Nick Piccone
UPDATE, Saturday 2:54 P.M.: Jenkins explained further his thoughts on the situation, via Zach Berman.
Malcolm Jenkins emphasized a demonstration wouldn't be anti-police/anti-military/anti-flag — Rather, would be to raise awareness of issues
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) September 17, 2016
“I’ll always make you uncomfortable with the truth than comfortable with a lie. It’s a fine line to walk in a team atmosphere. I don’t plan on kneeling. Whatever I do, it’s my way of expressing the same exact message. You’ve seen the impact it’s had. We understand people will get upset. That’s what keeps this conversation going. You got to rock the boat to get a little change. You can talk about real issues and real topics and still focus on the game.”
Original post below.
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It’s become a national conversation that was started by 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and it will continue in Chicago on Monday night. Professional athletes, black and white, male and female, have shown their own form of protesting the racial injustices in this country by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem before their respective sporting events, and it all began – at least the national conversation about it – with Kaepernick sitting down during the anthem before a preseason game.
The conversation has become local, if not just for everyone to give our opinion on it. Before he got cut, Eagles linebacker Myke Tavarres said he was planning to protest the national anthem before a preseason game by sitting down before reversing his decision due to a request by his agent.
But the conversation didn’t stop. Last weekend was the anniversary of 9/11, 15 years after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Some athletes continued their protest of the national anthem, but everyone on the Eagles’ sideline rose for the anthem and even helped hold the American flag that donned the entire length of the field.
But that won’t happen Monday night. Because Malcolm Jenkins said during an appearance on the WIP Afternoon Show with Glen Macnow and Jody McDonald that he, along with some other teammates, plan to “do something” during the anthem Monday night.
“There has been league-wide discussion about this topic. There’s a lot of guys that want to speak out and want to be a part of the movement, but just aren’t sure about which way they want to go about doing that. We got guys, especially myself, who feel very strongly about the topic and last week, we talked about doing some stuff, but we wanted to make sure that we didn’t do anything to take away from the folks, and the families that suffered from 9/11. We didn’t want to mess with that day.”
Jenkins added the reasons behind his protest.
“For me, it has nothing to do with this country, or the flag, or the anthem itself. Really, it’s just to continue to push for the conversation about social injustice…that’s a range of things from police brutality to wages and job opportunities, education. It’s just a lot of things set up systematically in this country, since its inception, that really puts minorities, especially African-Americans, at a disadvantage.”
Jenkins said the players spoke with head coach Doug Pederson and he respected their rights and how they use their voice. Jenkins also added he still wants to talk to his teammates and decide whether or not it’ll be a team protest or a few individual ones. He also said that he doesn’t think anyone will be kneeling during the anthem.
According to Eagles’ wide receiver Jordan Matthews, he along with Jenkins and other teammates, have visited the police force in an attempt to better race relations. But it doesn’t end there. It will continue through Monday night and likely throughout the rest of the season and likely spill over to the other major professional sports. LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony began a national conversation back in July before the ESPYs. And it’s continuing on different platforms.
You can listen to Jenkins’ entire interview on WIP below.