Jerry Jones has given Dallas Cowboys players permission to use the national anthem to protest according to Cowboys defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford.
“To feel however we’re feeling, express how we’re feeling and say whatever we need to say,” Crawford said about the Cowboys’ eventual plans to protest. “Also just trying to find something that’s going to make a boom, is not just going to be something people look at one time and kind of just swipe by like, ‘Oh, that’s great, the Cowboys did that,’ then swipe by.”
Crawford said Jones gave the Cowboys the “green light to express themselves” in regards to demonstrations for racial and social justice.
That waters down the act of protesting, but the fact that Jones has permitted protests to happen unsurprisingly angered a handful of people, including one of the President’s sons.
Eric Trump took to Twitter to voice his disgust with the Cowboys’ decision to allow protests prior to the start of games.
“Football is officially dead — so much for ‘America’s sport,’” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Goodbye NFL… I’m done.”
The likelihood Trump and his supporters will be actually done with the NFL because of this is slim. Players have been protesting for a few years, so to quit now is just pandering to his father’s political base.
After a summer of protests following the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, the Cowboys assuredly won’t be alone in their plans to protest during the season.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield already announced he would be kneeling during the national anthem as an act of solidarity. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray also proudly proclaimed he would be kneeling for the duration of the national anthem during games this season.
Other teams, like the Jets, haven’t declared what their plan of positive social change will be during the season.
After the recent shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. at the hands of police, a few NFL teams decided to cancel practice to discuss how they could initiate positive social change.
This shift in rhetoric has been rapid.
This summer, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted the NFL was “wrong” for banning peaceful protests after Colin Kaepernick’s banishment from the NFL and the continued mistreatment of Black Americans sparked individual protests over the past few seasons.
Messages in support of the Black Lives Matter movement will be painted on NFL fields. The league will allow players to wear decals in support of social justice initiatives this season.
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