When sporting events were played in the past, it was just a given that athletes would stand for the national anthem. That’s not the case anymore, and that has led to discussions ahead of time about how players will observe the anthem. Around the Los Angeles Rams’ locker room, players apparently have been asked to stand for the anthem.
Rams defensive lineman Robert Quinn spoke on Monday after the team’s practice and shared that head coach Sean McVay asked his players to stand for the anthem.
Quinn made a statement last year by raising a fist during the anthem. He did the same before the team’s first preseason game on Saturday as a way to express some form of protest while respecting his coach’s wishes.
“Before that went down, me and Coach had a conversation, and I think we got on the same page. This is my belief. This is where I stand. I’m going to do my best not to make it a distraction for our team, and let’s just go on about football. But I will make a stand when I need to,” Quinn said Monday via the OC Register’s Rich Hammond.
Quinn feels that what happened in Charlottesville over the weekend is a clear example of why many African-Americans feel the need to speak up.
“In a sense, to African-Americans, that’s a terrorist group,” Quinn said of the people behind the rally. “It might not be the same to you, but to me and people and people of color, I don’t knock anything [Eric Reid] said about that. It might not be offensive to you, but I may look at it completely different.”
Reid, who plays for the 49ers, said after seeing the Charlottesville rally and fallout that that the type of thing Colin Kaepernick may have been making a statement against.
Maybe now, after the events of #Charlottesville, more people can see why he felt the way he felt and why we did what we did. https://t.co/a3Xld0Pf2R
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) August 14, 2017
