San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler published an introspective blog on his website Friday in which he expressed shame that he did not kneel for the national anthem in the wake of Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
In the post, he called out some of the circumstances that led to the shooting, including the shooter’s ability to purchase assault rifles and ammunition for his crime, the inaction of police officers as parents pleaded with them to do something, and the callous response from some politicians.
But Kapler then looked at himself on Wednesday during the national anthem and called himself a “coward” for not kneeling during the anthem because his dad taught him when he was younger to not stand for the anthem if he believed the anthem wasn’t “representing us well right now.