Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll canceled practice Saturday, instead imploring every Seahawks player to register to vote.
"All of our players will be officially registered today. That’s a start. Sixty days to march, a commitment to vote," Carroll explained to reporters. "... And really, law enforcement is a huge issue to our guys, because they’re frightened for their lives. They’re frightened for the lives of their loved ones and their children. They’re frightened because they don’t know what’s going to happen because of what we continue to see. So they’re crying out, again, and calling for us white people to figure it out and to listen, and to fix all of the obvious problems that we know."
The Seahawks decision follows other teams across sports such as the NBA teams remaining in the playoffs who decided to boycott this week in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake. Players in the WNBA, MLS, MLB, and NHL all also made statements in response to the incident.
"So coaches, I’m calling on you, all coaches," Carroll continued. "Let’s step up, no more being quiet, no more being afraid to talk to topics, no more, you know, I’m a little bit kind of, I might lose my job over this, because I’ve taken a stand here. Screw it. We can’t do that anymore. And maybe if we do, we can be a leadership group, a leadership group that stands out, and maybe others will follow us."
By the end of the day, the team said that every Seahawks player was registered to vote.
[Via]