addition to kneeling, McCoy also stretched his legs during the song, drawing Kelly's ire in a radio interview Monday. "I like LeSean McCoy. Don't get me wrong. But I totally, 100 percent -- I disagree with what he did," Kelly told 97 Rock in Buffalo, New York. "You want to kneel? Fine. But when you go and do what he did yesterday, that sort of bummed me out. And I lost a lot of respect for him. ... You want to kneel? That's your prerogative. I would never do that. I will always stand, thank the good Lord for everything I got. But when you disrespect the way he did and just go by his everyday duty in the national anthem being sung? Uh-uh. I won't go for that." McCoy said Wednesday that he does not regret the manner in which he protested the anthem, explaining that he felt strongly about President Donald Trump's comments last Friday that players who kneel during the national anthem should be "fired." "I was extremely hurt, to be honest," McCoy said. "Because at first, everybody has their own opinions, like I talked about. People believe in different things; they stand up for what they want to stand up for, that's their right. And some of the words that the President used, it just rubbed me the wrong way. I was upset and I was frustrated. That's the way I wanted to express myself at the game. I took a knee. I started stretching. I was angry. I was hurt, just like I said after the game. Somebody like our president, being our leader of this country, where millions and millions and millions of people look at America and see the type of words and things he's saying about us. I mean, it just got to me. It really didAt least two Bills players, cornerback Shareece Wright and wide receiver Kaelin Clay, told ESPN on Wednesday they will continue to kneel during the national anthem this Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. Three players -- linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, as well as defensive ends Ryan Davis and Shaq Lawson -- told ESPN they will stand Sunday, although Davis said he will neither put his hand over his heart nor sing the anthem. Other players, including McCoy and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, were undecided Wednesday about their plans. "Every week may
John-Michael Liles Authentic Jersey be different," McCoy said Wednesday. "Because at the end of the day, man, we play football. We're a football team. We talk about being together as a country. It's the same thing as this team. We want to be together. It's OK to express your feelings a different way. But I don't want to make it where every week we're addressing this, every practice we're addressing this, taking away from our job. Because on that field, man, it's go. Them guys on defense are trying to hit us hard and trying to be physical with us. So we want to make sure that we're mentally focused on the job at hand. And we play together, and we're focused." McCoy said his teammates have been talking more about football during meetings this week compared to last Saturday, when the locker room was "amazed" at Trump's comments about NFL playersHowever, on Monday, defensive end Jerry Hughes delivered a passionate rebuke of Kelly's reaction to the Bills' anthem protests. "I was very disappointed in him," Hughes said of Kelly. "I was very disappointed in how he approached the whole situation. Our team came together and we united as a front, as
http://www.officialhurricanesproshop.com/Jordan_Staal_Jerseyan organization on how we were going to approach the national anthem. If Jim was going to do what he did, then he should have came to the team and let us know his feelings. He should have let us know how he was going to do the national anthem. Because we didn't know he was going to be there from a team perspective." Alexander said he heard Hughes' comments and agrees with him. "Jim Kelly is very respected in this organization, in this community, everything he's done on and off the field -- but he's part of the Bills, so would love for him to come talk to us more as a mentor versus kind of blasting us in the media. But I know he since then has called a couple of guys and has kind of backed off, because he was unaware of what President Trump's comments were. So in the heat of the moment, everybody makes mistakes," he said. Kelly later tempered his criticism in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday night, writing, "I want to be clear that I agree with the reason some NFL players have chosen to peacefully protest, and appreciate players, coaches and organizations being unified." The former quarterback has spoken with Hughes this week in addition to McCoy and other Bills playersYet as Rosen made clear that summer day and in a handful of public comments since, he aspires to be an atypical Golden Boy, less a bland company man and more an unapologetic advocate. He created headlines most recently, in an interview last month with Bleacher Report, saying, "football and school don't go together" and "at some point, universities have to do more to prepare players for university life and help them succeed beyond football." In a time of
Authentic Julien Gauthier Youth Jersey increasing social unrest and political dissension, Rosen has purposefully positioned himself to be a different sort of leading man. "It's kind of the position that you are in as an athlete," Rosen said, "and you would hope everyone in the world would stick up for each other." For all of the promise he shows on the football field (he's projected as one of the top prospects in whichever NFL draft that he enters, 2018 or 2019), many who are close to him -- and some who aren't -- predict his biggest impact probably will come away from it. "He wants to be great," Dilfer said, "and wants to leverage that influence to do bigger thingsIn what figures to be his final year of college football, Rosen has so far made the most news on the field. Rosen has resoundingly bounced back from his sophomore season, which lasted only six games because of a season-ending shoulder injury, to become the nation's leader in passing yards (1,763) and touchdowns (16) through four games. He has been one of the Bruins' few bright spots in a disappointing 2-2 start, keeping them in games with a combination of talent and moxie that has nearly fulfilled every expectation that awaited him in Westwood"I think he's great, he's smart, he's funny, and I enjoy him," said Jedd Fisch, Rosen's third offensive coordinator in as many years. "He comes out to practice and never questions or doubts what we're doing and has been really awesome to coach." While Rosen might not have been able to turn perennially underachieving UCLA into a contender, his 35-of-59, 491-yard, four-touchdown performance against Texas A&M in the season opener -- which rallied the Bruins from a 34-point second-half deficit to a stunning win -- will surely rank among the most indelible moments in program history. "My career at UCLA, we've had a lot of times where the chips didn't fall in our favor, and I think it's time that finally it did," Rosen said after the game.
