Seahawks’ Michael Bennett on NFL Anthem Protests: ‘You Need a White Guy to Join the Fight’

With Colin Kaepernick‘s National Anthem protest having spread to one or more members of at least one quarter of all NFL teams, a prominent player is now calling on white players to join the protests.

Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks told the Seattle Times that he believes that the support of a white player is crucial in the fight against social injustice.

“You need a white guy to join the fight. The white guy is super important to the fight,” Bennett said. “For people to really see social injustices, there must be someone from the other side of the race who recognizes the problem, because a lot of times if just one race says there’s a problem, nobody is realistic about it.”

Seahawks defensive lineman Cliff Avril agreed with Bennett, and named a prominent white NFL player as someone he’d like to see support the protests.

“If somebody like, say, Aaron Rodgers got behind us, I think it would touch home for a lot more people,” Avril said. “At the same time, I see why they probably wouldn’t, because they don’t know what we’re going through. That’s one of those situations where it’s unfortunate.”

On Wednesday, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman walked out of a press conference without taking questions, saying that he believes the reasons behind the Anthem protests have gone overlooked.

“People are still missing the point,” Sherman said. “The reason these guys are kneeling, and the reason we’re locking arms is to bring people together, to make people aware that this is not right. It’s not right for people to get killed in the street.”

[h/t Bleacher Report]

[image via screengrab]

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