Newly signed Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch became the latest athlete to not stand during the national anthem during last night’s preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Marshawn Lynch sat during the national anthem in his first preseason game since coming out of retirement.
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According to Del Rio, Lynch told him it’s something he’s done for the past 11 years.
“He said, ‘This is something I’ve done for 11 years — it’s not a form of anything other than me being myself,’ ” Del Rio said in a postgame news conference. “I said, ‘So you understand how I feel, I very strongly believe in standing for the national anthem, but I’m gonna respect you as a man. You do your thing, OK, and we’ll do ours.’ “
Lynch has spoken out in support of Colin Kaepernick, in the past. During an appearance on Conan, Lynch had this to say about the quarterback:
“Well I mean with what’s going on, I’d rather see him take a knee than stand up, put his hands up and get murdered,” “So my take on it is [expletive] it got to start somewhere and if that was the starting point I just hope people open up their eyes to see that it’s really a problem going on and something needs to be done for it to stop. And I mean if you’re really not racist, then you won’t see what he’s doing as a threat to America but just addressing a problem that we have.”
It’s unclear if Lynch deliberately chose to sit out the anthem but considering his comments about Kaepernick in the past it’s pretty likely he did it on purpose.