Todd Bowles says it's a players 'individual right' to protest national anthem

[joewilly12]

Jets coach Todd Bowles says it’s a player’s ‘individual right’ to protest the national anthem 

BY  DANIEL POPPER 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Wednesday, August 16, 2017, 7:54 PM

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Jets coach Todd Bowles believes it’s a player’s right to protest the national anthem.

(JULIO CORTEZ/AP)

 

Todd Bowles and Hue Jackson are two of seven black coaches in the NFL. But they have very different opinions when it comes to national anthem protests.

Jackson is in his second season at the helm of the Browns, and on Tuesday, the 51-year-old coach said he hopes his team doesn't "have those issues" in response to a question about anthem protests. He received a great deal of criticism for the statement, especially considering the current climate of the nation after the white nationalist terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Wednesday, Bowles was asked for his thoughts, and the third-year Jets coach was thoughtful and conscientious with his answer -- virtually the opposite of Jackson. Bowles gave a similar reply last season when the topic was broached after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the national anthem.

"It's their individual right. We don't have a rulebook on what's right to protest and not protest. You don't know those things until the course of time," Bowles said after Gang Green's 14th practice of training camp. "Whether it's sitting for the anthem, whether it's raising your first, whether it's speaking out, whether it's a walk to Washington, who's to say whose protest is good or bad, you know?

Seahawks DE Michael Bennett sits during the National Anthem

"As a football team, politics -- and people are human. They're part of it. So you can't say what's good or bad. I'm sure mostly everybody -- I know I'm against racism, segregation and all that other stuff. But how do we come to an answer? I don't have that answer. How do we come to a common ground? I don't have that answer. It's a hell of a debate and a hell of a topic. It needs to stop. I don't have the answers to that. But who's to say whose protest is good or bad? That's just the way they feel and that's their way to express it."

Many objected to the way Jackson dismissed the racial injustice in America as someone else's issues.

Colin Kaepernick (c.) and several other players started to take a knee during the national anthem last season to protest social injustice and racism.

  (MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP)

"We hope the things that are going on in the world get ironed out," he said Wednesday, per Cleveland.com. "But I know right now we are doing everything we can to get our football team better."

 

Bowels, though, understands the members of his team are more than just football players. He said he's talked with his squad about anthem protests. The Raiders' Marshawn Lynch and Seahawks' Michael Bennett both sat for the anthem at their respective first preseason games last week.

Roger Goodell: NFL fans should try to understand anthem protests

"We talk about current events all the time. It's more than football with us. We talk about a lot of things," Bowles said. "Everybody has their own feelings about it. You can't sway anybody one way or the other. We're all grown men here. That's how people feel, that has nothing to do with what they do in practice or what they do on the field. But separately, off the field, they're going to feel the way they feel."

Bowles said he hasn't brought up the Charlottesville attack and white nationalist violence with his team "yet."

If one of his players decides to protest Saturday before the Jets' second preseason game at the Lions, Bowles doesn't believe it will be divisive. When asked if he expects a player to protest, Bowles said, "Not to my knowledge."

Marshawn Lynch sat during the national anthem prior to the Raiders’ first preseason game.

  (RICK SCUTERI/AP)

"It hasn't caused anything in our locker room. I can't speak for everyone else's locker room," Bowles said. "But off the field, everybody has their right to do what they want and think the way they want, and their protest is their protest."

Malcolm Jenkins will continue raising fist during national anthem

Linebacker Jordan Jenkins told the News on Monday that he opts to stand for the anthem because his father and grandfather both served in the military, "but people fought for your right to stand for the anthem and to sit for the anthem as well."

Leonard Williams, who is determined to be a leader for this young Jets group this season, said the players haven't discussed the anthem protests internally.

"I would obviously support them (if they protested)," Williams said of his teammates. "Everybody has their freedom of speech and rights to do what they want to do. But at the same time, I would try to tell them to stay focused on us."

[greenwave81]

It IS an INDIVIDUALS right to protest say by sitting for the anthem...if it's on their own time, and of their own accord.  What makes it a 'bit sticky' in these NFL instances is that the player while wearing a uniform of an NFL team, in an NFL stadium, at an NFL sanctioned event represents 'more' than just himself.  Any discord created with any fans and or TV ratings can cost owner's millions of dollars.

No one would give a rat's ass if an NFL player sat for the anthem at a HS sporting event as a form of protest.

[The Crusher]

This topic has been beat to death here. Please don't post it again .