Nebraska's Michael Rose-Ivey with a powerful statement in today's press conference. Says fans told him he should "be hung before the anthem" pic.twitter.com/NJjEMnUYhd
— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) September 26, 2016
Nebraska running back Michael Rose-Ivey took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner on Saturday before his team’s game against Northwestern. As has been the case since Colin Kaepernick began this protest against police brutality, the response from a certain segment of the population has had a feel of racism, but that has typically been more in the subtext of the message than the actual message.
Sadly for Rose-Ivey, the backlash for him has been anything but subtle.
At a press conference on Monday, he discussed the racially charged threats he has received since he and two teammates kneeled during the anthem. From ESPN:
In a statement to reporters Monday, Rose-Ivey said he had been called the N-word on social media and threatened. Linebacker Mohamed Barry and defensive end DaiShon Neal knelt alongside Rose-Ivey during the anthem at Northwestern’s Ryan Field.
“Some believe DaiShon, Mohamed and myself should be kicked off the team or suspended, while some said we deserved to be lynched or shot like the other black people who have died recently,” Rose-Ivey said before collecting himself. “Another believed that since we didn’t want to stand for the anthem that we should be hung before the anthem at the next game.”
With the population only getting stupider with each passing day, my fear is this is going to get worse. It’s easy to lose sight of this, but all Rose-Ivey, Kaepernick and others are doing is sitting during a song that most people in attendance consider a nuisance because it required them to stand for 100 seconds and take off a hat, which is more exercise than most of these miserable humans get in a week. This protest is literally about raising awareness of innocent people being murdered, which you’d think everyone is against, but ol’ Eggy Eggerson on Twitter is using it as an excuse to threaten a college kid.
There are still three-plus months of NFL and college football season remaining, so hopefully anonymous social media threats is as far as the response escalates.
(ESPN)
