Beto O’Rourke’s Debate Guests Were Three Young Football Players Who Kneeled During National Anthem

By Lauren Rearick


While all eyes were on the stage at Tuesday night’s Democratic primary debate in Detroit, Michigan, there were a few special visitors in the audience: Three former high school football players, who were benched for taking a knee in 2017 joined right after acquiring an invitation from former congressman Beto O’Rourke attend.


As students at Lansing Catholic High School in Lansing, Michigan, Michael Lynn III, Matthew Abdullah, and RoJe Williams were inspired by Colin Kaepernick and collectively made the choice to take a knee at one of their 2017 games, Time reported. Their teammate, Kabbash Richards, also participated, yet he was unable to attend the debate. Lynn told Time he witnessed continued racism in his school and mentioned he “was getting to the age where I wanted to mention something.”


As a result of their actions, the teens were benched for piece of a Friday night game, the Lansing State Journal announced that year.


According to CBS Detroit, O’Rourke noticed the former students through “local outreach,” and soon after speaking with the boys by phone, he invited them to attend the debate. In a statement to the Associated Press, O’Rourke mentioned the four “served their community in one of the most American ways possible.”





As previously reported by MTV News, Kaepernick took a knee while in an efficiency of the National Anthem in 2016, as soon as he was still a quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers. He made the decision sort in attempt to speak out against continued racial oppression committed against black individuals by police officers. “This nation stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now,” he told reporters. “When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag symbolizes what it’s supposed to resemble in this nation. I’ll stand.”


Kaepernick’s protest sparked a nationwide conversation, and other athletes began kneeling in solidarity at other sporting events. Nevertheless the move also sparked considerable backlash: President Donald Trump discussed out against Kaepernick and called for the football player to leave the country.


As for O’Rourke, this isn’t the initial time he’s supported the statement: Time notes that he even went viral for a 2018 campaign speech that defended NFL players who chose to protest. “I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights anytime, anywhere or anyplace,” he said.


"People on the other side of it make us feel like we're not as American as them," Lynn told local ABC affiliate WZZM of O’Rourke’s past remarks. "The fact that he mentioned that and feels that way, from his heart, that was really powerful. That's what put Mr. O'Rourke on my radar."