Several NFL players have knelt during anthem this season
Nearly every team in the NFL on Sunday had at least one player protest the national anthem and comments made by President Donald Trump, saying Saturday the players should stand or be fired.
UWL Head Coach Mike Schmidt says there have been conversations about the recent trend
Schmidt said, “It’s been an issue that they brought to me. We discussed about it as a team and decided that if there are issues and something we want to do then we’ll do it as a team, and we certianly don’t want do do anything to divide us. If there are things that guys want to protest or do activism for, we want to bring that out together so we can deal with it as a group and talk about how we collectively can make things better”
Schmidt says he’s not surprised football teams are united in the protest, adding the game introduces you to many different cultures.
“I came to UW-La Crosse and I had only known one African-American in my life. I was exposed to a couple dear friends of mine that have a different skin color than me and different backgrounds. If I hadn’t had those experiences through football, my life would be different in a worse way.”
Schmidt says there are currently no plans to protest, and commends his players for going about in the right way.
UW-La Crosse will start conference play this Saturday at UW-Stevens Point beginning at 6PM.