Prior to Sunday's contest between the Miami Dolphins and the Seattle Seahawks, Arian Foster and three of his teammates kneeled during the national anthem. This form of protest against discrimination faced by African Americans and other minorities was started by the 49ers‘ Colin Kaepernick in the preseason.
However, a new layer was added to Foster's actions given the significance of the date: Sunday was the 15th anniversary of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks.
Foster and teammates Kenny Stills, Jelani Jenkins, and Michael Thomas stood during a ceremony that honored the victims of the horrific terrorist attacks. But, once the national anthem began, they took a knee.
Foster's reasoning
After the game, Foster defended his and his teammates' actions. From ESPN's James Walker:
“They say it's not the time to do this. Well, when is the time?” Foster said Sunday night. “It's never the time in somebody else's eyes, because they'll always feel like it's good enough. And some people don't.
“That's the beautiful thing about this country is if somebody feels it's not good enough, they have their right. And that's all we're doing, is exercising the right.”
Stills offered a further explanation:
“I think there is a lot of negativity surrounding this decision, and we are not looking to hurt anyone's feelings,” Stills said. “We're not looking to disrespect anyone. That's why we chose to put our hands over our heart, as well. We also stood during President Obama's speech which honored the 9/11 victims. I know there's going to be a lot of negativity around that. Arian is going to share the message about that, and we hope that people are going to understand where we're coming from.”
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