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Rapinoe, Sauerbrunn, Leroux among nine NWSL players to protest during National Anthem

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Sunday’s National Anthem protests were not limited to NFL players.

The NWSL saw a host of players stay in the locker room during the anthem before Sunday’s match between the Seattle Reign and FC Kansas City.

Nine players in all participated in the protest, highlighted by USWNT stars Megan Rapinoe for Seattle and Becky Sauerbrunn, captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, and Sydney Leroux  for FCKC. Seattle’s Lauren Barnes, Diana Matheson, Elli Reed, and Madalyn Schiffel joined Rapinoe in the locker room while Yael Averbuch, and Desiree Scott stayed behind with Leroux.

This wasn’t Rapinoe’s first anthem protest. She kneeled during the anthem last year before U.S. Soccer stepped in to require those associated with the national team to stand for the anthem before games.

Comments

  1. More spoiled cows insulting my community (Armed Forces & Vets). These spoiled cows choose to insult my community but don’t protest real issues (gangs, welfare, Big Government, Wars Abroad, War against Drugs, drug dealers, looters, single mothers etc…) causing real harm to their communities & continuing to hurt the Working Class.

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  2. I thought Rapino had learned her lesson on this? Maybe Ellis needs to drop her again to reminder her. I think Leroux time with the NATS is over so thats a big who cares

    Please take your protests elsewhere. Nobody wants to see this crap at a sporting event. Even if its not during the Anthem, most dont care to see it. We pay to see a game, not a demonstration

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  3. Joe Hojnacki, this is bad/irrdsponsible journalism. how can you tell us that people are holding a protest and not tell us what they are protesting or what their reasons are for doing it?

    if any readers at sbi get the wrong idea that the players are protesting the American flag, i think you have to feel personally responsible.

    Don’t you think so?

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  4. This is simply a ditto to “Old School’s” comments. Also its amazing that most of the protesters who disrespect the flag, are ones whose ancestors saw a million soldiers die
    while holding that flag so as to set them free from slavery.

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    • That same flag saw Jim Crow and segregation. So the American flag has its flaws as well. Being a black man in this country I appreciate what it provides but I’m not going to ingore how it’s gotten to this point. So I do appreciate my ancestors being freed by I’m not going to give this country a pass just because they did the right thing eventually.

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      • Jim Crow & segregation happen after the Civil War & created but Democratic Party. Note: FDR, Carl Vinson, George Wallace, Sen. Byrd, Stennis etc….all Dems.

        Insult my flag & anthem I’ll kick you on spine. Note: I was born Uruguay & I am an American by choice!

  5. Would it be okay if your failure to stand during the anthem or place your hand over your heart was against your religion? As I understand the Jehovahs Witness religion, their belief is that no nation is above God and they do not honor a nation by those types of symbolic actions. This was the basis for the Supreme Court decision in West Virginia vs. Burnette (1943), which involved the pledge of allegiance. The Court ruled that people cannot be forced to say such a pledge as a matter of First Amendment rights. So, is it okay for JW’s to do those things, but not other people?

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    • Gary,…we have to defend the 1st Amendment. These players have every right to protest in whatever fashion they think/believe is right. President Trump has every right to share his opinion on the subject. Fellow citizens just don’t have to watch or listen. As an aside,…guaranteed NFL will change its tune when ratings plummet and revenues start to shrink.

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  6. I’m so sick of all of this. Sports are where we should be able to go to escape it. Also, whether you agree with the message or not it seems foolish for players to risk alienating any of the leagues 15 or so fans.

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    • Just turn it off. NFL? Ha! 3 1/2 hour games. $20 beers. If you are a Giants fan,…that usually means going to bed after 1 AM. Outrageous ticket prices and parking fees. No running game anymore. CTE. Domestic abuse. Baby mamas. Guys pretending to pee like dogs after they score. Protests. 1%ers who have no idea what it means to grind out a living to support their families. What’s To miss? Just turn it off. Read a good book. Study the stock market,…track your 401(k) performance. Go for a hike in the countryside. Just turn it off and forget them.

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      • AzTexan,

        Not about safe space,…its about apathy at this point. I’m am a huge supporter of the 1st Amendment,…and everyone should exercise their rights,…I’m just tuning out.

  7. Everyone says their protesting for equality and police brutality, but when the spokesman of said protest; lie about police interaction (see Michael Bennett), support communist dictators and wear pig socks (see Colin Kaepernick) or completely pass up the opportunity to actual discuss “change” with the President (see Golden State Warriors) you realize how much of a sham this supposed protest is.
    —-
    Then…you dive into actual facts and statistics and remove yourself from the hyperbole and you realize more and more how much of a sham it is. There’s an arrest every 2.5 seconds in America. Millions of police interactions a day throughout the country. I yield that human’s are prone to mistakes and they have taken place, but they aren’t prevelant or rampant as the “spokesman” and media would lead you to believe. The same that simply do no report police officers losing their lives protecting and serving.
    —-
    It’s adorable to say you want discussion, and it’s laughable when instead you avoid it or riot the very neighborhoods you call home.

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    • You call yourself Old school..

      Hopefully you recognize the fact that you are communicating along a very “new school” sort of platform..

      A platform that ranks innovation and use with cell phone cameras a twitter accounts..

      Regardless of motivation, the aforementioned cell phone cameras have in very graphic detail captured the Summary execution of American citizens with in great detail..

      Unfortunately.. This great detail represents a very small portion of what has happened in this country in sections of communities that you may know very little about (judging by your own words) for decades..

      Apparently.. It was(is) nothing to beat down.. Choke and murder someoned child because of reasons only known to the inner workings of a police department..

      This enforcement of inequality as subtle or as violent as it was didnt really register in the public consciousness until the recent ” new school” revelations..

      Im a New York Giants fan.. For that reason alone Im hesitant to support anything a 49 er does..

      But the use of a high level position to coomunicate and challenge national hypocracy that involves the physical beat down and murder of citizens in an effort to maintain status quo is noble

      Perhaps you are not on board because there was no arguement made regarding taxation without representation made prior?

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      • “The Squad”
        —-
        Appreciate the generlization and your failure to judge my life experience, historical knowledge, etc based on my username. That’s hilarious. “New school” ignorance at it’s finest.

    • Easily the most frustrating portion of this. These athletes are not protesting the national anthem flag, they are using this time as a mechanism for their protest against police brutality and discrimination. It infuriates me when people say they are protesting the flag and anthem. Get a clue.

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  8. Who cares, really? Leagues really need to stop doing anthems. Reserve that for int’l play.

    Oh, and two of the players listed who stayed behind are Canadian anyway.

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