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Chicago Bears DT Akiem Hicks: ‘I’ve been censored my whole life’

Few NFL players speak their minds like Bears star Akiem Hicks, but he said he often feels he must be cautious with how he carries himself.

He agreed with Colin Kaepernick’s cause in 2016, for example, but didn’t join his protest by kneeling during the national anthem because he believed he would be “blackballed” and it would end his career. Given Kaepernick’s path, that’s probably true.

But for Hicks, who is 6-foot-4, 352 pounds, that feeling goes all the way back to childhood.

“I feel like I’ve been censored my whole life,” he said Wednesday. “So for me to feel like I have to keep people at ease, to make sure there’s a calm while I’m in the room, those are natural things to me.