Lance Kendricks: No More Sitting For Anthem
Green Bay Packers tight end Lance Kendricks was one of three Green Bay Packers who sat for the National Anthem on Sunday. He was joined by tight end Martellus Bennett and cornerback Kevin King.
After, Kendricks released a statement saying that he sat to draw attention to the situation in Puerto Rico, where his wife is from.
On Monday, Kendricks said no Packers will be sitting for the Anthem in the future.
“I guess the good thing that’s come out of it going forward is — we talked about it (Monday) in the team meeting — us as players are just going to lock arms and all stand together. If there are police officers or military who want to stand with us and join arms, as well, I think Marty has a statement that he’s going to release. He’s even going to encourage the fans to join arms to just kind of show unity and kind of just promote peace. Just everybody be on the same level — just positivity, positive energy and just go from there.”
That will surely make some people happy. Plenty of people have gotten bent out of shape because players sat and because the organization supported them.
Those people don’t believe in free speech, as far as we’re concerned.
But great. We’ll all be able to rest easy now and no one will be offended.
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Looks like they are going to have a “do-over” and stand this time around. the Packers must have gotten too many negative e-mails so the PR department got involved.
This time they are going to stand and lock arms. Isn’t that what most of them did Sunday?
The highlight will be if Marty releases a statement. Maybe he’ll bless us with a story about his brother being singled out because he’s black, (when in truth, most everyone there was black). Or about how he almost died, being detained. Then he’ll probably regale us with the finer points of how to catch passes in the NFL.
Can’t wait Marty.
The first amendment to the holy Constitution has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Stop saying “free speech” in this context – it’s ignorant.
You are correct to point out how the First Amendment does not have anything to do with this. These are college educated players. They should know that. The First Amendment begins with the words- Congress shall make no law.. Your employer can curtail your speech. The job I have held for 30 years has policies which set limits on my freedom of speech including what I can write in a letter to the editor or post on social media. That’s what this has always been about for me. These players are representing their team, city, ownership, and league when they are in the game/event function. Their employer has the right to expect certain conduct from them. It is not – their moment. If they want to, on their own time, engage in all the activism they desire, more power to them. If a parade goes down Lombardi Avenue and when the American Legion goes by with the flag, they can sit down, turn around, kneel down, or put their fist in the air on their own personal time. That is their individual right and I support that for them.
The National Anthem moment for me has always been a time of unity. The time when I never cared about what gear the person next to me was wearing, what team they supported, or what political beliefs they may have held. We all stood together, faced the flag, removed covers, and placed our hands over our hearts. Yes, we are yet a bit imperfect as a nation and we have some warts but we have a history of always trying to improve and better ourselves. The way we responded to the playing of the National Anthem did not, and does not, require changing. Sorry Aaron, the whole stadium does not need to hook arms, they’ve been doing it right all along. Although I might be amused if Jeff Janis would stand next to Aaron Rodgers for the arm hook.
Do I wish that our president actually had a “filter”? Oh you bet. Stay out of small issues, don’t pick these scabs, put down the damn twitter feed already. There was no reason for him to wade into this and use the language he did. But the guy who got this all going was pretty stupid in his own regard. Really Colin, pig socks, Fidel Castro shirt, asking to be let out of your contract. Who is to blame for your unemployment? Maybe outcast by some, maybe wouldn’t fit a system in other teams, maybe judged not good enough by others, maybe just not worth the headache in the aggregate.
I’ve already been to my Lambeau game this year. I doubt I’ll be coming back anytime soon. Buying less merchandise is easy for me. Since I’m not a 16 year old girl it has always seemed awkward for me to wear another guy’s football jersey. But that’s me. This last weekend I was a lot less interested in the NFL as a whole and wasn’t really into my Packers and I’ve been into my Packers as long as I have a cognitive memory. Maybe at some point we’ll get through this distraction.
Nobody cares what you think Lance…get over yourself already