First white NFL player kneels during national anthem, joining civil rights protest started by Colin Kaepernick

Kaepernick began sitting or kneeling during the anthem about a year ago, stirring a contentious debate

Cleveland Browns players kneel in a circle in protest during the national anthem before a game against the New York Giants (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

The first white NFL player has taken a knee during the American national anthem, joining several of his black colleagues to protest racial and social injustices in the US.

Seth DeValve, a tight end for the Cleveland Browns, knelt down with his teammates to protest those injustices during a recent game against the New York Giants. In doing so, he has entered his name into a contentious debate that has roiled professional football since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided last year not to stand during the pre-game ritual, saying he was protesting the oppression of people of color in America.

“I wanted to support my African American teammates today who wanted to take a knee,” Mr DeValve, whose wife is African America, said.

“I myself will be raising children that don’t look like me, and I want to do my part as well to do everything I can to raise them in a better environment than we have right now,” he continued. “So I wanted to take the opportunity with my teammates during the anthem to pray for our country, and also to draw attention to the fact that we have work to do.”

Mr DeValve said that he was inspired in part by the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a white supremacist drove a car through a group of people on the streets, killing one woman who was attending counter protests to fight racism.

Since Mr Kaepernick started using the national anthem as an opportunity to protest last year, a contentious debate has broken out. On the one hand, some argue that watching football is a time in which people should be allowed to sit back, relax, and be entertained by the game. On the other, people have argued that athletes inhabit powerful positions in society, and do not forgo their right to speak out just because they are essentially entertainers.