Ben Goessling, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Carl Eller to Colin Kaepernick: Speak out for change, but stand for anthem

MINNEAPOLIS -- Carl Eller knows the pain of racial injustice on a deeper level than most current athletes. The issues that led San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick to sit down during the national anthem Friday night aren't that different from the institutional racism that Eller experienced growing up in the Jim Crow South. And, as the Hall of Fame defensive end made clear on Monday afternoon, athletes have an opportunity to make a profound difference by using their platform to speak out on social issues.

The national anthem, though, is not the place Eller would have chosen to do it. He enrolled in the Army National Guard in the late 1960s so he could begin his NFL career without the specter of the military draft, and he occasionally had to be excused from Minnesota Vikings practices to fulfill his obligations with the National Guard. When then-Vikings coach Bud Grant made his team practice standing at attention for the national anthem -- as a way to earn respect from opponents on game days by showing their discipline -- Eller was the man he chose to model the proper stance: heels together, arms at the side, helmet tucked under one arm.

When Eller had something to say, it didn't come by abandoning what he saw as one of his duties as an athlete.

"Here's why it's important: In sports, it's the only place we hear the anthem," Eller said. "They don't play it at concerts. They don't play it at movie theaters. They don't play it at church. Sports is the only place you show allegiance to the anthem. It's important for sports to maintain that tradition."

Eller, who became one of the Vikings' earliest African-American stars and played 15 season in Minnesota, applauded Kaepernick's right to speak out. He even offered to meet with the quarterback to help him craft his message. That message, though, shouldn't include sitting out the anthem, Eller said.

"Athletes can break ground and forge new frontiers," Eller said. "With movements like Black Lives Matter, there's some recognition of what it was like (in the 1960s). There's a great burden and weight (as an athlete), and that's not a responsibility we should take lightly. We can play a crucial part in what's going on. But we should not confuse the two arenas. Make a stand -- let's do that. But let's make sure we're all fighting for one America.

"Colin is a great athlete, and he's got a great voice. It can be an asset. It will be heard, but we need to make it a singular voice."

A better vehicle for activism, Eller said, is a gesture like the one NBA superstar LeBron James made by wearing an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt after the police chokehold death of Eric Garner in 2014, or the Minnesota Lynx's "Change Starts With Us" shirts the team wore after the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling this summer.

On the other hand, the public needs to realize athletes have a meaningful voice in the conversation, Eller said.

"There are a lot of athletes who want to do something and be part of the bigger movement," he said. "But you have to give athletes that voice, and realize they're not just running around catching a ball."

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