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Hayes: Eagles' protest very little, very late

CHICAGO - It has been a little more than a month since Colin Kaepernick began his vague and clumsy protest of police brutality against blacks and the government's apparent indifference toward it.

Eagles\' strong safety Malcolm Jenkins (center), defensive back Ron Brooks (right) and defensive end Steven Means stand with their first in the air during the national anthem.
Eagles\' strong safety Malcolm Jenkins (center), defensive back Ron Brooks (right) and defensive end Steven Means stand with their first in the air during the national anthem.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

CHICAGO - It has been a little more than a month since Colin Kaepernick began his vague and clumsy protest of police brutality against blacks and the government's apparent indifference toward it.

Monday night, the Eagles finally jumped on board.

Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins led the Eagles' demonstration. Jenkins, cornerback Ron Brooks and defensive end Steven Means stood side-by-side with raised fists as the national anthem played. A few players down the line, defensive end Marcus Smith joined in.

Eagles coach Doug Pederson said he would participate in any team-wide protest, but this protest was decidedly not team-wide.

In all, it was muted, and, frankly, rather hollow.

It seemed to be very little; and very, very late.

Jenkins scoffed at that notion.

"Three weeks? Really?" Jenkins said. "I don't think when you join in matters. The issue remains the same. Any time people bring up anything other than the topic, it's an opportunity to deflect."

Certainly, it did not appear to distract the Eagles' play. Jenkins and the defense stopped the Bears' first two drives - Jenkins sacked Jay Cutler - and the offense scored a field goal on its first possession. The Boss was relieved.

"It's over with," said head coach Doug Pederson, who made Jenkins a captain last night, "and we're moving on."

It's not over with. Jenkins said he will continue to raise his fist indefinitely.

He also pointed out that he spent the past week discussing police and community initiatives with Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross, a continuing strategy of Jenkins, who met with Philly cops this summer about this very issue long before anyone knew that Kaepernick cared.

The raised fist, most closely associated with the podium protest of medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, is a universal symbol of oppression of blacks in America.

"You immediately understand what the issue is when a black man raises his fist," Jenkins said. "The issue is . . . social injustice."

Jenkins said kneeling, a la Kaepernick, was discussed but that only would have happened if the protest was team-wide. No teammate has harassed Jenkins about the issue, but a team-wide protest was never going to happen. Even Jenkins didn't want to kneel, or link arms, or hold hands; none addressed pointedly enough.

"There were definitely guys who feel strongly about the issue but chose to not participate," Jenkins said. "Some guys on the team don't care about the issue. Which is fine."

Jenkins led, but Jenkins is a veteran with a Super Bowl ring won in New Orlenas who is on his third big contract. The others have significantly less job security, but feelings that are just as strong.

"I told him I was down for whatever, but I would never, ever kneel during the national anthem," Smith said. "I respect the United States of America way too much. I know what the U.S. has done for me to speak for my own rights."

Brooks, who is from Louisiana, noted that his girlfriend served in the U.S. Navy and her father is a Louisiana state trooper; so, no, he meant no disrespect toward the military or police. Jenkins insisted Saturday that any protest would not be aimed at all police, that it wouldn't be an "anti-police" thing.

Of course, any protest, would by definition, have to be anti- some police. Which is the root of the frustration and anger felt by many in the wake of the protests. Are police being painted with a broad brush? Is protesting during the anthem a slight at members of the military?

Jenkins and Kaepernick and the dozens of other protesters in the NFL and beyond emphatically say "no!" . . . but is it up to them to decide which citizens should be offended by their particular form of protest?

The question, of course, involves less the propriety of protesting perceived injustices with a gesture during the anthem than its effect.

Will this work? Will the cops in question stop acting so aggressively when confronting blacks? Will the people who adjudicate those cases begin to levy harsher penalties?

It's not as though other issues aren't at crisis level.

It's a popular tack of the anti-Kaepernick crowd to divert from the issue; to point out that cop-on-black violence is a drop in the overall violence bucket. Over the weekend, five people were killed and 35 others were wounded in shootings in the Chicagoland area, where more than 500 shootings have occurred this year. Certainly, none of the players is ignorant of this issue, but every one of them realizes that common crime cannot be compared with what Kap and Jenkins see as state-sanctioned fascism.

Nor do they condone violence directed at police. Cops now have been attacked twice this year in Philadelphia. The first attack, in January, was committed by a suspect who police say targeted a cop in response to the epidemic of high-profile shootings by police. The second attack, last Friday, appears to be motivated by a less stable suspect who had a more personal vendetta against the justice system in general.

In July, a black sniper bent on revenge executed an ambush in Dallas that left five cops dead and nine more wounded.

Will Jenkins & Co. continue to protest? Even Oct. 30, in Dallas?

"I will," Jenkins said.

It's a fair question.

After all, Jenkins said that he and the Eagles considered protesting last week but decided it was inappropriate, since games were played on the 9/11 anniversary. In fact, the players and coaches helped hold the giant flag that covered Lincoln Financial Field.

How is it any more appropriate to protest at a place called Soldier Field? For that matter, if sensitivity is the issue, is it not insensitive to protest a block away from where Veterans Stadium once stood? Or in Philadelphia, the cradle of our democracy?

Does sensitivity really matter?

On Friday in Tulsa, Okla., a 40-year-old unarmed black man named Terence Crutcher was Tasered by one police officer then shot and killed by another police officer, who is white. Video appears to show that Crutcher's hands were raised.

Jenkins said he had not heard about the incident. Certainly, it will only fuel his fire.

@inkstainedretch

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