Ole Miss basketball players kneel during national anthem at Saturday’s game against Georgia
Published 3:25 pm Saturday, February 23, 2019
With pro-Confederate rallies taking place in Oxford on Saturday, six Ole Miss Rebel basketball players decided to take a knee this afternoon during the national anthem for their game against Georgia.
The game is ongoing, and it impossible to confirm that the two are related, but it seems easy to piece two and two together.
With our angle, it’s not possible to confirm the identity of the players who knelt for the anthem. We can say that there were six players who knelt, one of them being sophomore point guard Devontae Shuler, identifiable from behind as the player in a headband.
Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said in his introductory press conference this past spring that the Rebels would be a team that stood for the anthem and respected the flag. This move clearly goes in stark opposition to that point, however with extenuating circumstances regarding the rallies ongoing in Oxford, it’s understandable for him to bend his policy if he were to have known beforehand.
Kneeling during the anthem first began as a way to protest racial injustice around the country, starting when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick back in 2016.
The Rebels have stood for the anthem for every game this year before today. This story will be updated as more information flows in.