‘Beast mode’ weighs in on national anthem protest
Sep 21, 2016, 7:03 AM | Updated: 8:45 am
Former Seahawks running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch says NFL players refusing to stand for the national anthem is just part of a larger discussion and that people shouldn’t see it as threatening.
Lynch told talk show host Conan O’Brien that things have to start somewhere.
“With what’s going on, I would rather see him take a knee than stand up, put his hands up, and get murdered,” Lynch said of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. “My take on it is … [things] gotta start somewhere and if that was the starting point — I just hope people open up their eyes to see that there’s really a problem going on and something needs to be done for it to stop. If you’re really not racist, then you won’t see what he’s doing as a threat to America, but just addressing a problem that we have.”
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Since Kaepernick first began sitting out the national anthem in August, others have joined him, both on and off the field. Locally, Garfield High School football players decided to collectively kneel during the national anthem on Sept. 16. Seahawks’ Jeremy Lane also gained attention when he sat out the anthem before the team’s first game against Miami. The purpose of the kneeling, as it has occurred in other sports venues across the country, is to draw attention to oppression that often goes unnoticed, or ignored, in America.
Lynch’s statement was aired on Conan the same day as protesters took to the streets of Charlotte, N.C. over the fatal shooting of a black man by police. The protests broke out Tuesday night after Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot by a black officer at an apartment complex. Prior to the protest, a Facebook post from a woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter claimed he was unarmed when he was shot.
The protest in North Carolina followed a demonstration in Tulsa, Oklahoma over the shooting of a black man by police; video footage released by the local police department shows 40-year-old Terence Crutcher with his hands in the air when he is shot. During a news conference on Monday, the Tulsa police chief told reporters Crutcher was unarmed.
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