Eric Reid who recently signed on as safety with the Carolina Panthers wore a black T-shirt that had #IMWITHKAP written across the front of it which clearly shows that he isn’t done with rallying against social injustice on the field.
The 26-year-old said that his collusion case against the National Football League (NFL) will move forward and that he is thinking about other methods of protesting aside from kneeling during the playing of the national anthem.
In his first interview since being signed by the Panthers, Reid explained how he was still assessing things and that he’ll make his decision later on.
He claimed that the Panthers never asked him if he would continue with his kneeling protests during the anthem until after he signed his new contract. Reid was the first player to follow Colin Kaepernick in keeling and protesting during the National Anthem back in 2016 and is still strong in his beliefs irrespective of what the fans think about his actions.
Carolina Panthers
Reid’s one-year contract is worth as much as $2 million with incentives. His base salary is $1,214,286 and features various incentive bonuses and a salary cap hit of $1.69 million. The Panthers signed him after veteran safety Da’Norris Searcy was injured. Reid, who was a Pro Bowler in 2013, told reporters that the Carolina Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers were the only teams to offer him a contract and he took Carolina’s offer because it was a better deal.
Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said that Reid is being considered as a starter in their upcoming game against the New York Giants and that he and his new safety have discussed how they feel about the protests. Rivera comes from a military family and believes that players should stand for the anthem although he hasn’t made it mandatory for his team to do so.
Eric Reid admitted that he wasn’t expecting to be playing football again so soon but he didn’t comment any further on the subject because of his ongoing court case. He said that he was surprised to get the call from the Panthers. The NFLPA filed a grievance in May on Reid’s behalf claiming that the NFL and their owners colluded to keep him out of football due to his protesting. Kaepernick also filed a grievance with similar allegations in October 2017 and remains unsigned till date.
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