LAST WORD

“I FELT IT WAS A TEACHING OPPORTUNITY. AS A COACH AND ADULT, IT’S YOUR ROLE TO PROTECT THOSE THAT ARE WEAKER AND TO ENLIGHTEN THEM WHEN YOU CAN.”

Orlando Gooden, coach of the Junior Comanches in Cahokia, Ill., to the “Belleville News Democrat,” on why his football team of 8-year-olds knelt during the national anthem before a game last weekend. Gooden said he decided on the protest in response to a question from a player about protests in nearby St. Louis over the acquittal of a white police officer in the death of a black man in 2011.