“I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it
“I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”— Jackie Robinson
Well, we’ve got yet another flag football story.
This time it’s in the wake of race-related protests and violence over the weekend in Virginia.
This time it’s bona fide stars who did not stand during the playing of the national anthem before their preseason games.
Running back Marshawn Lynch, who doesn’t speak often to media, continues to be the king of nonverbal communication. When he retired from the Seattle Seahawks in February, 2016, after nine seasons he did so by tweeting a pair of cleats hanging over a telephone wire. No words necessary.
Now the five-time Pro Bowl selection is out of retirement and has joined the Oakland Raiders. While the anthem played before Saturday’s 20-10 exhibition loss at Arizona, Lynch sat on a cooler eating a banana.
Beast Mode didn’t talk to reporters afterward. But his coach, Jack Del Rio, did.
“He said, ‘This is something I’ve done for 11 years — it’s not a form of anything other than me being myself,’ ” Del Rio said. “I said, ‘So you understand how I feel, I very strongly believe in standing for the national anthem, but I’m gonna respect you as a man. You do your thing, OK, and we’ll do ours.’ “
Another multiple Pro Bowl choice, Seahawks defensive end and Hawaii Kai resident Michael Bennett, sat during the anthem prior to his team’s game Sunday.
When Colin Kaepernick started all of this by sitting and then kneeling during anthems last year it created an uproar, even though it was a couple of games before anyone even noticed. Since he’s a quarterback and had taken the 49ers to the Super Bowl as a starter in 2013, Kaepernick’s protest carried more weight than if, say, a backup offensive lineman had done the same thing.
Today, Kaepernick is out of the league. The debate is if he’s been blackballed or not, as he can’t find a job even as a backup. It’s true that since that Super Bowl season his performance has been less than earth-shattering.
But with everything else being equal, and given his six years of NFL experience, his on-field record is good enough to be a clipboard holder somewhere.
It was obvious, however, that “somewhere” will never be Miami. There’s no way a guy who amid the height of last year’s controversy wore a T-shirt featuring Fidel Castro’s face at a postgame press conference was going to land with the Dolphins, given South Florida’s large Cuban population.
As for other cities? Whether it’s fair or not, Kaepernick simply isn’t good enough of a player to be deemed worthy of the distraction and backlash his presence would cause.
Lynch and Bennett are different. They’re not borderline starters. They’re superstars, maybe even future Hall of Famers.
While at age 31, it’s unlikely Lynch will ever be as good as he was at his prime, the year off after an injury-plagued 2015 will help him. The Raiders are his hometown team, and they’re on the cusp of greatness. He will be motivated.
Like Bennett, he’s a distraction who is good enough to be tolerated.
Kaepernick isn’t. Tim Tebow wasn’t. Michael Sam wasn’t.
That’s the bottom line in the NFL. If you’re a star the rules are different.
Ask Lucky Whitehead, a receiver formerly of the Cowboys and now trying to make the Jets. Dallas didn’t even wait to find out if he was guilty of shoplifting before cutting him, and it turned out someone who impersonated him is being sought in the crime.
You see, Whitehead was a backup.
Maybe you’re one of those folks who want their football pure, free of any hint of political or racial statements and controversy.
Maybe it would be nice if the NFL could just be a simple escape from America’s problems. It’s obvious many fans would prefer the national anthem not be used as a platform for trying to address those problems.
But as long as 70 to 80 percent of the league’s players are African-American — members of a demographic that widely views itself as oppressed — that’s how it’s going to be.
That is regardless of who likes it or doesn’t like it, even the commissioner.
There will always be athletes willing to take a stand — or a knee, or a seat — for what they believe in.
When it’s a player of the stature of Marshawn Lynch, people will notice. Even if he doesn’t say a word.
