Former Seattle Seahawks long snapper and United States Army Green Beret, Nate Boyer, expressed his thoughts about the American flag and its relation to NFL player protests Sunday on Twitter.
In 2016, when Colin Kaepernick initially sat down during the playing of the national anthem before games, Boyer advised him to kneel instead of sit to show respect to the United States military while simultaneously protesting police brutality and racial inequality. He explained his thought process to NPR back in 2018.
“In my opinions and in my experience, kneeling’s never been in our history really seen as a disrespectful act,” Boyer said. “I mean, people kneel when they get knighted. You kneel to propose to your wife, and you take a knee to pray. And soldiers often take a knee in front of a fallen brother’s grave to pay respects. So I thought, if anything, besides standing, that was the most respectful.”
With the protests following George Floyd’s death and several African-American deaths caused by white police officers since then, it would not be surprising to see numerous players kneeling during the national anthem in 2020.
