USA TODAY International Edition
PLAYERS PROMOTE ACTION BEYOND PROTEST
For Malcolm Jenkins, it was never enough just to raise his fist in protest during the national anthem.
The fist was just a gesture. If Jenkins, a safety with the Philadelphia Eagles, wanted to inspire any real social justice change, it would take meaningful off- thefield action.
That’s why Jenkins and four other NFL players, the Detroit Lions’ Anquan Boldin and Glover Quin and the Cleveland Browns’ Josh McCown and Andrew Hawkins, spent Tuesday in Washington meeting with lawmakers to learn more about how to enable policy changes. The players met with Democratic congressmen Keith Ellison from Minnesota and Patrick Murphy from Florida, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and with members of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s executive committee.
Jenkins arrived in Washington armed with a bevy of questions for lawmakers, but he also wanted to listen and learn.
“Moving forward, especially with the election, and now with
having Donald Trump as president,” Jenkins told USA TODAY Sports before going to D. C., “the biggest thing is teaching myself how this country works when it comes to laws and policies. That’s the biggest thing, because there are a lot of different things that need to be worked on.
“There’s a lot of different problems, and they didn’t just show up out of nowhere. It’s decades and, really, centuries of systematic injustice. ... As we work on our relationship with the police, the next part of it is, how do we change policies that can change the amount of authority that police have, how do we make the investigation process more transparent?”
Consider the trip to Capitol Hill a significant step in what Jenkins considers to be the second phase of the national anthem protests that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started in August. Kaepernick said he was doing it to protest the oppression of African Americans and other minorities.
Players from around the NFL joined him in some fashion. Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall joined Kaepernick and other 49ers including Eric Reid and Eli Harold in taking a knee during the anthem before the Broncos’ first eight games. Players such as Jenkins, Bruce Irvin and Malcolm Smith of the Oakland Raiders and Robert Quinn of the Los Angeles Rams have raised their fists during the anthem. The entire Seattle Seahawks team has linked arms as a show of unity.
But those are merely gestures — albeit ones that inspired much debate and controversy over the first half of the season.
As many players have ended their protest, the off- the- field conversation and work continues.
“The biggest thing is it’s important for guys to step up and actually do stuff, because the world is waiting for us to forget about it. Once you cause the commotion and you raise this red flag, you can’t just walk away from it,” Jenkins said. “Donating money and all that stuff is cool as well, but people want to see us get involved and really be a part of the change we’re so loudly proclaiming needs to happen. It’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘ OK, if you want me to invest my time and you’re telling me this is something that needs to be changed, well, you invest and I’ll match what you put in.’
“If all we do is take a knee or raise our fist and then cut a check, then nobody is really going to help or believe in the cause that we’re trying to fight so hard for.”
Jenkins, Marshall and Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin are among the players who have met with police chiefs since the season began. Jenkins and a pair of Eagles teammates went on a ride- along with Philadelphia police officers, and Marshall plans to do the same in Denver, where the police chief also invited Marshall to use the department’s training simulator. Marshall has also pledged to donate $ 300 per tackle to social justice charities.
Kaepernick has met with police in San Francisco, visited high schools in the Bay Area and over the Niners bye week hosted a “Know Your Rights” camp for 100 black teens in Oakland.
Marshall ended his protest of the anthem this month after the Denver Police Department announced it would rewrite its use of force policy.
To him, that’s a sign of significant progress and a sign that his protest was worth it. “I feel like I had some hand in it,” Marshall told USA TODAY Sports. “I would like every police department to change their use of force policy. I would like every chief of police to do what Chief ( Robert) White is doing. He is teaching his officers that the person you are shooting at is a human being. They have a mother and a father; they have a son, cousins. They are humans as well, not just suspects. So is the force necessary? Is everything you’re doing necessary? I would like everybody to review it, and hopefully they’ll make a change.”
Like Jenkins, Marshall voted for Hillary Clinton last week, and the result of the election has added urgency to their cause. They have seen news reports of protests across the country and are taking the unrest as a sign more work needs to be done.
“They are going to need leaders, not in the mind- set of gearing up to fight something, but there is a need for leaders to make sure that this country is progressing in the right manner and things are moving toward change,” Jenkins said. “As we have this change in leadership, we need to make sure that these topics and these agendas don’t fade away and they stay at the forefront. The only way to do that is to keep it on the mouths of the citizens.”
Jenkins and the four other NFL players left the Capitol on Tuesday feeling encouraged that the dialogue will continue, and they plan to return to Washington in the offseason, when they have more time to have expanded conversations.
“The biggest thing is this is just the start of something to come. We want to make sure that especially with this change in administration we put some steam behind this movement and what we’re trying to do,” Jenkins said Tuesday. “We got everyone we met with to commit to working with us as we move forward, sharing with us their resources and including us in what they do, use our platform to build support.”