Players in the National Football League are continuing to speak out against police brutality. At a time when police officers shot and killed two more unarmed black men in two different cities–Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina–several players used their press conferences last week to speak out.
The most eloquent player is Doug Baldwin, a Seattle Seahawks Wide Receiver. Baldwin is the son of a police officer. Baldwin started his press conference by quoting the US Constitution.
The attorney general of Washington State reached out to Baldwin via Twitter to work together on this.
The NFL player protests began this summer in the pre-season when San Francisco Quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat down during the national anthem. A month has passed and the protests continue, and are spreading. Sadly, the killings continue too. In Charlotte, the site of a week long protests after police shot and killed Keith Scott, football fans going to the Carolina Panthers stadium were met with peaceful protesters.
Chip Kelly, the 49ers coach, defended Colin Kaepernick’s actions.
Even here in Madison high school football players are dropping to one knee during the Star Spangled Banner before game time.
Kudos to the NFL players who took a page from the WNBA and used their regularly scheduled press conference to talk about the deaths of unarmed african american men. And hopefully the attorneys general in all 50 states will look at their police practices.
