Seahawks’ Bennett on the Anthem: ‘I Cannot Stand Until I See Equality and Freedom’

RUSH EXCERPT:

BENNETT: "I won't stand until things are equal, until everybody has justice, until everybody has freedom, things America is built on. Protest the national anthem begins the conversation about the truth of America. I am not protesting the flag, I'm trying to honor where we're supposed to be honoring, the freedom of America, equality of America, justice for all and liberty, those are things I am trying to remember we all fought for, the forefathers. You said fighting terrorists domestic and foreign, right now there's a lot of domestic terrorism and hate going on between the race, gender, all of the stuff going on. I want to bring up those issues and conversations, get people to try to act and fix the problem, different race, different colors, different sex, different gender, whatever it is. Go out, try to find out how to help instead of being the problem and sitting back, being silenced. To be silent now is being dishonest about the truth of what's going on, want to figure out how to get to the bottom of this. I believe the protests is the right thing to do for me and what I feel is right, as a young black man growing up, I want to be able to inspire the youth, especially minority kids and kids around the world, if you see something and feel like you are -- you want to make a change, don't be afraid, we were fighting for liberty and equality for all. That's what I live by and believe wholeheartedly."