Rishard Matthews probably isn’t going to stop kneeling anytime soon.
The Titans wide receiver, who comes from a military family, said he was so angered by Donald Trump’s “son of a bitch” remarks that he will continue to kneel. The Titans stayed in the locker room during the anthem Sunday.
“I plan to kneel until the president apologizes for the comments that he made, because I felt like those were very disrespectful comments that he made,” Matthews said, via Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com. “The league is made up of, I think, ... over 70 percent African-Americans, so the people that would be kneeling for this cause would be African-Americans.
“To keep it honest, he was calling a lot of us, and I feel that he was calling myself, an S.O.B., and that’s not OK and very disrespectful. So I plan to kneel until the president apologizes.”
Matthews also raised his fist after scoring a touchdown against the Seahawks, and like many others, noted the difference between protesting institutional racism and unfair treatment by police and the symbols of the country. His father served in the military for 23 years, and his brother was a Marine who died in Afghanistan, so this wasn’t a casual decision for Matthews.
“I’m tired of hearing, ‘Stick to sports.’ It comes down to right and wrong in this world,” Matthews said. “If you see wrong and don’t say anything, that’s wrong. As minorities, what do you want to happen before we say anything? They tried to have a silent protest, and look what happened. It’s your right to stand or sit down. You have that right, that freedom of speech, and you’re not allowing that to happen. We’re not ragdogs. We’re people just like you. . . .
“Moving forward, I don’t want this to be a publicity stunt. I don’t want to take away from what the whole protest is about, which is oppression, police brutality and inequality in this country. I fully stand with my brother Kaep [unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick], and I plan to continue to do that.”
Considering the President’s track record of backtracking from strongly worded stances, the likelihood that Matthews will stand for the anthem is probably small.
