Every week he plays, Miami Dolphins player Robert Quinn raises his fist during the National Anthem.

And you should know. So should I. So says Robert Quinn.

As pointed out by The Daily Wire, the defensive end is mad at the media for not covering his protest. He stated his complaint to the Miami Herald:

“Y’all ignore it. Because when I gave my first message on trying to bring unity, y’all swept it under the rug. It’s not me. When you don’t give a problematic story, y’all just ran away. You’ve got this lady named Cyntoia Brown, or whatever her name is, and you sent her to life in prison because she was being sex-trafficked. But yet you guys dipped.”

Robert was referring to a woman in Tennessee who was sent to prison for life for a murder she committed when she was 16.

Oh, and also: Huh??

The Herald had covered Robert’s positions in April, when he waxed philosophic on America:

“The way America was built, and the way people talk …. The president said to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. This country was built off of — they killed Indians, built off the backs of the blacks. So yet, they tell us to keep quiet. So at the end of the day, let’s confront the situation and let’s bring humanity and friendship and let’s get rid of all the ignorance. Let’s face it head-on, let’s look at each other as humans. I always live by this one law: Treat each other like you want to be treated. You don’t ever want to smack someone in the face and don’t expect to get smacked back. It’s just that simple fact. Don’t treat someone bad and expect not to be treated the same way. That’s just how it is.”

Hmm…

Okay, I’ll give this a shot:

• The wall’s purpose isn’t to keep out Mexicans. It’s to stop people from coming into the country illegally. Mexicans are welcome into the U.S. via immigration.
• No one of any consequence is telling black people to keep quiet.
• If Robert wants to get rid of “all the ignorance,” that’s a tall order. But he could start by learning that the epidemic protested by Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players (including himself) isn’t borne out by statistics (here).
• If Robert’s law is to treat people the way he wants to be treated, then that would prohibit him from “[treating someone] the same way” when he is mistreated.

Moving on:

Beyond the April article, the Herald seems to have focused more on the political kneeling of Kenny Stills, wide receiver for the team.

Robert isn’t much for that:

“Man, I don’t have nothing to do with Kenny. That ain’t got nothing to do with me. All I’m saying is, my production went up because I’m just playing football and America’s got a lot of problems to fix within itself. Tell America to look itself in the mirror and the people who built it.”

I applaud Robert for speaking his mind. He had a lot to say, and he said it.

This instance notwithstanding, athletes aren’t always scholars. Nor are they consistently experts on the state of society, much less solutions to its ills. Despite the uptick in raised fists and bent knees over the last couple years, I remain unconvinced that sports figures — and we — aren’t better off if those on the field just stick to playing. Otherwise, it seems to me, we fail at achieving that great state Robert’s trying to “bring”: unity.

-Alex

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