Jordan Lucas plans to kneel during national anthem

[The Dolphin]

Getty Images

Washington running back Adrian Peterson said over the weekend that he “without a doubt” plans to kneel during the national anthem this season and another NFL player said on Tuesday that he has the same plans.

Bears safety Jordan Lucas said he plans to follow Colin Kaepernick’s lead and take a knee to protest racial inequality and police brutality. Lucas was with the Dolphins in 2016, but did not join Kaepernick and others in taking a knee. He said on Tuesday that he felt he’d be penalized for doing so as a rookie sixth-round pick..

“My rookie year, as many of you can probably guess, I was scared to kneel,” Lucas said, via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t want to lose my position on the team. I didn’t want to be looked at differently by the front office or my coaches just because I didn’t have a name, I didn’t really have a spot on the team. I didn’t want to lose anything. I just got there, you know what I am saying? But I think a lot of people are seeing now that it’s much bigger than the flag and disrespecting the flag. We’re not disrespecting the flag nor the military. And I think people are really starting to understand that now.”

Lucas said he and his wife have been donating to groups that work to free innocent people from prison and have also contributed to bail funds for peaceful protestors who have been arrested over the last couple of weeks.

Bears coach Matt Nagy said last week that the team hasn’t discussed kneeling or any other player demonstrations, but that they’d come to an agreement as a team and “what the players want to do, we’ll do.”