Redblacks’ American players sound off
Americans on the Redblacks roster are in full support of their NFL brethren who showed a strong sign of unity on the weekend in response to comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
But they won’t be making any similar protests during the Canadian anthem at TD Place on Friday.
When Trump suggested that a player who kneels during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner should be “fired,” many NFLers across the league locked arms and took a knee prior to Sunday’s games.
Ottawa players born in the U.S. were extremely disappointed in the president.
“It’s embarrassing, to be honest with you,” said quarterback Ryan Lindley. “And I say that from a presidential standpoint. I think it’s great what the NFL did this weekend.
“As far as we go, I don’t think there’s anything to do up here. Obviously we can voice our support, and do what we need to do, but I would find anybody doing anything during the Canadian anthem to be pretty disrespectful, to be honest with you. There’s no beef with (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau, or with Canada or anything like that. Any stance we want to take on social media, I’m actually highly in favour of that. But I would just discourage anybody from disrespecting anything up here.”
Sir Vincent Rogers said what happened in his home country is a “bunch of nonsense” that he also finds embarrassing.
“A lot of stuff being said, from our leader of the free world down, I’m not in support of it,” said Rogers. “There’s a lot of injustices and a lot of things going on in the U.S., and I think those are the things we should be more focused on, more so than guys that are peacefully protesting.
“Any time the topic comes up when we’re here, it’s one of those things where you almost want to just pull your shirt over your head and kind of sink into nothing.”
Linebacker Kevin Brown feels the real issue — racial inequality — is being overlooked. And firing black players who are trying to instigate a change would be a bigger problem, he said.
“I feel like maybe they don’t value what they’re doing in the States, our efforts,” said Brown. “We’re just trying to be seen as more than just athletes. We have rights, as individuals, as human beings, in the States.
“I’ve even come up here to Canada and I’ve seen how diverse and how ethnic it is, how inviting everybody is, and it’s made me even want that more for our country. In the States, we want it to be like that.
“Liberty and justice for all, that’s all we want.”
Brown said it’s embarrassing that people think Trump is speaking for the majority.
“So it looks like we’re the ignorant ones,” he said. “It’s our fault for electing and putting a president in that position to even have that voice in the first place.
“It just stinks that we’ve got to go back to something like that,” he added, referring to when the CFL season ends. “But it is what it is. It’s our country, it’s our mess.
“I actually like that Donald Trump is doing this, because I feel like it’s going to unite us as a people. We’ve had issues in the past of black Americans not really uniting on issues since (Martin Luther King ’s’) death. There’s been things that have been breaking the black family apart, I feel that is going to help unite us as a people, hopefully start making strides to elevate us to the future.”