When Malcolm Jenkins met with reporters on Wednesday he didn't say a word. Instead, he communicated only through handwritten signs. The reason: The Eagles safety, who has been a vocal advocate for social justice, felt like talking wasn't getting his point across.
Several hours later, Jenkins finally spoke.
In an interview with ESPN.com's Tim McManus, Jenkins explained the motivation for his silent press conference: To focus on the issues and not President Donald Trump.
"I'm tired of the narrative being about the anthem, about the White House or whatever," Jenkins told McManus following a meeting with public defenders from around the country on bail reform. "The issues are the issues. And the reason that we're doing any of this is, because we have these huge disparities in our criminal justice system; we have this issue of mass incarceration; we have issues of police brutality; our children and access to education and economic advancement is nonexistent in communities of color. And these things are systemic; there are ways that we can change them.
"And for me, I feel like this is the time to do that. And so, that message can't continue to be ignored. And that's what I think has been happening up until this point. So we just have to continue to stay on topic and continue to push the issues -- and not this narrative of who's right and who's wrong, but what are the reasons why players are even so passionate about this."
Jenkins' comments come two days after the White House announced Monday night that the Eagles had been disinvited from a Super Bowl celebration hours before it was to take place. The ceremony, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, was abruptly called off in part because several players had said they wouldn't attend, according to a statement released by the White House.
With criticism mounting throughout the morning Tuesday, the White House issued a statement defending its decision because Eagles players had "abandoned" their fans.
"The White House, despite sensing a lack of good faith, nonetheless attempted to work with the Eagles over the weekend to change the event format that could accommodate a smaller group of players," the statement read in part. "Unfortunately, the Eagles offered to send only a tiny handful of representatives, while making clear that the vast majority of players would not attend the event, despite planning to be in D.C. today. In other words, the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans."
According to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had planned to send a smaller contingent to the White House as a way to avoid putting his players in a difficult spot. Garafolo reported that contingent would have consisted of fewer than 10 players. ESPN's Adam Schefter added that "a large group of Eagles players had decided not to attend, including most -- if not all -- of the black players."
"The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House," President Trump tweeted late Monday evening. "Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!"
According to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House decided to call off the event because there was a belief inside the administration that the Eagles were trying to pull some kind of "political stunt." Sanders also said it was the Eagles who backed out.
"If it wasn't a political stunt, they wouldn't have attempted to reschedule an event for when they knew that the president would be out of the country and they wouldn't have waited until the the very last minute to make these changes, if this wasn't about some type of political statement that they were trying to make toward this president," Sanders said in her daily press briefing on Tuesday.
Some NFL players have chosen to kneel during the national anthem the last two seasons to protest social injustice. And while the Eagles have been among the league's most outspoken teams on these issues, Philadelphia players neither knelt nor remained in the locker room for the anthem during the 2017 campaign, according to SportsPundit.com, which tracked protests last season.
Jenkins, who joined the Eagles in 2014, has long been a critic of Trump. He has also has criticized the NFL's new policy, which prohibits players from kneeling/sitting on the field during the anthem. When Colin Kaepernick protested against social injustice during the 2016 season, Jenkins joined him. Kaepernick protested by refusing to stand for the national anthem; Jenkins raised his fist. Jenkins stopped raising his fist near the end of the 2017 season after the NFL pledged to donate $89 million to charities related to the issues that were being raised by the protesting players.
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