Posted on 10/19/2017 6:02:39 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett said that before NFL players and the league can move forward with their conversations about working together on social causes, the issue of Colin Kaepernick's unemployment must be addressed.
"I think the first step to even being able to even have a conversation is making sure that Colin Kaepernick gets an opportunity to play in the NFL," Bennett said Wednesday. "I think before we even negotiate anything about whether we sit, whether we stand [during the national anthem], it should be a negotiation about opening up the doors for Colin Kaepernick and giving him an opportunity again, because I feel like through everything, that's been lost.
"All of us are having an opportunity to be able to speak to our employers, but to think about the guy who started everything not to be able to have a voice at this moment, it just doesn't seem very right to me."
Bennett said he spoke with some of the players who attended the NFL meetings on Tuesday in New York; he was unable to be there because the Seahawks were practicing that day. Kaepernick was brought up during the meetings, according to Bennett, but there wasn't much discussion about him.
"I don't think we can work alongside of them until we address that issue," Bennett said. "I think the issue with Kaepernick is the start to a conversation. If they want us to be open to what they want, the dialogue, then that's something that needs to be on the table right there."
Bennett and many other players, including Seahawks teammate Richard Sherman, believe that Kaepernick has remained unsigned because of his decision not to stand for the national anthem last season, while he was with the San Francisco 49ers.
"If you look at the quarterbacks playing in the NFL right now, out of the backups, I can't name one better than him," Bennett said.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that he believes players should stand for the national anthem. Bennett, though, said he plans to resume sitting going forward.
Bennett began sitting for the anthem at the start of the preseason and did so through Seattle's first two regular-season games. The Seahawks and Tennessee Titans remained in the locker room during the anthem before their game in Week 3, which came two days after President Donald Trump made critical comments about NFL players who protest during the national anthem. Bennett and several other Seattle defensive linemen sat before the team's game in Week 4, then all the Seahawks stood the following week, which defensive end Frank Clark said was in honor of the victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting.
Bennett was critical of the stance taken recently by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who said any of his players who don't stand for the anthem will not play. Bennett called that "crazy" and "inconsiderate of a person being a human being."
"It reminded me of the Dred Scott case: You're property, so you don't have the ability to be a person first," Bennett said. "I think that in this generation, I think that sends the wrong message to young kids and young people all across the world that your employer doesn't see you as a human being, they see you as a piece of property, and if that's the case, then I don't get it. I just don't get why you don't see us as human beings first."
That sounds like a threat.
He had a $900k offer from the Ravens and he turned it down a**hole.
F.U.M.B....le
The Seahawks should replace Russell Wilson with Kaepernick and then see how Bennett likes it.
You ARE a piece of property. That contract you signed the one that PAYS you millions and millions is about being a piece of a team and doing the function you are being paid to do. Your Owner doesn’t have to care if you do anything else except play football and NOT embarrass the franchise...the one HE owns, not you.
So STFU and play. Or you will continue to see the need for your services dwindle away because no one wants to listen to your mouth...thats not why you are there.
The Seahawks should replace Russell Wilson with Kaepernick and then see how Bennett likes it.
That’s racist!
The league/owners had a chance to nip this in the bud. Now they’ve lost control of it.
Feeding the crocodile and all that.
Rock and a hard place and they walked right into a power play.
They’re done.
How ‘bout they spend their time becoming a better team.
Man, oh man, I’m so done with these ignorant, arrogant, “idle rich”.
Yep, that is probably the quickest way for them to determine their worth in a dramatically revenue constrained market. Go for it!
They can all sit down now, because CK is not going to be hired.
The owners better find their testicles, or just give their franchises to these blackmailing teams.
Hope Roger Goodell addresses this with another pathetic non-directive directive.
‘I think the NFL players should strike until someone hires AND STARTS Colin Kapernick!’
Good point. That would be like putting your money where your mouth is. And so far these kneeling black power flag/anthem disrespectors are only interested in posturing. But love them to take it to the streets instead of playing.
BLM since its inception has been about bullying 85% of the population. It wouldn't have worked except that quite a few members of the 85% enabled, and continue enabling, the bullies. Goodell is the poster child for those who are forsaking sanity for a "solution" that only meets the moment. Do they seriously think that at any point bullies are satisfied?
Has it gone from "bullying" to "blackmail"? It's an ambiguous, subjective line.
Better negotiator than whomever did the Iran deal
Dear agitator Bennett, are police human beings? Are victims of black crime human beings? Do any lives but black ones matter?
The same Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett that lied about LV Police and now claims he is the equivalent of a modern day Dred Scott. Because making 15 million a year is the same as being a slave in his mind.
Fire him also. FIXED
Until they call you a sexist because you decided to watch them for their bodies and not for their football skills. Then all the owners get sued because not enough blue haired fatties are in the league. All this before the debate on whether or not to allow Trannies to play in the league. Try though you might but you’re not going to get away from politics as long as this new bunch hold sway
I agree. Until then the players are just weak “kneed”...they should strike, use the full power they have, and see what happens.....It will be a beautiful thing.
If you look at the facts, Colin Kaepernick had ONE good game that put him on the map — one. He had one good game against the Green Bay Packers where he torched the Packers by running with the ball. From that game forward he became “a great quarterback” until teams, including the Packers, figured out how to stop quarterbacks from running wild (basically they use a “spy”). Forced to use his arm to pass, Kap got exposed.
If you look at the tape of Kap’s career, after that one game he started sputtering and then descended into sub mediocrity.
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