SPARTANBURG, S.C. _ What Eric Reid will do on the sideline before each Carolina Panthers game this season won't change.
What will change, he hopes, is how well he plays when the music stops and the hitting starts.
Reid, 27, is one of the NFL's most polarizing players because he kneels every week during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and social injustice in America. Reid plans to continue to take a knee this season, too, as he continues to drive his NFL career on two parallel tracks � trying to make a difference on and off the field.
"If a day comes that I feel like we've addressed those issues, and our people aren't being discriminated against or being killed over traffic violations, then I'll decide it's time to stop protesting," Reid told the Observer. "I haven't seen that happen."
In fact, Reid said, he believes America is getting a little worse for African-Americans.
"It feels like we're going backwards," Reid said. "You'd like to think we're past certain things, the way we treat people. I thought we were at a time where you love your neighbor as yourself. But as I've studied history � it hasn't repeated itself necessarily, but it's dressed a little different and is acting the same."
Facing a shortage of safeties, the Panthers signed Reid three games into last season to a one-year deal. He knelt each week during the anthem without incident _ no Panthers players joined his protest, but no one asked him to stop.
And, to quote Panthers owner David Tepper's comments to NFL Films, "the world didn't end" after Reid protested during the anthem for the first time in a Carolina uniform.
