What they’re fighting for
Michael Bennett already sits during the national anthem.
The Seattle Seahawks defensive end was last season one of the first and most prominent players to join Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial inequality in the United States and had this year expressed his intent to continue taking a seat on the bench when the Star- Spangled Banner played before NFL games.
Kaepernick’s stand, the quarterback explained at the time, was spurred by the number of unarmed black men being shot and killed by police. And on Thursday, Bennett revealed his harrowing firsthand experience of what could happen when an African- American encountered law enforcement.
Posting to Twitter a statement entitled ‘ Equality’, Bennett wrote that he was profiled and violently harassed by police in Las Vegas in the hours after the Floyd Mayweather- Conor McGregor mega- fight.
Bennett said he was heading to his hotel in a crowd of a couple of hundred people when what sounded like gunshots rang out. He ran away from the noise in search of safety but was apprehended by police and had guns pointed at him “for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Bennett wrote that, as he lay on the ground complying with commands, one officer warned him he would “blow my f— ing head off ” while another jammed a knee into Bennett’s back and handcuffed him.
“I felt helpless as I lay there on the ground handcuffed facing the real- life threat of being killed,” Bennett wrote. “All I could think of was, ‘ I'm going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color [ sic] is somehow a threat’.”
So many similar stories have featured that tragic ending but, after he was placed in a police car, the officers apparently identified Bennett and he was released.
Bennett said he had retained a civil rights attorney to explore the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, later telling reporters the incident was a “traumatic experience” for him and his family.
And the trauma certainly showed for one member of that family, with Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett breaking down when discussing what had happened to his big brother.
By a quirk of the NFL schedule, Michael’s Seahawks will be travelling to play Martellus’ Packers to open their respective seasons on Monday, and the younger sibling was in tears when discussing the pair’s imminent reunion.
“Sometimes, a hug is the best thing you can give,” Martellus said as his voice cracked. “You just think, ‘ What if ?' You know? Two seconds this way, two seconds that way, the whole thing is different. So for me, I'll just be happy to see my brother, because there's a chance I couldn't see him.”
That remains a constant threat for African- Americans in the US and, with many finding outrage in football players’ peaceful protests, it’s worth remembering that threat is unknown by the majority white fanbase.
The most famous long snapper in America
In the highly specialised world of football, there is no more idiosyncratic position than that of the long snapper.
Called into action only on kicking plays, the long snapper does what the name suggests: when a team is trying to kick a field goal or extra point, he must snap the ball a long way back to the holder, who then sets it up for the kicker.
Accuracy and arm strength are important, but it’s a pretty simplistic job. Many would suggest a player could do it with their eyes shut. Or, as Jake Olson showed last weekend, even with no eyes.
Olson on Sunday lived his dream of taking the field for the University of Southern California football team, coming into the game during the end of the Trojans’ season- opening victory over Western Michigan and snapping the ball for the extra point after USC’s final touchdown.
Olson lost his eye sight as a baby due to cancer and had both eyes removed aged 12. But he played football at high school and, after choosing to attend USC for college, set a goal of becoming the team’s starting long snapper.
He took a positive step to that target by unleashing what his coach called the “perfect snap” on Saturday — admittedly against a defence that opted against rushing due to a gentlemen’s agreement — and Olson was overwhelmed after becoming the most famous long snapper in the US.
“I loved being out there,” he told ESPN. “It was an awesome feeling, something that I’ll remember forever.”