Dwayne Allen explains why he kneels for the national anthem

On Sunday night before the Colts faced the Texans on Sunday Night Football, NBC’s cameras showed Dwayne Allen kneeling for the national anthem.

Apparantly some idiots decided to take to social media with hate messages for the Colts’ tight end after the fact, however, and so Allen put out a video message on Colts.com clarifying why he kneels for the anthem: he’s knelt near the end of the anthem for every game of his career in prayer.

“I wanted to take the time to clear up something that was misreported by NBC,” Allen said. “For every game of my career I’ve taken a knee towards the end of our anthem to say a prayer for every man that steps foot on that field. Because of recent events, I have to stand here and explain to you why I’m kneeling on the field. After reviewing some of the comments over the social media platforms, I realized that sometimes a few will spoil the bunch. But it was a vast majority that were expressing words of hate. Not love, not devotion, and not pride for our great nation. What I want most is for this world to be a better place for everyone who lives in it. For this country to be a better America for everyone that lives in it. And for those reasons, I’ll continue to kneel and I’ll continue to pray. I love this country. I love everyone that lives in it. Go Colts.”

Good on Allen for clearing it up, and good on Allen for standing for what he believes in.

I don’t really think NBC did much wrong here. They simply showed Allen kneeling during the anthem and Al Michaels noted that Allen was doing so, which has become commonplace - and actually there have been times where networks have faced criticism for not showing players kneeling during the anthem. So NBC simply noted the facts: Allen was kneeling for the anthem. The Colts quickly reached out to NBC to inform them of Allen’s reasons, and NBC immediately reported that on-air. So NBC really didn’t do anything wrong here.

The real issue came with people who sent hateful messages to Allen on social media. The Colts displayed some of them on the video they released, and who knows how many other comments - likely much worse - were said. Whether you agree with someone or not, there’s no reason to treat them poorly or send hateful messages on social media (or in any way) to that person. There’s a way to disagree with someone without treating them terribly. Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t seem that happened with Allen, so good on him for clarifying it and standing for what he believes in.