Joe Medley: NFL players should unite for free speech – Anniston Star

An indispensable NFL player should take a knee. Maybe not during the National Anthem, but do it during a time when the sentiment is clear.

Lets not name names. Just please, any player with a franchise tag or franchise talent, take a knee. Take it for a universally agreeable cause free speech.

Well, it should be a universally agreeable cause.

Colin Kaepernicks controversial stand by taking a knee during the National Anthem last season has cost him on the job market this offseason. Hes not the best quarterback around, but please. Hes taken a team to a Super Bowl. His career touchdown passes-to-interceptions ratio is better than 2-1.

Thats 72 on the good side, 30 on the bad.

He warrants a place among the 64 quarterbacks that will begin the 2017 season as somebodys starter or backup, but he cant seem to get a job at age 29. Meanwhile, surly 30-something underachievers like Jay Cutler can come out of retirement for a one-year, $10 million deal.

Against this backdrop, newly anointed Hall of Fame owner Jerry Jones says, with impunity, hed cut a player for doing what Kaepernick did.

Right. Lets see Jones cut Ezekiel Elliott or Dak Prescott for kneeling.

Its time for high-end players to call the owners bluff. Take a knee to make a stand for free speech.

No one must agree with Kaepernicks reasons to agree with his right to express himself, and high-end players gladly stand with second-tier players in mutually beneficial labor disputes. They should also make a stand by taking a knee for their free speech.

Sports Writer Joe Medley: 256-235-3576. On Twitter:@jmedley_star.

Follow this link:
Joe Medley: NFL players should unite for free speech - Anniston Star