Video: TANK "EAST" #1
See Edwin "Tank" Lopez in action.MaxPreps brought high school football fans a story from Friday where
most players on a Virginia team knelt during the national anthem.
On Saturday, another group of players did the same in New Jersey. What made their display of protest much different was that their coach was also taking part.
Woodrow Wilson (Camden, N.J.) head coach Preston Brown
told Philly.com's Phil Anastasia "I still love America. I still love our military. But this was our way of saying that things have to change in our country. There's oppression, there's social injustice, and these kids live it."
It wasn't a unanimous display. Two players chose to stay on their feet before the afternoon contest against Highland Regional (Blackwood, N.J.), including Rutgers recruit
Edwin "Tank" Lopez, who acknowledged his teammates' and coaches' right to do as they choose.
"I've always stood for the national anthem and I wasn't going to let a little incident in the NFL change that," Lopez told the newspaper. "I wasn't going to switched (sic) the script. That's not me."
NFL players Colin Kaepernick, Brandon Marshall and Eric Reid have all refused to stand during the national anthem, and the practice is not just limited to those three. The goal, Kaepernick has said, is to bring attention to social and racial injustices.
