Seahawks' Michael Bennett sits again for anthem with teammate Justin Britt in support
Michael Bennett was joined by a white Seahawks teammate as he sat during the national anthem before their preseason game on Friday night.
Justin Britt stood next to Bennett and put his hand on his shoulder. This comes just days after Bennett went on SportsCenter and talked about how white NFL players joining the anthem protests "would change the whole conversation," and it comes the day after the Eagles' Chris Long put his arm around his teammate Malcolm Jenkins "to show support as a white athlete."
AP Photo/Scott Eklund
Additionally, as Britt stood next to Bennett, Jeremy Lane was facing them and away from the field. Here's more about the scene from The Seattle Times' Bob Condotta:
And as the anthem ended, teammates Cliff Avril and Frank Clark broke from the rest of the team - standing with arms locked on the sidelines - to then sit by Bennett on the bench. Avril is one of Bennett's closest friends on the team.
AP Photo/Stephen Brashear
Bennett and Britt hugged after the anthem was over.
AP Photo/Scott Eklund
Bennett gave a powerful answer when asked why he decided sit for the anthem last weekend. He told reporters, again via The Seattle Times:
"First of all I want to make sure people understand I love the military - my father was in the military. I love hot dogs like any other American. I love football like any other American. But I don't love segregation, I don't love riots, I don't love oppression. I don't love gender slander.
"I just want to see people have the equality that they deserve and I want to be able to use this platform to continuously push the message and keep finding out how unselfish we can be in society, how we can continuously love one another and understand that people are different. And just because people are different doesn't mean that you shouldn't like them. Just because they don't eat what you eat, just because they don't pray to the same God you pray to doesn't mean you should hate them. Whether it is Muslim, whether it is Buddhist, whether it is Christianity, I just want people to understand that no matter what, we need to stay together. It's more about being a human being at this point."