As the NFL season slowly approaches, more players and coaches are being asked about their stance on the kneeling protest in light of a revived call for change in regard to police brutality. Texans Head Coach Bill O’Brien told reporters that he will kneel in solidarity with the movement.
Houston is the hometown of George Floyd, and Bill O’Brien was in attendance at his funeral service. O’Brien also led a discussion with his team about the Black experience in the United States.
“Yeah I’m all for it, I’ll take a knee,” O’Brien told the Houston Chronicle on Friday. “The players have a right to protest, a right to be heard and a right to be who they are. 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.”
The protest has been reignited with the police involved murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The mass protests and demands for police reform forced NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to issue an apology on behalf of the NFL for the mistreatment of players who kneeled in protest.
The response all relates back to Colin Kaepernick who first brought light to police brutality in 2016 and was blackballed from the league ever since.
