Eagles Player Malcolm Jenkins Says Team Wanted to Wait Until After 9/11 to Protest National Anthem

Malcolm Jenkins says some Eagles players plan to protest the national anthem, but didn't want to do it last Sunday out of respect for the families of 9/11.

malcolm jenkins
USA Today Sports

Image via USA Today Sports/Eric Hartline

malcolm jenkins

Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said that some of his teammates plan to protest the national anthem after deciding against doing it last Sunday because they didn't want to "take away from the families that suffered from 9/11."

In an interview with SportsRadio 94 WIP in Philadelphia on Friday, Jenkins revealed that a few other Eagles players will "definitely" make some sort of statement prior to kickoff. "Last week, we talked about doing some stuff, but we wanted to make sure that we didn't do anything to take away from the families that suffered from 9/11," Jenkins said. "We didn't want to mess with that day, so we left last week alone. But moving forward, I'm sure there will be guys that will probably join in." 

Back in August, Eagles linebacker Myke Tavarres told ESPN that he planned on following Colin Kaepernick's lead and protest the anthem prior to the team's final preseason game. A couple hours later, Tavarres's agent Corey Williams said that his client would not go through with his plan, adding that Myke didn't want to be a distraction to the organization.  

Tavarres's initial declaration came after he, along with Jenkins, Leodis McKelvin, and a number of other Eagles players, held an open forum led by defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to discuss the issue of social injustice in this country today. Now, it appears that some players have some sort of plan in place for when the Eagles take on the Chicago Bears on Monday night. 

"For me, it has nothing to do with this country or the flag or the anthem in itself. Really it's just to continue to push forward the conversation about social injustice, and that's a range of things from police brutality to wages and job opportunities, education," Jenkins said. "There's just a lot of things systematically that have been set up in this country since its inception that put minorities, especially African Americans, at a disadvantage when you talk about quality of life and actually growing in this country.

"So we want to continue to keep that conversation going and push it to as many people as we can obviously while doing our part in bringing forth change. Obviously this has been a hot topic, and the more players that join in, the further this conversation goes."

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

Latest in Sports