41and #Dallas5 hashtags—prompting
fines that the league later rescinded.
That same month, James, Wade, Paul
and fellow NBA star Carmelo Anthony
opened the ESPY Awards with a call to
action. “The racial profiling has to stop,”
said Wade, a Chicago native whose
cousin Nykea Aldridge was killed by a
stray bullet there in August. “The shoot-
to-kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing
the value of black and brown bodies has
to stop. But also the retaliation has to
stop. The endless gun violence in places
like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention
Orlando—it has to stop. Enough.”
Even Michael Jordan, long the em-
bodiment of the offend-none, profit-
from-all sports star, has gotten involved,
pledging $1 million each to the Institute
for Community-Police Relations and the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The players cite a number of rea-
sons for this renewed interest in broader
causes. Social media, for one, has forced
them to become more aware of the world
around them, ensuring that even the
tight bubble of the locker room is punc-
tured by the latest viral police shooting.
“It’s kind of crazy to imagine how we
used to find out information,” Paul tells
TIME. “I may be in practice or at a game,
and then when the game is over I can
pick up the phone and all the informa-
tion is there. And I actually see video of
things. Now it’s not what someone said
happened. Now you can see footage and
video and decide for yourself.”
What they see has been galvanizing,
particularly for African-American men
who recognize parts of themselves in thebodies on the news. “At some point in
time, Twitter hashtags aren’t enough,”
says Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny
Stills, one of the players who took a knee
for the anthem. “Eventually, you have to
stand up and try to bring some change.”Not loNg after kaeperNick first
explained his protest, Seattle Seahawks
coach Pete Carroll invited Harry Edwards,
a sociologist and activist who helped or-
ganize the black-power salute at the 1968
Olympics, to talk to his team. Scheduled
for 90 minutes, the meeting stretched
to more than three hours as players de-
bated how they should respond, Edwards
says. What they ultimately decided on—
locking arms during the anthem as a way
to show unity as a team if not uniformity
in their opinions—matters less, Edwards
says, than how they got there. “This pro-
cess with athletes, on these teams, models
what we need to do and where we need to
go as a society,” he says.
Locking arms, taking a knee in protest:
symbols have meaning, but the question
hovering over the current movement is
how protest can add up to progress. “All
these guys that are a part of this, I com-
pletely honor their right to do it,” says
Boyer, the veteran who helped prompt
Kaepernick to switch from sitting to
kneeling. “But it is imperative that they
are part of the solution, that they are tak-
ing action themselves.”
Many are trying. After he began his
protest, Kaepernick’s jersey became
the top-selling one in the NFL, out-
pacing those of stars like Tom Brady.
He has pledged to donate $1 million tocommunity-based organizations, par-
celed out monthly in $100,000 incre-
ments, and has promised to track the ways
the money is spent. Edwards is pushing
for athletes, police and other community
stakeholders to hold regular dialogue in
neighborhood barbershops. McCourty,
the New England Patriots safety, says he
wants to meet with Boston’s police chief.
Jenkins, the Philadelphia Eagles corner-
back who raised a fist on Monday Night
Football, has a ride-along with local police
set up for late September in an attempt to
bridge the communication gap between
officers and residents.
“The worst thing I think you can do as
a football player,” says Jenkins, “is to have
gotten to this stage, had the presence that
you’ve had, and leave this game as just a
football player.”
Meanwhile, the movement they began
shows no signs of slowing. Victor Olad-
ipo, a guard on the Oklahoma City Thun-
der, says he expects NBA players to join
in when their preseason begins in Octo-
ber. And on fields in places from Alaska
to Nebraska, young athletes will con-
tinue on. “I don’t know if they’ll use this
as a stepping-stone to think about other
means of change in society,” says Eric
Guthertz, the principal of San Francisco’s
Mission High School, whose football team
has embraced the protests. “Maybe the ul-
timate impact will be just how they carry
themselves in the world, and that will be
beautiful.” —With reporting byabigail
abrams, Eliana DocktErmanand
mErrill Fabry/nEw york; lily roth-
man/Durham;andkaty stEinmEtz/
san Francisco •△
HEAVY HEARTSIn July, players from
the New York Liberty wear black warm-up
clothes to support Black Lives Matter△
THE CATALYSTSan Francisco 49ers Eric Reid,
left, and Colin Kaepernick kneel together for the
anthem on Sept. 18△
A MOVEMENT SPREADSThe
Minneapolis South High School girls’
volleyball team joins the protest on Sept. 15ESPYS, RAPINOE: GETTY IMAGES; NEW YORK LIBERTY, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS: AP; MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL: SHAUN KING