Michael Bennett shakes hands with veterans outside VMAC

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett – who sat during the national anthem for weeks – shook hands with military veterans outside the team’s practice space this week, as photos on social media show.

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Dayna Mink Coats was driving near the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton on Tuesday, she saw a parked car in the middle of the road. She told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson it was Bennett with a group of military veterans.

Listen to Coats’ full interview with Dori

She wrote on Facebook:

“I thought it might be a car accident so I snapped a picture. As I got closer I realized it was group of military veterans who had assembled in front of the VMAC,” Coats wrote. “Mostly all Seniors who had probably seen the battlefield firsthand. They were proudly wearing their veteran’s hats, jackets and some carried American flags. The car in the middle of the road … it was Michael Bennett’s.”

Coats said as she drove by the veterans and Bennett shaking hands, she became emotional. So she pulled over in tears.

“Even talking about it now makes me pretty emotional,” Coats told Dori.

She wrote on Facebook:

“A few of the veterans came over to see if I was ok and behind them walked up Michael Bennett,” Coats wrote. “I was unprepared and not expecting this situation in my morning. But with eyes welled up with tears and speaking from my heart … I simply said, ‘Michael, I am so torn and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to disrespect our country, our flag or my husband who’s in the military but I want to understand. I’m a big Seahawks fan and I don’t know what to do?’ He reached in and hugged me.”

Coats told Dori, “I think maybe it was a glimmer of hope … I couldn’t even tell you what it was that essentially rushed over me,  but I just couldn’t help myself but cry. It was not what I expected my morning to be like.”

Pete Carroll: Seahawks’ demonstration was ‘for the flag,’

They talked for nearly 20 minutes, and Bennett explained how he had family in the military too. His father served 10 years in the U.S. Navy.

“He really, truly listened,” Coats told Dori. “And then I felt like it was my turn to listen.”

“The word unity was used several times and he admitted he didn’t know where to go from here. I do not know either,” Coats wrote on Facebook. “Nor do I know what the correct answers are … but I do know, I am thankful for those veterans and thankful Michael stopped to talk with them … and inadvertently me.”

Coats hopes her story inspires others to have a conversation and listen to each other. “That’s the key to all of this.”

Bennett will join Doug Baldwin for a CNN Town Hall hosted by Anderson Cooper on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PST.

KIRO 7 contributed to this story.