The Oakland Raiders are expected to be one of the best teams in the AFC this season, but the team already is making headlines weeks before the NFL regular season gets underway.
Marshawn Lynch sent shockwaves around the league when he sat during The Star-Spangled Banner prior to the Raiders’ first preseason game. Lynch again was seated before Oakland’s Week 2 preseason matchup Saturday, but he wasn’t the only Raider to make a statement during the national anthem.
For the duration of the anthem, Raiders starting quarterback Derek Carr had his arm draped around defensive star Khalil Mack.
However, as Carr explained after the game, the gesture was not a means of protest, rather an effort to spread a message to the youth.
“Any kid, any family, any adult that follows us or looks up to us, we knew their eyes would be on us,” Carr told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We wanted to show them that it’s OK for a white kid and a black kid who come from two different neighborhoods to grow up and love one another and be best friends.
“We’re not doing anything like that. What we wanted to do is show all the kids that look up to me, that look up to him that white kids, black kids, brown kids — blue, green; it doesn’t matter — can all be loving to each other. That’s what me and Khalil are. We’re best friends and we love one another. The only reason we did that was to unify people and unify the people that look up to us.”
Using the national anthem as a time to make a statement has become commonplace around the NFL. Colin Kaepernick started the trend last season, as the former San Francisco 49ers QB knelt to raise awareness towards social injustice in the United States. More recently, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long had his arm around Malcolm Jenkins, who raised a fist in the air for the duration of the anthem.
Understanding the magnitude of the moment, Carr explained the thought process behind he and Mack’s gesture.
“Obviously, we see what’s going on in the world,” he said. “And obviously, everybody pays attention to the national anthem nowadays. We just said, ‘This is the best time to do it while still honoring our country,’ because I love our country more than anything. We’re free to live here and play this game. But we’re also free to show each other that we love one another. That’s the only message we were trying to send.”
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
