Now that he has committed himself to sitting out the National Anthem to protest injustice through the duration of the 2017 football season, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is hoping that others, particularly white players, will join in solidarity. As much as he is willing to risk by stepping into the void left in Colin Kaepernick's absence though, Bennett explained that he and other Black players doing it alone might not be enough, during a guest appearance on ESPN's SC6 on Wednesday, August 16. "It would take a white player to really get things changed," he told hosts Jemele Hill and Michael Smith.
"When somebody from the other side understands and they step up and they speak up about it ... it would change the whole conversation. Because when you bring somebody who doesn't have to be a part of the conversation making himself vulnerable in front of it, I think when that happens, things will really take a jump," the respected athlete/activist told said. The statement was nearly identical to one Bennett made last September, when at the height of Colin Kaepernick's protest, the Seahawks star found himself imagining how much more powerful the movement could be, had a few notable white players stepped up as well.
"You need a white guy to join the fight. The white guy is super important to the fight," Bennett told the Seattle Times at the time. "For people to really see social injustices, there must be someone from the other side of the race who recognizes the problem, because a lot of times if just one race says there’s a problem, nobody is realistic about it.”
A few experts were floating Aaron Rodgers' name as one likely to step up and align himself with Kaepernick, but it wasn't to be. Ultimately, only one white player seemed to ride for the cause, all the way past the Super Bowl, and that was Chris Long, who would go on to abstain from a visit to the White House after he helped the Patriots defeat Atlanta.
Source: espn.com
