Ex-Lobo Quin sounds off on Trump’s comments
Packers, Bears battered entering tonight’s game
As NFL teams returned to practice Wednesday, some conversations turned to football. But not all.
The operative topic remained the demonstrations of unity each team showed last weekend in response to remarks by President Donald Trump, and what might be ahead.
The pregame playing of the national anthem for tonight’s Bears-Packers game in Green Bay will be included in CBS’s and NFL Network’s simulcast coverage, a CBS Sports spokesman said Wednesday.
Whether the decision by Packers management to urge those attending the nationally televised game at Lambeau Field to lock arms during the anthem in a show of unity played a role in that decision or was a response to it was not clear.
Customary playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before NFL games has become notable in the last year as thenNiners quarterback Colin Kaepernick and then others opted not to stand in order to bring attention to racial discrimination and police brutality.
The newsworthiness and number of participants in the demonstrations grew exponentially after Trump spoke out against the protests and protesters late last week, which he has continued to do since.
Detroit Lions safety and ex-New Mexico Lobo Glover Quin said he believes there’s no misconstruing the president’s message.
“I think hearing the president say what he said, it really put focus on like, man, there’s no gray area,” Quin said. “You’re either on one side of the fence or you’re on the other. There is no gray area, and the comments the president made, you can clearly see what side of the fence he’s on.
“There’s only been one white guy that took a knee, the guy in Cleveland? So when you say, ‘Wouldn’t you like to see an owner when those guys take a knee?’ He might’ve just said what he was thinking in his head. He might as well have just said exactly what he was thinking in his head, as opposed to saying ‘those guys.’”
BEARS-PACKERS: This week has been especially unkind for Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s offensive line, with a short turnaround from an overtime game Sunday to tonight.
Don’t look for sympathy from Bears coach John Fox. He is already down three defensive starters less than a month into the season, and the Bears are also coming off an overtime win.
The latest installment of the NFL’s oldest rivalry is a meeting between teams trying to make it to the long weekend off that follows a Thursday game without anyone else getting hurt.
Ten Packers are on the injury report, not including two placed on injured reserve. The Packers do expect WR Randall Cobb to return from a chest injury.
COWBOYS: The NFL is asking a federal appeals court to dismiss Ezekiel Elliott’s entire lawsuit in its bid to lift an injunction that blocked the star Dallas running back’s six-game suspension over a domestic violence case in Ohio. The league wrote in a filing Wednesday to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that the players’ union case filed on behalf of Elliott had resulted in “hopelessly doomed proceedings.”