Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield said Saturday he plans to kneel during the national anthem in support of protests against racial injustice and police brutality, adding he isn’t worried about losing fans.
Mayfield initially referenced kneeling in a comment on Instagram, after a user wrote, “Please tell Browns fans you’re not going to be kneeling this season.” He replied, “pull your head out. I absolutely am.”
Mayfield followed up later in Instagram, writing, “I have the utmost respect for our military, cops, and people that serve OUR country. It’s about equality and everybody being treated the same because we’re all human. It’s been ignored for too long and that is my fault as well for not becoming more educated and staying silent.
“If I lose fans, that’s okay. I’ve always spoken my mind. And that’s from the heart.”
Mayfield was vocal earlier this week about social justice and was seen working out in a shirt with the words “I can’t breathe,” a reference to George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd’s death — which led to a second-degree murder charge against a white officer, Derek Chauvin — has spawned thousands of protests across the country and even globally in the weeks since.
In Saturday’s post, Mayfield referenced Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the anthem in 2016, and how former Green Beret and NFL long-snapper Nate Boyer and Kaepernick discussed kneeling as a more respectful option than sitting.
“Everybody so upset about my comment doesn’t understand the reason behind kneeling in the first place,” Mayfield said. “Nate and Kap came to an agreement that kneeling was the most respectful way to support our military while also standing up for equality.”
Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt expressed a similar sentiment Wednesday, while responding to a user who tweeted he was “pretty sure” Watt would not kneel for the anthem.
“If you still think it’s about disrespecting the flag or our military, you clearly haven’t been listening,” Watt wrote on Twitter.
On Friday, Texans head coach Bill O’Brien told the Houston Chronicle he would take a knee, adding, “I’m all for it.”
“The players have a right to protest, a right to be heard and a right to be who they are,” O’Brien said. “They’re not taking a knee because they’re against our flag. They’re taking a knee because they haven’t been treated equally in this country for over 400 years.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, the head coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich, criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL owners Robert Kraft (New England) and Jerry Jones (Dallas) for their response to player protests in the past. “A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich told the New York Times, adding Goodell was “intimidated” by President Donald Trump and “folded” under Trump’s pressure.
Popovich called Kraft and Jones “hypocritical” for giving large contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign while also supporting their players.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Popovich said. “People aren’t blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don’t get it. I think they put themselves in a position that’s untenable.”