Entire third grade football team kneels in protest of police brutality

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Every single player and coach of a third grade football team in Belleville, Illinois, took a knee during the national anthem during a game on Sunday, in protest of police brutality.

Orlando Gooden, coach of the Cahokia Quarterback Club, told Fox 2 Now that one of the members of his team, which is made up of boys 8 and under, asked if he had seen the coverage of the protests in St. Louis. When Gooden said that he had and asked the boy if he knew what the protests were about, the player replied, “Because black people are getting killed and nobody’s going to jail.”

Gooden then spoke with the team about other instances of police brutality and explained that it was why Colin Kaepernick had taken a knee during the national anthem.

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“One of the kids asked, ‘Can we do that?’ I said, ‘As long as we know why we’re doing it, I don’t have a problem with any of it,’” Gooden said.

So, when the anthem started on Sunday, the entire team took a knee. The parents of the members of the team also supported the protest.

The story was picked up by Fox & Friends, who slammed the boys for “disrespect.”

“I’m sure these 8-year-olds they hear the story and they’re like ‘can we do that too? That sounds cool,’” said Ainsley Earhardt. “They don’t know the background of the National Anthem at that point, but for the parents to be on board, wow.”

“Yeah, you’re never too young to disrespect the country,” said Brian Kilmeade.