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Carolina Panthers Head Coach: I’d Consider Kneeling During The National Anthem

   DailyWire.com
Head coach Matt Rhule of the Carolina Panthers interviews during the first day of the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 25, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images

Speaking on a Zoom call on Thursday, Matt Rhule, the head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, told reporters that he would consider kneeling during the national anthem alongside his players.

Rhule stated, according to The Washington Post:

I would consider anything as we move forward. I’m supportive of the cause. I’m supportive of the movement. I’m supportive of social justice. I think for every person, coach or player, that will be a very personal decision. I think it has to be made at the right time and the right reason for everybody. I will support my players with whatever they do and then when the time comes I will really think deeply about what is the best thing for me and what is the best way I can show my support.

He added, “I think a lot of this has come from the players so I will wait to see what direction they are leaning, and then I will make my decision.”

“Assuming there is an NFL season on the fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Rhule will take the sideline as a rookie head coach guiding a first-year Panthers quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater working for a third-year owner in David Tepper,” Yahoo Sports noted.

Two weeks ago, Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien told the Houston Chronicle that he would definitely kneel during the national anthem. He said, “Yeah, I’ll take a knee. I’m all for it. The players have a right to protest, a right to be heard and a right to be who they are. They’re not taking a knee because they’re against our flag. They’re taking a knee because they haven’t been treated equally in this country for over 400 years.” He added:

I’ve always felt strongly about racial injustice because I was brought up that way. I believe very strongly that white people have to stand with black people in our country. Black lives matter. Police brutality is part of it, obviously, but this is so much deeper than that. There are 800,000 policemen and policewomen in this country, and so many of them are trying to do what’s right for their community. It’s like what was said at George Floyd’s funeral: It’s about humanity coming together and treating each other as equals.

Former NFL safety Burgess Owens, who is black, played 10 years in the NFL and is now running for Congress in Utah, said earlier this week:

We have too many Americans now accepting the notion that the flag should be a place where people should be ashamed of or take a knee, that’s what it comes down to. I am disappointed that so many people are acquiescing today. They don’t understand the American way; they don’t understand the price paid. They need to understand that we can’t be bullied and [also] that we’re not an evil country. There is no other country in the world with the mixing of races and tolerance. We have to change the current narrative.

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