Sports

49ers Player Explains Why He Knelt During Anthem, Doesn’t Tell The Whole Story

(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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San Francisco 49ers player Eric Reid didn’t make a ton of sense in his defense for kneeling during the national anthem during a Sunday game.

Reid took a knee with Kaepernick last season, but then said he would stop kneeling. He clearly changed his mind, however, because he did it again against the Minnesota Vikings.

He told the following to the media (transcription from USA Today’s FTW):

What I was upset about was the false narrative being told about us. People were saying that we’re un-American, that we were against police entirely. And that just wasn’t true. At first, I thought that was a small sacrifice to pay to get the word out, to raise that awareness. And I settled with thinking raising that awareness was victory.

Then fast forward to Charlottesville and people see what an un-American protest really looks like. What Colin and Eli (Harold) and I did was peaceful protest fueled by faith in God to help make our country a better place. And I feel like I need to regain control of that narrative and not let people say what we’re doing is un-American. Because it’s not. It’s completely American. We’re doing it because want equality for everybody. We want our country to be a better place.

Of course protesting isn’t un-American, but he’s also omitting some pretty important parts of the story. Kaepernick wore socks depicting police officers as pigs and openly praised the murderous Castro regime in Cuba. The dual-threat quarterback isn’t in the NFL simply because he took a knee. He’s not in the NFL because he took a knee, said very dumb things and openly disrespected the police. Most importantly, he’s just not very talented any more.

These anthem protests don’t look like they’re going away any time soon. Be prepared to handle plenty more videos of players trying to justify their actions by talking in circles.

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