I don’t think Malcolm Jenkins is a bad guy.
He has done a lot of good work and I truly believe he thinks he is doing the right thing, but he never addresses in these statements to NJ.com Matt Lombardo why he went behind Eric Reid and other kneeling players back. If everything was on the up and up, why would you do that?
“Through those works, we were able to sit down and have dialogue with the league about how they can amplify those efforts, and move past the demonstrations. I feel those conversations have gone well. I feel like in good faith, the platform that they have offered to provide amplified that, but takes all of it to a new level. Not only does it draw awareness, but you can make actual change on both a national and local level.
“In good faith, that’s what I set out to accomplish in the first place. I’ll continue to do the work. I’m proud that we’ve been able to go from just a simple silent demonstration, even with all of the noise and backlash that that caused, we showed a lot of perseverance, a lot of sacrifice. Hopefully we’ll come out of that with something that’s very meaningful.”
When asked about Reid and his concerns, Jenkins gives a very indirect answer.
Reid specifically took umbrage with Jenkins suggesting ending the protests following the NFL’s donation.
“Malcolm did text me this morning asking if we would be comfortable ending our demonstrations if the NFL made a donation,” Reid said Wednesday, via NBC. “At that point, that was the last straw for me. He had a conversation with the NFL. We agreed that multiple people would be part of the conversations with the league so it just wouldn’t be him. He didn’t stand by his word on that. At no point did we ever communicate an agreement with the NFL to end the protest.”
Jenkins disputes Reid’s claim, calling his decision a personal one.
“It’s all personal,” Jenkins said of his decision to stop raising his fist. “Nothing that we’ve done with the league mandates anyone to stand or end their demonstrations. This is a personal decision, solely on me. I do think that the goal was to come up with something that guys feel comfortable moving on from the protests.”
That doesn’t address why he went behind Reid’s back and why the NFL even though they are denying it today considered taking money from other programs to get players to stand.
This isn’t over by any stretch of the imagination.
Flip the page to read the NFL’s statement…