Jenkins: Don ‘immature’
Count Jordan Jenkins among those who believe that the leader of the free world acted childishly by revoking his invitation to the Philadelphia Eagles this week. Donald Trump released a statement Monday that he was pulling his offer to host the Super Bowl champs Tuesday because Philly wasn’t going to send their “full team.” The President reiterated his belief that all players stand for the national anthem. (Every Eagles player stand for the anthem during the regular season, by the way).
“When you see stuff like that, it doesn’t put a good light on the presidency in my mind,” Jenkins told the Daily News Tuesday of Trump’s decision to cancel the event. “At that level, it’s kind of immature, but I guess he felt disrespected…. You could just say how it is: Most of the players are not coming. So, you’re going to cancel it. It’s like a musical festival. Nobody buys tickets. Sorry, you’re just going to cancel it. Just don’t try to spin it another way.… If you feel disrespected, by all means, do what you feel is right. But in my mind, I think it’s kind of immature.”
Fewer than 10 Eagles players were set to visit the White House prompting Trump to rescind his offer and attempt to paint Eagles players as Anti-American. “The decision was made to lie, and paint the picture that these players are antiAmerica, anti-flag, anti-military,” Eagles defensive back Malcolm Jenkins wrote in a social media post Tuesday. “We will continue to fight for impacted citizens and give a voice to those who never had one.”
Jenkins, who comes from a family of military members and police officers, proudly stands for the anthem, but doesn’t cast aspersions on players that want to protest perceived social injustices in this country. He plans on adhering to the new NFL rule stipulating that players must either stand for the anthem or stay in the locker room until after it is played on gamedays. The league will fine teams if players don’t abide by the policy.
“It’s an actual policy now,” the Jets outside linebacker said. “Before there were no guidelines, so you shouldn’t have been penalized for it. Now that there’s a rule regarding it, you should have to abide by the rule whether people like it or not.… If you had some off-the-field (cause) going for criminal justice reform or anything of that nature, by all means you should keep doing it…. Some people might not agree with (the new policy). I’m not going