Protest still a Giant issue to work out

SUNDAY’s Giants-Washington game at MetLife Stadium passed without any Giants player protest in support of Colin Kaepernick's stand against racial oppression, despite conversations throughout the week with coach Ben McAdoo on how to approach the issue.

The Giants players still intend to do something. They simply haven't decided their course of action yet.

“Not at the moment,” defensive tackle Damon (Snacks) Harrison said in a Tuesday conference call. “But it is something that has been talked about in depth.”

Maybe, since McAdoo and the players seem to be looking for a compromise between sending a message and respecting the national anthem, the Giants can follow the lead of the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons.

On this week’s Monday Night Football, the Saints and Falcons waited until the anthem was completed and the giant American flag had been pulled off the field. Then both teams met on the turf and stood in a circle holding hands to demonstrate “unity.”

Coaches Sean Payton and Dan Quinn, as well as quarterbacks Drew Brees and Matt Ryan, actually discussed the plan during the week. They were looking for a way to join the protests without negative symbolism involving the anthem.

“We all felt like the best way to do it was everybody do it together,” Ryan said after the Falcons’ 45-32 victory. “And we wanted to send a message loud and clear that unity is probably the best way to make a change, and I thought that came across loud and clear.”

The Giants’ actions may not involve a game day at all, since that seems to be McAdoo’s preference.

“Actions, away from the facility, to give back and pay back to the communities,” McAdoo said last week, describing his idea of what a constructive ‘protest’ might look like.

But if the players insist on using their high-ratings game-day platform for their actions, something like what the Saints and Falcons did on Monday could be a good compromise for promoting awareness.

“If that is what happened last night, then I think that was pretty good on the part of both teams,” said Harrison, when told of the Saints-Falcons message, “being something that wouldn’t necessarily cause a stir.”

Harrison put that delicately — “something that wouldn’t necessarily cause a stir” — but his words speak to how carefully the Giants are deliberating on this delicate matter with their 39-year-old, white head coach from coal-mining country in Western Pa.

McAdoo, who in August had said he’d be “disappointed” if players did not stand for the anthem, has not budged from the belief that the anthem should be offlimits. McAdoo softened his stance last week by saying he wants to be “involved” in helping his players make a difference, but he insisted: “I would like to do something outside of the anthem.”

Running back Rashad Jennings, however, the player who opened the dialogue with McAdoo in the first place, said last week that it is frustrating when the media makes Kaepernick’s sitting and kneeling during the anthem about the military.

Jennings said he stands to pay tribute to the military and that Kaepernick’s message is no disrespect to the servicemen and servicewomen of this country. Jennings said to make this an issue of not respecting the military is to not understand what Kaepernick is trying to say.

Clearly, though, McAdoo is trying his best to honor his players’ wishes and right to free speech while simultaneously perhaps helping to channel their actions in a proactive, non-football manner that respects the anthem as he sees fit.

Harrison is one of the Giants’ players who intend to make a statement. He tweeted last Wednesday: “Choosing to turn a blind eye and remain silent about what’s going on these days makes you just as much a part of the problem #Justice4All.”

The Giants certainly aren’t turning a blind eye. They’re just trying to find the most constructive, proactive way of delivering their version of Kaepernick’s message. Perhaps the Saints and Falcons laid out a blueprint.