Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins says that the players are about to release a major statement on protests during the playing of the national anthem.
The National Football League and representatives for the players are still in talks about forming a joint policy on anthem protests, but if Jenkins’ announcement is any indication, the players are getting restless on a lack of an agreement.
Jenkins initially told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was not sure what he will personally do about his anthem protests, but he hinted that a major statement is on the way from the players.
Apparently, speaking for the player’s coalition on Tuesday, Jenkins said, “We will probably have an op-ed or something drop Wednesday.”
Jenkins said that he thinks the league erred when it created its policy to ban protests early this year. The two-time Super Bowl champion noted that he thinks the protests would have been practically non-existent this season if the league had left the issue alone.
“It would have moved to a point where we were working together to draw some awareness to these issues and put some more action to the effort to amplify what players are talking about,” Jenkins said according to Philly.com. “Talking out of both sides [of their mouth] on behalf of the owners has put players in a place where we don’t trust the league’s intentions, and we don’t trust the intentions of the owners.”
In fact, Jenkins added that he thinks players are moving on from anthem protests and into other areas of activism. “People are beginning to see this is bigger than just the two minutes of the national anthem,” he said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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