With 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick coming to town, Bills running back LeSean McCoy is chiming in on the anthem protests that gave Kaepernick nearly as much notoriety as he had in the days preceding Super Bowl XLVII, if not more.
“Football-wise we’ve got to prepare for him, but that’s more of the defense, so they’ll take care of that,” McCoy said. “That’s what they do best, on defense. All the extra stuff, everyone’s got an opinion about it. I think the good thing about being here in America; that’s his freedom. If he wants to speak about it or take a knee, then that’s what he wants to do. There no law again that. As players we’re just trying to win football games. There’s different platforms you can choose to talk about it or make a stand for something like that. The thing is he chose to do it on the field, but that’s really up to him.”
Regarding the underlying reasons for Kaepernick’s protests, McCoy has a somewhat unique perspective; he faced potential prosecution in the offseason for allegedly fighting with off-duty police officers.
“My take on it is obviously the things the cops are doing is definitely wrong,” McCoy said. “But there’s good people, there’s bad people. There’s good cops, there’s bad cops. Actually, this game or next game I’m going to invite some police to the game, probably 15 or 20, just an appreciation type of thing because they’re taking so much heat right now and what’s going on is definitely wrong, but I always feel there’s just bad people, there’s good cops and there’s bad cops. So that’s something actually, me and my foundation we’ll be going and also inner-city kids we’re going to bring them to the game too. You know, you’ve got to show appreciation, because nobody’s perfect. I don’t want all cops getting a bad rap for what bad cops are doing, because there are still good cops. And at the end of the day if there’s something wrong going on, or there’s something that is dangerous I’m sure Kap will call the cops, he’ll call 911.”
Kaepernick’s gesture will gain renewed focus, now that he’ll actually be playing. And plenty of people will be chiming in, regardless of whether there are any new developments.