LONDON — Tennessee Titans defensive end Jurrell Casey, a three-time Pro Bowler, is the first prominent player to say he plans to protest on the field during the national anthem this fall, despite new National Football League proscriptions.
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“I’m going to take a fine this year, why not?” Casey told CNN Sport during an NFL promotional event in London. “I’m going to protest during the flag. That’s what I’m going to say now.”
While no Titans have ever taken a knee during the anthem, Casey and a handful of others raised the gloved fist of the Black Power movement during the pre-game playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” last season. Wide receiver Rishard Matthews, whose father served in the Marine Corps for 21 years and whose brother was killed in Afghanistan, opted to remain in the locker room last season after President Donald Trump called protesting players “son of a b—-” at a rally in Alabama, a tirade which prompted the team’s principal owner, Amy Adams Strunk, who donated to Trump’s campaign, to issue a statement supporting her players.
Matthews, who wears a bracelet with the Marines’ Globe and Anchor to honor his brother, was, coincidentally, a teammate for Colin Kaepernick, the then-San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback who started the kneeling protest as a way to highlight racial inequality and police brutality. Critics of the protest, including Trump, have said kneeling dishonors the military and the anthem itself, though Matthews called that a “distraction.” In a now-retracted statement, Matthews once said he’d quit playing football if the league required players to stand.
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The NFL adopted a policy in the offseason allowing players to remain in the locker room if they so choose, but requiring those on the field to stand. Casey did not specify in his interview what form his protest will take, meaning he could simply continue raising his fist.
Under the NFL policy, fines will be billed to the teams rather than the players individually. Adams Strunk emphasized earlier this year she would support the players who chose to remain in the locker room, but was mum on covering any penalties.
The league policy is vague and does not even specify how much any fine would be. It further leaves the door open to punish players without the conduit of the team through “appropriate discipline on league personnel who do not stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem.”
“I’m going to take my fine,” Casey told CNN. “It is what it is, I ain’t going to let them stop me from doing what I want to do. If they want to have these battles between players and organizations, this is the way it’s going to be.”
Casey is a three-time Pro Bowler and was second team All-Pro in 2013. He has spent his entire career with the Titans since being drafted in the third round in 2011. He told CNN he has not spoken to new Titans coach Mike Vrabel nor his teammates about his decision, but he did say “guys are definitely not happy about” the new policy.
“There is always going to be blowback, that is what America is about. They always like to go on social media and go hard … But I will continue to use my platform to keep on speaking up,” he said.
Casey emphasized the protests are “not necessarily about the anthem, that’s where everybody’s messing up.”
“The way that the justice system treats minorities is the issue that we have,” he said.
The Titans have yet to respond to a request for comment.
Wednesday’s London event was part of the league’s promotional push ahead of three games being staged in the city this season. The Titans will play the Jacksonville Jaguars Oct. 21 at Wembley Stadium. The Seattle Seahawks will play the Oakland Raiders at Tottenham Hotspur’s as-yet-unnamed new stadium Oct. 14 and the Jags will play the Philadelphia Eagles at Wembley Oct. 28.
Check out CNN for more from Casey – including his thoughts on “trash quarterbacks” with NFL jobs while Kaepernick remains unemployed – and from the other players on the promotional tour.
Photo by Christian Petersen, Getty Sports