If Dak Prescott didn’t win himself a permanent spot in Mississippi’s collective heart with his All-American performance at Mississippi State, he’s done it with his response to the NFL national anthem protests.
The current Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback made comments last month saying it was time to move on. He subsequently defended those statements despite criticism from fellow athletes and commentators.
“I made my statements. I stand by what I said,” he was quoted as saying by ESPN. “Some people may have misunderstood or whatever, but I know what I said, and I feel strongly about what I said.”
Here’s exactly what Prescott said:
“I never protest during the anthem, and I don’t think that’s the time or the venue to do so. The game of football has always brought me such a peace, and I think it does the same for a lot of people, a lot of people playing the game, a lot of people watching the game, a lot of people that have any impact of the game. So when you bring such a controversy to the stadium, to the field, to the game, it takes away. It takes away from that. It takes away from the joy and the love that football brings to a lot of people.
“So for me, I’m all about making a change, making a difference, and I think this whole kneeling and all that was all about just raising awareness. The fact that we’re still talking about social injustice years later, I think we’ve got to that point. I think we’ve proved and we know that there’s social injustice. So I’m for taking a next step that whatever that step may be for action, and not just kneeling. I’ve always believed in standing up for what I believe in, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
Prescott’s points — that football is an escape from the world’s problems and that the point the protestors were making has been made — are good ones. Also, credit to him for not backpedaling in the face of criticism from something he really meant, as so many in the public eye do.
The issues that the mostly black players were trying to raise — police brutality, racial inequality, injustices within the criminal justice system — are legitimate issues. They just picked a poor way to try to raise them, causing many Americans to focus not on the players’ concerns but rather whether their form of protest was an insult to the nation, and especially to its military.
Prescott’s statements show that even those who are more sympathetic to the protestors’ actions now have tired of the distraction. It’s time to get back to football.
