Last year during the peak of Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protest, Anquan Boldin, Glover Quin and other NFL players took a trip to our nation’s capital to discuss police relations within their communities.
Now the Detroit Lions teammates are headed back to continue this discussion.
The first time they took the trip to Washington Boldin and Quin were joined by Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, Cleveland Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins and recently released Browns quarterback Josh McCown.
They’re still finalizing the details of the trip and have gotten a crew of players together for this second trip.
“We’ve gotten some commitments from the first time we went, but it’s getting different bills passed,” Boldin said, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “It’s not just one thing that has to happen. There’s a number of different things and, for us, we’re going to just keep chipping away at it and, hopefully, we’ll see those improvements.”
A lot has changed since the last time Quin and Boldin were in Washington. There is a new administration in place, and one of the people they spoke with the first time, Patrick Murphy, lost a Senate race to Marco Rubio. With that in mind, the players aren’t sure exactly how they’ll be received this time around, or who it is they’ll be speaking with.
Still, they’re hopeful that their message will be well received.
“I think they’ll be receptive because they may want to make it seem like they care,” Quin said. “But hey, if that’s how you got to get in, that’s how you got to get in. Because if you can get in to get commitments, now you got to be able to hold them to it. You got to be able to hold them to it, and they got to be, hopefully, men of their word and women of their word and continue to support.”
It’s always good to see NFL players using their influence to help their communities. We’ll be keeping tabs on this story as it develops and wish Quin, Boldin and the rest of the players well as they attempt to affect change for this noble cause.