We’ve seen plenty of NFL players sit during the national anthem to fight oppression. On Sunday, we saw our first player express that they were sitting during the anthem to protest the election of Donald Trump: Tampa Bay receiver Mike Evans.
According to JoeBucsFan.com, Evans has no intention of standing for the national anthem for the remainder of this season. Evans also said that he doesn’t follow politics all that much, but his “common sense” lets him know that a Trump presidency is “not right.”
“I don’t want to, you know, disrespect the veterans or anything. The men and women who serve this country, I’m forever indebted to them. But the things that’s been going on in America lately, I’m not going to stand for that. When Ashton Kutcher comes out and says we’ve been punked, then I’ll stand again. But I won’t stand anymore.”
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“If this happens, then America’s not right right now. I said this a long time ago. When [Donald Trump] ran, I thought it was a joke, and the joke continues.
“I’m not a political person that much, but I got common sense. And I know when something’s not right.”
Evans also mentioned that some fans expressed disappointment in his decision, saying that “it was from the people that I expected it to be from.”
We’ve seen plenty of folks protest Trump’s election, and some people in sports have voiced their concern about a Trump White House in various ways, but Evans is the first athlete to express that they are using the national anthem as a form of protest against Trump. We’ll see if he starts a trend in the sports world, or if any athletes decide to go further than Evans in an attempt to express their dismay in the results of the election.
(Via JoeBucsFan)