip the song and dance, and as a team we鈥檒l stay inside.”
It sounds like these issues are not going away. And to think that once upon a time, people were freaked out by taking a knee.
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