injustices, he was speaking out on he said because of social injustices that he wanted the nation to be paying attention to. so what was that show today? is it a response to one or the other or both? both. i think it was a response to what trump said to the players, and now the players have been wanting to do something. he actually just ignited something that s going to take on. once you target the nfl players, they have a large audience, they can put words out about what s going on. a lot of people keep misper receiving what happened. kaepernick was taking a knee not against the nfl but because of what s going on in our neighborhoods, injustices in black communities. they re not taking knees because of soldiers, they re taking knees because of what s going on in their neighborhoods. that s getting missed. the majority of players today, whether it be tom brady
day, these athletes have the right. he s stepped into an arena where it s going to be a huge arena where a lot of athletes on high level can speak their mind. that s going to be my opinion. i hope to see a lot of these stars stepping up and taking that charge and supporting what kaepernick is really talking about, our community, the unjustice in our community. nothing with the nfl. it s just a player who took a knee to support that. the question is, what s next? what s after this moment of solidarity? then what? that thing we find, we don t follow through, we have this big pedestal that we can make contact and draw attention to what s next. and i hope to see the nfl players and owners take that next step. i see that the warriors, they re taking the next step by not going, but going still to d.c. to do something in the community. that s why it starts. eric matthews, thanks so much, appreciate it. coming up next, as president trump goes on the offense
flag, we must honor and respect it, make america great again. so dave, the flip side to that is, i m interpreting what the president saying is, you silence people as they re trying to express their opinion, and many of these players, owners, staffers, are saying, we won t be silenced and so we stand in solidarity. what do you say? yes, respectfully, i have to disagree with my republican friend, john over there. the reality is several of these nfl owners have spent over $1 million propping up and supporting donald trump s 2016 presidential campaign. and over the last 24 or 48 hours since the alabama remarks, we ve actually seen a number of those trump supporters and nfl owners come out and condemn the remarks by the president. the fact is, like freedom of speech is a core pillar of our democracy, the fact that you re seeing real, tangible solidarity
more clarity on that tweet, fred. certainly another nebulous tweet, right, from the president that makes it unclear whether or not he believes that those players that were locked in arms were perhaps protesting in a more acceptable way or if he realizes that they were doing so in solidarity with those that were kneeling down, as we ve heard an overwhelming show of support from players, owners, and coaches, saying that the president s remarks on friday night in alabama were at the very least disappointing, some going as far as to call them totally inappropriate. the president went further in a separate tweet about the pittsburgh penguins, he writes, pleased to nfl that the champion pittsburgh penguins of the nhl will be joining me at the white house for a ceremony, great team, the president obviously different shaiating between the pittsburgh penguins and the
strong message coming from the players while the national anthem is being played there. so in your view, you have nfl team owners with very strong statements supporting their players who protest peacefully, you have locked arms, kneeling, hands on shoulders, et cetera, today, do you believe this now creates an opening for a colin kaepernick getting back on to a team or being resigned with the team? i don t know if it has any bearing on what happens with colin. sadly, in my opinion, in my view, from my ten years of experience in the nfl and even as a coach, the longer any players, not just colin kaepernick, but the longer a player is occupaut, the harder for them to get back in. the longer than colin kaepernick is out, even though he s great talent and deserves from a talent standpoint he deserves to be on the field, if we re talking about talent, and no one