Even though he’s no longer kneeling for the national anthem, Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills notices when others do.
So when a dozen Browns players formed a multi-cultural prayer circle last night hit a knee, Stills definitely noticed.
“It’s encouraging to see other people getting involved,” Stills said, via Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today. “I feel like it’s pretty alarming that we have a league that’s majority African-American, and we didn’t have many guys that were getting involved. So I was pretty excited and encouraged by that. People are saying that they were praying for our country; I support that as well. I’m encouraged to see people getting involved and hope that they start taking the action and get involved in their community.”
Stills kneeled throughout last season, but decided he wasn’t going to continue last year.
“I felt people were being distracted by the kneeling and not seeing the work that we were doing, and that’s what it’s all about,” Stills said. “The narrative was going the wrong way, and I just wanted to get it going back the right way. And I think the guys that are kneeling, as long as they start getting themselves involved in the community and start getting to work, then people can’t really have anything negative to say about that.”
Stills has put his activism into action, and is one of the more active Dolphins players in the community (winning the team’s service award). He has held town halls with players and coaches and police and civilians, and has ridden along with local police there to learn more about their world.