Written by Tommy Rowan at Philly.com
After planning to follow Colin Kaepernick’s lead and sit out the national anthem before Thursday’s NFL preseason game against the New York Jets at Lincoln Financial Field, an Eagles rookie rescinded his pledge.
Hours after Myke Tavarres told ESPN on Monday that he planned to sit during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner before the Eagles’ fourth and final preseason game, his agent, Corey Williams, told a national NFL reporter that his client changed his mind.
Tavarres, an undrafted linebacker out of the University of the Incarnate Word, was persuaded by his agent as well as former college coaches to reverse his stance, according to NFL.com reporter Mike Garafolo.
In a statement, Eagles coach Doug Pederson said, “We respect the national anthem, its history and our many freedoms as Americans that it celebrates. We also respect an individual’s freedom of expression.”
Tavarres told ESPN on Monday that he had “thought about” sitting out the anthem Saturday before the Eagles played the Colts in Indianapolis. And for this week’s game, he had said, he would do it.
“Usually I’m front and center on the line with the rest of the guys, and that’s since pre-K all the way up. Saturday’s game, I stepped back, I was in the background, and it didn’t feel right to me at all,” Tavarres told ESPN. “And so I will be taking a stand — or sitting down — for the fourth game.”
Kaepernick, who is biracial and was adopted by a white family, caused a national stir after refusing to stand for the anthem before a preseason game on Friday night. He said he’d done this at the earlier exhibition games and no one noticed.
He later told NFL.com: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
ESPN reported that Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz held an open conversation about the topic during a group meeting on Monday. Tavarres, as well as safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Leodis McKelvin, attended the meeting.
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