It was back in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick made waves when he kicked off National Anthem protests that sparked a movement and he has not been invited to play for another team since that season.
The NFL never stood up for Kaepernick’s right to protest, and it would take four years for commissioner Roger Goodell to really address it the issue in a video message and admitted he was wrong not to “encourage all players to speak out and peacefully protest.”
For some, it was too little too late and that included Malik Jackson. The Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle told NBC10’s John Clark that the players felt “ambushed” after Kaepernick’s banishment. They were attacked verbally and called not patriotic.
“I feel like when we tried that time [to protest social injustice] it got ambushed,” Jackson said. “We got called sons of bitches, and we got talked about disrespecting the flag, and that wasn’t our nature. That wasn’t our intent and I think that players got alienated when they tried to keep standing up for that.”
The Super Bowl champion from his days in Denver pointed out that Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job and doesn’t fully understand why.
“Like Colin Kaepernick doesn’t have a job … You stand by yourself and you realize what is important to you,” Jackson said. “Like I said, I thank Mr. Lurie and Coach Pederson for having that talk. I just wanted to make sure we brought that up … this time, we just want to keep on talking about the injustices and not to be stopped because of some of the rhetoric by anybody else and what they think this is about.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
