A youth football team in Belleville, Illinois is receiving a mixed reaction to their coach's decision to lead his 8-year-old squad in kneeling during their pre-game National Anthem ceremonies.

Cahokia Quarterback Club coach Orlando Gooden used to play football at Mizzou, so he'd know a thing or two about standing with teammates for the Star Spangled Banner. But times are different, and with the Black community finding itself in a debate over whether or not to abstain from the tradition, in solidarity with NFL players who've led the way in doing so, avoiding the topic with his young African-American players hasn't been easy. The conversation has without a doubt come up for Gooden, and he felt it only right to give them the specifics on why some of their favorite players on the television have been taking a knee.

“One of the kids asked me if I saw (people) protesting and rioting in St. Louis. I said yes; I said, ‘Do you know why they are doing it?'” Coach Green recounted for FOX2NOW St. Louis this week. "Because black people are getting killed and nobody's going to jail,” he says the boy responded.

Green says he saw the opportunity to involve the rest of his youth in the discussion and to allow them to follow up with their own demonstration as a teachable moment. According to the Cahokia coach, the kids and their parents were on board and that is all that matters to him.

Source: Fox 2