Davis High football players address anthem protests

By Tess McIntyre,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

During a speech in Huntsville, Alabama, last month, President Donald Trump went on a tangent about professional football players who kneel during the national anthem. He used derogatory terms and suggested that the men who protested should be fired.

Though this resonated well with the Alabama crowd, his inflammatory words did not go over well in the sporting world and prompted many NFL players to kneel or to not come out on the field at all during the national anthem.

Trump’s words and the players’ actions have reignited the anthem-related discourse and inspired high school players to kneel for the anthem as well.

Junior Langston Gains supports what the players are doing, but thinks they could change their ways.

“They’re kneeling for a good reason, but how they’re doing it is not for a good reason. I think they should protest after a game, not before a game,” Gains said. “[Colin] Kaepernick did it for a symbol, now people are doing it for something the president said. They’re not doing it for pride, they’re doing it for their jobs.”

Gains said that he would kneel during the national anthem “for black pride, and pride for all colors,” but doesn’t think it is necessary to kneel at Davis High.

Junior Zianna Granillo said that she wishes more players had joined Kaepernick when he originated the protest.

“It annoys me how last year Colin Kaepernick was kneeling and stuff and they weren’t supporting him, whereas now everyone’s doing it, and it’s like, where were you guys last year?” Granillo said.

Furthermore, Granillo said that she would not participate in protesting.

“I’ve seen in the news that there are high school students that have been kneeling, and I guess it’s whatever coaches want, but I don’t think I would,” Granillo said.