Tommie Smith returned to the city of his Olympic raised-fist podium salute, and he couldn’t help but think back to the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Smith lit a torch before Monday night’s NFL game between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans in the Mexican capital. It’s a Raiders tradition for a torch to be lit before every home game honoring longtime owner Al Davis, who died in 2011.
“Looking back, that distance, sometimes the brain doesn’t go back that far,” Smith said on ESPN earlier Monday. “Only time does. But it was time for change.