Jurrell Casey will continue to protest during the national anthem from the field in the upcoming NFL season, the Tennessee Titans lineman said in an interview in London.
“I’m going to take my fine,” Casey told CNN. “It is what it is. I ain’t going to let them stop me from doing what I want to do. If they want to have these battles between players and organizations, this is the way it’s going to be.”
Casey raised a fist after the playing of the national anthem before every game of the last two seasons, and chose that form of protest instead of kneeling because he “wanted to be respectful,” CNN reported.
Casey was signed to a four-year contract extension worth $60.4 million last season.
The NFL has a new rule in place for the upcoming season that teams will be fined if their players protest, but the league has not specified the amount of fines. The NFL left the option open to fine players directly as well. The rule was approved by all 32 team owners with one — San Francisco 49ers' Jed York — abstaining from the vote.
New York Jets co-owner Christopher Johnson has said he would pay the fines of any of his players that protest.
Casey is the most high-profile player to state his intention to protest during the upcoming season. It will be his eighth year with the Titans.
Casey also said he thinks Colin Kaepernick should be signed by an NFL team.
"I think he definitely deserves it," Casey told CNN. "For all these trash quarterbacks you see that get a shot, that come in and sit on the bench all day, you got a starting quarterback that’s out there that can go out there and play."
"You know he has the skill set to be a starting quarterback, and you hold him out just because he is speaking his mind," he continued. "At the end of the day it speaks (volumes) on what these people really think about you."
Casey also said the rule was not popular with other players around the NFL, but that the league execs “have their reasons” for making it.
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