Aaron Rodgers didn’t take a knee to protest anything on Sunday before the Green Bay Packers played the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field. But the Packers quarterback openly wondered on Wednesday why certain people were criticized for their decision to kneel while others have received little criticism from fans.
As talk of the protests that swept throughout the league continued this week, the debate seems to become more about the meaning of patriotism during the anthem and what it means if a person decides not to stand for the anthem before games.
Rodgers took to Instagram on Wednesday to wryly point out that some people are constantly kneeling at NFL stadiums during the National Anthem and they get little attention or outcry when they do it.
“I can’t imagine what kind of social media attacks these cameramen must be enduring after taking a knee during the anthem and wearing a hat,” Rodgers said, posting a photo of he and his teammates standing for the anthem on Sunday.
And indeed, Rodgers does have a pretty good point. For every protest there were media members furiously capturing the moment, many wearing hats and many more kneeling. The picture he posted on Instagram was just one of many scenes throughout the league on Sunday.
It’s not exactly going to help the discourse surrounding the protest itself, which is now branded as a show of team unity more than the silent protest of minority treatment at the hands of this nation’s police. Still, if we will devolve this into a discussion of patriotism, Rodgers appears ready to point the finger back at many others in NFL stadiums with he and his team on Sundays.
