Sterling, Chadwick praise NFL players

Sterling K Brown and Chadwick Boseman have high praise for the pro football players who took a knee in protest of President Donald Trump.

The actors — both starring in the upcoming film Marshall, about Thurgood Marshall — commended players in the National Football League who sat, knelt or raised their fists in defiance during the national anthem on Sunday. The players responded after Trump said anyone who knelt during The Star-Spangled Banner should be fired, and used a profane term to describe such a player. Boseman, who plays Marshall, the first black person to ascend to the US Supreme Court, called the players “patriots.”

“America is always being born out of being revolutionary,” said Boseman, who plays Black Panther in the Marvel movies. “That’s what it’s born out of. It’s not born out of doing what people told you what you’re supposed to do.”

Brown, who recently won an Emmy Award for best actor in a drama for his role on This Is Us, said Trump has been divisive. “I believe that this president has sort of brought a lot of ugliness to the surface...,” said Brown, adding, “We can no longer remain silent.” —AP