Expect joint social justice demonstration from Chiefs, Texans ahead of season opener

In addition to the NFL’s planned initiatives to bring awareness to social justice issues across the country, the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans have discussed a joint demonstration ahead of the Week 1 game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Tyrann Mathieu, who previously played for Houston, hinted earlier this week that a joint demonstration from the Chiefs and Texans would be a strong possibility on game day.

“I do 100% believe we have the organization’s support from top to bottom,” Mathieu said. “I think whatever we do, we’ll try our best to display unity, togetherness, even if that’s with the opposing team. But I think if anything, people should take away from whatever we may do, they’ll take away the unity and the togetherness part of it. So, that’s ultimately the picture we’re trying to paint for our league and for the world going forward.”

NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, says that one possibility being discussed was both teams staying in the locker room during the national anthem. But really, all options are currently on the table for Kansas City and Houston.

The NFL has placed an emphasis on players using their platform to bring awareness to the change they want to see in the world. Whatever the Chiefs and Texans players end up doing to raise that awareness, it’ll be well-thought and highly-discussed throughout the organization.

“I think we have a great organization that way,” Mahomes said of a potential demonstration. “I’ve had talks with Clark (Hunt), Mark Donovan, Coach Reid, all of these coaches and guys. We’ve had a lot of discussions. I’m sure there will be something fully planned. We don’t have the exact details on it yet, but we’ll do something in unison, something together to show our support for everybody out there who doesn’t have the platform that we have.”

Perhaps the biggest goal and challenge for both teams is for the demonstration to be truly heard, for people to focus on why the players are demonstrating as opposed to the act of protest itself. It was something that didn’t happen when Colin Kaepernick first sparked a wave of protest in the NFL by kneeling during the national anthem in 2016.

“It’s become something where it’s whether or not you’re going to kneel and instead of what the reason why the kneeling began in the beginning, which was social injustice and police brutality,” Mahomes said. “And I feel like that’s been the biggest thing, it’s not necessarily the gesture but we’re trying to fix something, we’re trying to make it where it’s equal, everybody feels safe, everybody feels secure, everybody can go about living their lives and they really, truly care about the person next to him.”