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And soldiers often take a knee in front of a fallen brother's grave to pay respects. You kneel to propose to your wife, and you take a knee to pray. I mean, people kneel when they get knighted. But I thought kneeling was more respectful, and I will say that being alongside his teammates was the biggest thing for me.Īnd, you know, people - in my opinions and in my experience, kneeling's never been in our history really seen as a disrespectful act.
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I've been told that numerous times by many people. And I thought kneeling - personally, so I don't speak for everybody, I don't speak for every veteran. And, you know, I respected that decision and opinion. But he said, you know, what I've committed to this, and - I'm not going to do it until I start to see these changes I want to see. And, you know, let's work on action for it. MARTIN: How did the idea of taking a knee come to you?īOYER: I thought - at that time I said, look, I think your point has definitely been made that everyone's listening. And it was, like, this compromise that we sort of came to. And I suggested him taking a knee instead of sitting even though I wanted him to stand, and he wanted to sit. And we sat in the lobby of the team hotel, discussed our situation, our different opinions and feelings about all this. And - but instead of letting my anger overwhelm me, I decided to relax a little bit, and I wrote this open letter that was just explaining my experiences, my relationship to the flag.Īnd Colin actually reached out, said he wanted to meet with me. And I was pretty upset, you know, just because I felt like he didn't understand what those symbols really represent. And then he talked about, you know, social injustices and police brutality and why he thought, you know, he shouldn't be standing for the anthem.Īnd it struck a chord with me, of course, and it struck a chord with a lot of people - a lot of people in the veteran community as well - because obviously the flag and the anthem and what that stuff stands for means something, you know, very different to us. And, you know, he got questioned about it, and he said, well, I'm not going to stand for the flag of a country that oppresses black people and people of color. But it was the first time it had received national attention. And I think it was actually his third time he'd sat on the bench.
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How did you get to talk with Colin Kaepernick to begin with? How did your conversation ensue?īOYER: You know, this was two years ago, 2016 during the preseason.
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Nate Boyer, thanks so much for joining us. He recently wrote about this, so we called him. He initially advised Kaepernick to take a knee instead of sitting down during the anthem as a sign of respect. He's a former active-duty Green Beret who had a stint in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. So you probably know all this, but what you might not know is why Kaepernick started kneeling to begin with as opposed to something else, and that's where Nate Boyer comes in. He's also featured in a new Nike ad that celebrates him and others. Kaepernick hasn't played a game since 2017 and has a pending grievance against the league. President Trump began furiously attacking him and other players, so more joined them. Of course, this all started two years ago with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. And even if you don't follow the game, you probably know that one of the ongoing dramas involves the question of whether players will kneel or not during the playing of the national anthem. For everybody else, this is the first Sunday of the NFL season. If you're a football fan, you already know this.