Taking a stand
A variety of ways to call out racism
Social justice was on full display on the first NFL Sunday of season.
Jason Myers kicked off to start the Seattle Seahawks’ season- opener against the Atlanta Falcons, and the ball sailed through the end zone for a touchback. No one moved a step.
Instead, the players all dropped to one knee.
After years of pleading with the NFL to act against systemic racism, they were willing to wait another 10 seconds to make their point.
Teams opening the year in empty stadiums Sunday knelt, locked arms, raised fists in protest or stayed off the field entirely for the “Star- Spangled Banner” and the Black anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the once- reluctant league brought racial injustice to the forefront on the NFL’s first full slate of games.
In Atlanta, the teams wore armbands honoring civil rights leader John Lewis and staged the most striking of the day’s gestures: They barely flinched as the opening kickoff landed beyond the end line, took a knee, and remained there for about 10 seconds before trotting off the field to resume the game.
“It’s a start,” Falcons running back Todd Gurley said after the game. “Are we going to keep doing this? You don’t want to make it a one- time thing — just like having a good game, and then the rest of the season you do nothing.”
Lewis, the Georgia Congressman who died in July, was an honorary captain for the game. The Falcons wore shirts with his quote: “The Vote is the most powerful, nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society.”
While fans were absent everywhere except Jacksonville because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Minnesota
Vikings hosted the family of George Floyd, who died in May in a videotaped killing that sparked national protests over police brutality against Black people.
About 10 of Floyd’s relatives were then shown on the stadium video board from their perch in the upper concourse near the Gjallarhorn. The symbol from Norse mythology, which gave the
Vikings their name, had been sounded before every game since 2007.
On Sunday, the team said, it remained silent “to call attention to these silenced voices and collectively work toward a better, more just society.”
The Packers remained in their locker room for the two songs, following the lead of the Miami Dolphins, who released a video last week saying they would stay off the field for the national anthem rather than participate in “another publicity parade.”
“This attempt to unify only creates more divide,” the Miami players said in the video. “So we will skip the song and dance and as a team we’ll stay inside.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals also remained in their locker rooms for both songs. Before Thursday night’s season opener in Kansas City, the teams were booed when they locked arms in a pregame sign of unity; there was no such vitriol in Jacksonville, where the Jaguars distributed 14,000 tickets.
A few dozen players knelt during the anthem, a silent echo of the 2016 protest by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick that forced the NFL to confront racial injustice in a way that commissioner Roger Goodell and many of the league’s most powerful owners wanted to avoid.
Colts coach Frank Reich also dropped to one knee, and his players noticed. “That definitely means a lot and that’s why we stand behind coach Frank, he stands behind us, and we all stand together,” Indianapolis linebacker Darius Leonard said.
When the anthem began in Detroit, a slew of Lions walked off the field and headed toward their locker room; some remained on the field and knelt. On the other sideline, several Bears players knelt while 20 others waited for the anthem to end before jogging onto the field.
The NFL had been at the center of social justice protests in American sports since Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 to call attention to the systematic oppression of Black Americans. Kaepernick, who led San Francisco to the Super Bowl in 2012 and the NFC title game the next year, was unable to get a job in the league in 2017 — or since.