During his time in the NFL, Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem as a protest to police brutality and for racial equality.
In 2018, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the group of NFL owners — save for two who abstained from voting — approved a policy that required players to stand during the anthem or remain in the locker room during the anthem.
Goodell recently released a video where the league apologized for not allowing players to protest and letting everyone know they now support it.
Vikings DE Ifeadi Odenigbo told the Star Tribune that the NFL changing its tune is the right step, but that “they were kind of late.”
Here’s what else he said:
“Obviously, my teammates like Eric Kendricks had to speak up and let the NFL know like, ‘You guys were late.’ We’ll find out in the years to come how authentic it is. I did economics, and the thing you got to realize is people have incentives. Obviously from the NFL standpoint, they were getting a lot of heat so they had to speak up. We gave them no choice but to speak up.”
Odenigbo marched with Chicago protestors after George Floyd’s death, telling NBC Sports Chicago “I wanted to go and march with these people because actions speak louder than words.”
