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Tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie take the field in 2018. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Bears starting tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie kneeled during the playing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes referred to as the Black national anthem, about a half hour before Sunday’s game against the Lions.
DETROIT — Bears starting tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie kneeled during the playing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes referred to as the Black national anthem, about a half hour before Sunday’s game against the Lions.
This year, the league is also playing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before games, alongside a video displayed on scoreboards. At the ned of their stretching period, both teams stood along the 20-yard line during the playing of the song. Bears players either stood or linked arms, except for Leno and Massie, who kneeled next to each other.
The national anthem will be played shortly.
The Bears held an emotional team meeting on Zoom in the wake of the George Floyd killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. After Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police, the Bears joined other NFL teams — including the first team to do so, the Lions — in skipping one day of practice. Instead, they spoke about social injustice together.
The first part of aloft Every Voice and Sing, played about a half hour before kickoff of #Bears vs #Lions pic.twitter.com/NKJZPSW4DQ
— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) September 13, 2020
The Bears developed an anthem plan during the week.
“What I like about that is that we’ve been talking about it and it’s, again, what I think is very important is the most important part is what you talk about, why you do what you do, and then you do it together,” coach Matt Nagy said Friday. “I think you’re going to see that a lot of people, a lot of different teams, are going to have different ideas and suggestions and thoughts as to what they do.
“There’s a lot of opinions that everybody has. That’s obvious. You saw that [Thursday] night [between the Chiefs and Texans]. What’s important right now is to make sure that we talk about it, we discuss it, which we’re doing and have done. And then in the end, we understand what we have in each other and why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
In the first game of the year, on Thursday, the Texans decided to stay in their locker room during the anthem, while the Chiefs stood during it. The two teams came together for a show of unity before the game began.
Bears chairman George McCaskey said Thursday that protesting during the anthem is divisive topic.
“For everybody who says that the players should take a knee you find somebody else who says no, the players should stand with their hands over their hearts during the anthem,” he said. “So I don’t know that there’s any absolute right way to handle it. We’re …read more
Source:: Chicago Sun Times
