Pete Carroll supports Michael Bennett's message, the Seahawks head coach said Tuesday, though he said he also thinks everyone should stand for the anthem.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday he was caught off-guard when defensive lineman Michael Bennett decided not to stand for the national anthem on Sunday when the Seahawks played the Los Angeles Chargers in Carson, Calif., and that he thinks everyone should stand for the anthem.
However, Carroll also said he supports Bennett taking a stand and that the two have talked several times since Sunday. Carroll is unclear if Bennett will continue to sit during the anthem, though Bennett said after the game Sunday that he intended to sit for the rest of the season.
The Seahawks next play on Friday night when they host the Minnesota Vikings in their first preseason game at CenturyLink Field.
Carroll said the team will have a plan by Friday on how it will approach the anthem.
“Whatever we do, it will be the right thing for us,” Carroll said.
Carroll, though, said he would prefer everyone stand.
“I love our country and I think we should all stand for the opportunity when the flag is represented,” he said. “But the fact that his heart is in a great place and he is going to do great work long after this time (in the NFL), it’s easy for me to support him in his issues. But I think we should all be standing up when we are playing the national anthem.”
Carroll called it “a bit of a surprise” that Bennett sat — he said in his post-game news conference Sunday that he didn’t find out until after the game as he was heading in to his meeting with the media.
“I didn’t know it was coming,” Carroll said Tuesday. “So we hadn’t adjusted going in. So we will see. This is a very connected football team and everybody is really here to do something special and to do it together and so whatever happens from this point forward we will be working on it and we’ll see where it goes.”
Bennett was not been made available to local media on Tuesday — he was expected to do an interview with CNN — but is expected to talk again before the game against the Vikings.
Carroll said he understands that Bennett feels compelled to speak out on social injustice and other issues due in part to travels Bennett has made around the world as well as work he has done with his foundation.
“Mike and I go way back, we’ve had a long time together that we’ve spent working on stuff on and off the field, in great depth,” Carroll said. “Michael has dedicated the last few years of his life to trying to understand what’s going on, and has traveled everywhere to try to understand those issues and concerns, and it’s really captured his heart. He’s turned his focus to doing good work and helping people and doing everything he can, so I support the heck out of his concerns on these issues and all that.”
Bennett said Sunday he made a decision to sit shortly before the game and said he did not talk to teammates or others with the team.
“Seeing everything in Virginia and stuff that is going on I just wanted to be able to use my platform to continuously speak out on injustice,” Bennett said.
Receiver Doug Baldwin, who did not attend the Chargers’ game due to an injury that kept him in Seattle, said he supported Bennett’s actions and that he “absolutely” would consider sitting for the anthem.
But Baldwin also said the players would have discussions this week and likely come to an agreement on a team-wide stance.
“We are going to have a conversation here shortly and again, we try to do things as a team and as a family and we will see how we can support Mike in this situation,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said prior to last year’s regular season opener against Miami that he also considered kneeling or sitting for the anthem as then-San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick had begun doing during the preseason. But after a few intense team meetings the Seahawks instead decided to stand for the anthem with arms locked as a show of unity.
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The rest of the team continued that approach on Sunday, while Bennett remained on the bench with a towel draped over his head.
“I know that Mike’s decision comes from a great place,” Baldwin said. “I know Mike obviously as a teammate and as a person and it comes from a good place and I thought he did an excellent job of kind of prefacing it in his response after the game and I was really proud of it.”
Carroll said his talks with Bennett included advising him to make sure he understood the ramifications of his decision as well as the fact that there could be others who would try to co-opt his stance.
“We’ve talked about all that’s going to come to him and to listen very carefully to people’s perspectives and stay very true and very much in the middle so he doesn’t get captured one way or the other by someone else’s perspective, someone else’s issues,” Carroll said. “So I will continue to support him and help in every way. We will visit regularly and hopefully we can help him make sense of all the things that will come his way.”
Baldwin, meanwhile, said players should not feel as if they don’t have the right to use the setting of an NFL game to make a stance on social issues.
“It’s freedom of speech,” said Baldwin, whose father worked for 35 years with the Pensacola (Fla.) Police Department and who last year led an effort to encourage state attorneys general to review police training procedures in the wake of instances of police mistreatment of minorities. “There’s a lot more I want to say about it, but I won’t use this platform to say it because I’ve been advised not to, and out of respect for this organization, I’ll do that.”
“However, I think it’s bigger than that. It’s much bigger than that,” Baldwin said. “If your feelings are hurt about a particular situation, maybe you should ask yourself, ‘OK why are my feelings hurt about this? Why is it so important for somebody who seems to be an intelligent human being? Why is it so important for them to get this message across? Why is it so important for them to do it in this particular way in which they’re doing it? Why is it so important?’ I think if all of us can ask ourselves that question, maybe we’ll be smarter people, smarter human beings, a smarter society.”
Baldwin also said he didn’t think players should worry about there any potential backlash from fans who might disagree with Bennett not standing for the anthem.
“Um, no,” he said. “It’s FOOTBALL. It’s Football. You know, I appreciate the fans who come out here to support us, but it’s football. We’re not saving lives, we’re not police officers we’re not doctors. We’re football players. First and foremost. So if you want to stop watching a game because a guy feels very strongly about a very serious topic going on in our society, that’s your choice. But you have a right to freedom of speech. So if you want to do that, all for it.”
Baldwin also dismissed the idea that the issue could divide the team.
“Um, if you’re asking me if there’s an issue with it in the locker room, there is none,” Bennett said. “Again, we operate as a family. We support our guys in everything they want to do, and whatever endeavors they set out to achieve. Mike has always been one of those leaders in our locker room. We trust him. Again, he’s a highly highly intelligent individual, who didn’t just make this decision off the cuff. This is a decision that, I know, knowing Mike, that he’s taken a lot of time and pride in making. So as a family within this organization we fully support what he’s done.”
Baldwin also said he thinks there’s hypocrisy in that some fans who might criticize players for sitting likely aren’t paying attention to the anthem themselves.
“I think everyone has the right to freedom of speech, right?,” Baldwin said. “Whether you agree with it or not, that’s irrelevant, individuals have the right to freedom of speech. I mean, we want to talk about somebody talking a stand to something that’s important. Taking a stand, taking a seat to something that they deem important, right? Inequality in our country, injustice in our country. We’re sitting here having a conversation about whether it’s important whether a guy stands for the national anthem or sits, when the topic is inequality and injustice.
“I look at the stands for some of our games home or away, and I see people who are drunk with their hat still on, yelling. How come you guys aren’t talking to them. How come there’s not a discussion about them? This guy is taking a reasonable and peaceful approach to something that I – I don’t know who doesn’t think is valiantly important to our society and the health and wellness of our communities. We’re not talking about people who are in the stands drunk, during the national anthem with their hats still on, yelling, cussing at players. We’re not talking about them. So to me, I know you guys are reporters and you gotta make a story about something, but to me this is taking it too far.”
Baldwin wasn’t the only Seahawk who publicly stated his support for Bennett’s actions. Defensive end Cliff Avril also tweeted his support for Bennett Tuesday afternoon, saying, “Hats off to my brother (Michael Bennett) for standing for something regardless of what others may think or don’t understand.”