Jordan Lucas isn’t waiting for the Bears to formulate a policy or hold a vote. He’s kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality this season.
Lucas, a safety who signed a one-year deal in March, spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time since joining the Bears and was resoundingly clear about his position — regardless of whether he’s alone or management disapproves.
“One hundred and ten percent, I plan to kneel,” he said. “In 2016, my rookie year, as many of you can probably guess, I was scared to kneel... I didn’t want to lose anything.
“But I think a lot of people are seeing now that it’s much bigger than the flag and disrespecting the flag. We’re not disrespecting the flag, nor the military. I think people are really starting to understand that now.”
It shouldn’t be necessary to continue explaining this after four years of players communicating the same message, Lucas said when asked why he intended to protest.
“It’s pretty easy to see what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” he said. “We just want peace. We just want justice. We want to be treated the same way as everybody.”
Bears coach Matt Nagy has repeatedly expressed support for black players since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. He facilitated a team-wide conversation about race last week and vowed to continue those efforts.
However, he talked around the issue of kneeling, which became an important symbol when Colin Kaepernick began protesting four years ago. Nagy said he hopes the team will do something in unison.
“It should definitely be left up to the individual,” Lucas said.
It’s a bold stance, especially for a player new to the team. Most of Lucas’ playing time in his career has been on special teams, and he’ll be fighting for a roster spot when training camp opens next month.
Lucas began his career as a sixth-round pick with the Dolphins, then was traded to the Chiefs in 2018. He played 14 games last season and was active throughout the playoffs as the Chiefs romped to a championship.
The Bears have not had a player kneel during the anthem and were one of many teams to vote for a ban on it in 2018. That vote was a farce and did not include any player input, and the NFL eventually rescinded it.
Bears chairman George McCaskey supported the 2018 policy, which required players to stand or stay in the locker room, saying it would “return the anthem to what it should be — a unifying force.” He has not been available to the media in months, and neither has owner Virginia McCaskey, president Ted Phillips or general manager Ryan Pace.
That leaves Nagy to navigate it alone as the public face and voice of the organization. When pressed last week for a decisive answer on whether the team will support a player kneeling on his own, he did not give one.
Nagy almost certainly needs to have one by opening weekend. Donald Trump has already renewed his criticism of player protests, and that will probably increase as the start of the season coincides with the home stretch of the presidential election.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a video Friday saying he supported players protesting, but it was unclear whether he was referring to Floyd-related protests around the country or kneeling during the anthem. He and the league did not respond publicly to Trump.
Lucas thought Goodell’s message was a good start, but it’s not the end of the issue.
“Colin Kaepernick still needs to be addressed in order to make it right,” he said, echoing many other players and commentators. “Just like all the other companies that are saying they are with black people and they are with us through the fight, that sounds great and we thank them for that, but now it’s about action.”
