WNBA player Brittney Griner, who previously protested national anthem, said 'Star Spangled Banner' 'hit different' after being freed from Russia



WNBA player Brittney Griner had a new-found appreciation of the national anthem in her return to basketball on Friday night. Previously, Griner protested the national anthem.

Griner played in her first WNBA game on Friday since the Phoenix Mercury basketball player had been held in a Russian prison for 10 months. Griner missed the entire 2022 WNBA season.

Griner had been detained in Russia after being arrested and pleading guilty to drug charges related to having cannabis oil vape canisters in her luggage. Griner had been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison, but was brought back to the United States last December after the U.S. government made a prisoner swap with Russia.

Griner stood tall with teammates during the national anthem in her first game back at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

“Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different,” Griner told reporters after the Mercury game. “It’s like when you go for the Olympics, you’re sitting there, about to get gold put on your neck, the flags are going up and the anthem is playing, it just hits different.

"Being here today, it means a lot," she added.

“I’m grateful to be here, that’s for sure,” Griner said, before vowing, “I’m not going to take a day for granted.”

Griner, 32, has a much different perspective on the national anthem after being detained in Russia than she previously did.

In July 2020, Griner protested the national anthem by refusing to be on the basketball court when the "Star Spangled Banner" played. Griner and other Mercury players were boycotting the national anthem to show solidarity with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement.

Griner told the Arizona Republic at the time, "I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season. I think we should take that much of a stand."

She added, "I don't mean that in any disrespect to our country. My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country."

"I'm going to protest regardless," the Mercury center said. "I'm not going to be out there for the national anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that's fine. It will be all season long, I'll not be out there. I feel like more are going to probably do the same thing. I can only speak for myself."

Griner finished with 10 points and three rebounds in the Mercury's final WNBA preseason game.

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US women's soccer team wear 'Black Lives Matter' uniforms, protest national anthem in Europe



After not playing for nearly nine months, the United States women's soccer team protested the national anthem and made a social justice statement with "Black Lives Matter" uniforms prior to a game on Friday.

Ahead of their game with the Netherlands' national team, the American women walked out of the locker room wearing jackets emblazoned with "Black Lives Matter." During the playing of the American national anthem, nearly every member of the team knelt, according to ESPN, a sign of protest against America.

"We wear Black Lives Matter to affirm human decency. This is not political, it's a statement on human rights," the USWNT Twitter account said, along with a video showing the Black Lives Matter uniform jacket.

We wear Black Lives Matter to affirm human decency. This is not political, it’s a statement on human rights. https://t.co/QHDAx4iv7k
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@U.S. Soccer WNT)1606487400.0

In a statement, the team said they "love our country" and called it "a true honor to represent America," but explained that supporting Black Lives Matter is an affirmation of "human decency."

The statement said:

We love our country, and it is a true honor to represent America. It is also our duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms that our country was founded on extend to everyone.

Today, we wear Black Lives Matter to affirm human decency. We protest against racial injustice and police brutality against Black people. We protest against the racist infrastructures that do not provide equal opportunity for Black and brown people to fulfill their dreams, including playing on this team. As the United States Women's National team players, we collectively work toward a society where the American ideals are upheld, and Black lives are no longer systematically targeted.

Black Lives Matter.

Friday's game, the first in 261 days, was also the team's first game since racial unrest gripped the U.S. in the early summer following George Floyd's tragic death.

The U.S. men's soccer team also wore social justice messages on their pregame jersey's earlier this month, in their first outing since Floyd's death. The team wore anthem jackets with the words "Be the Change" emblazoned on the front with differing messages on the back, including, "Black Lives Matter," "Be Anti-Racist," and "Unity," according to ESPN.

The women's soccer team won Friday's game by a score of 2-0.

Nike cashes in on Kaepernick and anthem kneeling with jersey celebrating the anniversary of the protests



Nike continued its efforts to commercialize and profit from former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's social justice activism, commemorating the four-year anniversary of his national anthem kneeling protest with a special jersey.

The jersey is all black, featuring Kaepernick's number, 7, and the words "True to 7" on the collar.

"Four years ago, I took a knee to protest against systemic racism and social injustice," Kaepernick wrote on social media. "It was that day that the number on my jersey would come to represent something greater than football, something greater than me. Since then, the number 7 jersey has been a symbol for advancing the liberation and well-being of Black & Brown communities. Thank you for staying True."

The jersey, priced at $150, sold out within minutes after being released. Previous special releases of jerseys, shoes, and T-shirts featuring Kaepernick have also quickly sold out. From Yahoo Sports:

It's the second time a Kaepernick jersey launch with Nike has sold out shortly after opening period. The company released an all-black "Icon Jersey" with a white No. 7 on the front in February 2019. In that instance, Kaepernick took to social media about 10 hours later to say they had sold out.

It's unclear how many jerseys and T-shirts Nike had available for any of the launches. And in October 2018, a "Kaepernick icon tee" sold out in a couple of hours. It's unclear how many jerseys and T-shirts Nike had available for any of the launches.

"The Colin Kaepernick Icon Jersey 2.0 marks Nike's continued product collaboration with Colin and celebrates those making a positive impact in their community through sport and education," Nike said in a statement. "This celebration is represented in the meaning behind the line, True to 7"

Years after Kaepernick played his last NFL game, the same protests that he claims got him blackballed from the league have now been fully embraced by the league, which implemented numerous social justice-themed aspects to game days. Many players on multiple teams kneel or stay in the locker room during the national anthem,

Kaepernick, however, has attacked the league for the social justice emphasis, calling it "propaganda."

"While the NFL runs propaganda about how they care about Black Life, they are still actively blackballing Eric Reid for fighting for the Black community," Kaepernick wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "Eric set 2 franchise records last year, and is one of the best defensive players in the league."

NFL icon Mike Ditka says players who kneel should respect the country or 'get the hell out!'



Legendary former NFL coach Mike Ditka criticized the current pro football players who kneeled to protest during the national anthem and said that he couldn't understand why anyone would protest.

Ditka, a former Chicago Bears player-coach and Hall of Famer, made the comments during an interview with Newsmax TV.

"Football's football. It's not a complicated thing. You're playing the game, you're enjoying the game," Ditka said.

"You don't like the game, get out of it. It's not for protesting one way or the other. What color you are, what you think, this or that. You play football. That's it," he continued.

"You're privileged. You got a gift from God that you can play the game because you got a body you can do it with," Ditka said. "I don't really understand what you're protesting. I played the game. I coached the game for a long time. It makes no sense to me."

Ditka, 80, went on to say that players were disrespecting the United States with the protest and that they should leave the country instead of criticizing it.

"I would tell those players go to another country and play football there. You don't have to come out," Ditka said. "You don't have to come out if you go to another country. You can't! Because the game's only played in this country. And if you can't respect this country, get the hell out of it."

'There has been no oppression'

Ditka has previously made similar comments about those players who joined the kneeling protests. In a particularly controversial incident in 2017, he was criticized heavily for saying he didn't think there had been any oppression in the last 100 years.

"All of a sudden, it has become a big deal now — about oppression," Ditka said at the time. "There has been no oppression in the last hundred years that I know of. Now maybe I'm not watching it as carefully as other people."

He later clarified his comments and claimed that the media was intentionally misleading the public about what he said he meant.

"The characterization of the statement that I made does not reflect the context of the question that I was answering and certainly does not reflect my views throughout my lifetime," said Ditka. "I have absolutely seen oppression in society in the last 100 years and I am completely intolerant of any discrimination. The interview was about the NFL and the related issues. That's where my head was at."

Here's the video of Ditka's more recent comments:

Mike Ditka: Get the hell outwww.youtube.com

Browns QB Baker Mayfield changes his mind on kneeling during national anthem, says it would create more 'division'



Baker Mayfield, the NFL quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, completely flip-flopped on whether he would join the national anthem kneeling protest after issuing a defiant message to angry fans.

Mayfield had previously said that he would kneel alongside some of his teammates and he didn't care if it angered the fans.

"You know, right is right and wrong is wrong," he said at the time. "It's a human rights issue. It's been going on for a long time and I believe in that."

On Saturday, Mayfield released a statement saying that he had changed his mind after watching how other teams handled the controversy in the first game of the NFL season.

"Also after reading many letters and messages over the past weeks... I have been showed that a gesture such as kneeling will only create more division or discussion about the gesture, rather than be a solution towards our country's problems at hand. With that being said, I am choosing to stand for both anthems to show respect, love, and unity to everybody involved," Mayfield said.

"I will respect all of my teammates no matter their decision. We have had meaningful discussions on what true change looks like, and that change takes all of us being together," he added.

"I am posting this now so it is not a discussion on game day. And so the discussion can continue to be about how to better our country, instead of divide us," Mayfield concluded. "Our team is ready to fight for our goals both on and off the field."

Mayfield did stand for the national anthem Sunday before the game against the Baltimore Ravens, although some fans were upset that he was caught on the live broadcast laughing and talking during the presentation.

The Browns suffered a 38-6 blowout loss in their season opener.

Here's more about Mayfield's kneeling decision:

Browns QB Baker Mayfield says he'll now stand for national anthemwww.youtube.com

Roger Goodell regrets not listening to Kaepernick more, says anthem kneelers are not unpatriotic



NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he regrets not having more dialogue with former quarterback Colin Kaepernick about social justice issues and said he now understands that players who kneel during the national anthem aren't being unpatriotic, ESPN reported.

What did he say?

"These are not people who are unpatriotic," Goodell told ESPN's Emmanuel Acho on the video series "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man." "They're not disloyal. They're not against our military. In fact, many of those guys were in the military, and they're a military family. And what they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. And that misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me."

Acho asked Goodell what he might say in a public apology to Kaepernick, and Goodell cited regret that he was not able to have more conversations with the player who started the social justice protest of kneeling during the national anthem. Goodell said the league should have listened more and really understood what Kaepernick and other players were protesting.

"That's where we should have listened sooner," Goodell said. "And that's where we should have been in there with them, understanding and figuring out what we can do as the NFL."

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man: The National Anthem Protest- PT. 1NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell,… https://t.co/iMHwwY47cM
— Emmanuel Acho (@Emmanuel Acho)1598223601.0

What is Kaepernick up to?

Kaepernick has spent the last several years as a high-profile social justice activist. His experience, which many characterize as having been blackballed from the NFL for his protests, has led to a lucrative book deal and several television and documentary opportunities.

The former quarterback stands as an influential voice and symbol in social justice circles, and his statement in the days following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has proven to be fitting for the unrest that has occurred since.

"When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction," Kaepernick wrote in a May 28 tweet that is pinned to the top of his profile. "The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back!"

There have been protests and riots across the United States almost every night for the past three months, and the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday has sparked new riots in that city the past two nights.