Giants manager Gabe Kapler does not plan on taking the field for the national anthem going forward in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, he said Friday. Earlier in the day, he published a blog post detailing how he felt during the team’s moment of silence and other pregame traditions before Wednesday’s game that followed the tragedy.
“I’m often struck before our games by the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents,” he wrote. “We have our moment (over and over), and then we move on without demanding real change from the people we empower to make these changes. We stand, we bow our heads, and the people in power leave on recess, celebrating their own patriotism at every turn.”
He added that his “brain said drop to a knee” during the anthem Wednesday, but that his “body didn’t listen.”
“I wanted to walk back inside; instead I froze. I felt like a coward. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want to take away from the victims or their families,” he wrote.
“I knew that I wasn’t in my best space mentally and I knew that it was in connection with some of the hypocrisy of standing for the national anthem and how it coincided with the moment of silence and how those two things didn’t sync up well for me,” Kapler said when asked why he decided to write the post.
Kapler previously knelt for the anthem during the 2020 season but decided not to do so anymore ahead of the 2021 campaign. Regarding that change, he said, “stories shouldn’t be about me and about what I’m doing during the anthem. They should be about the people in our country who are hurt by these systems, and about the work being done to bring about positive change.”
On Friday, he told reporters ahead of San Francisco’s matchup with the Reds that he doesn’t plan on coming out for the anthem “until I feel better about the direction of our country.”
Asked whether he’s communicated his plans with the team, Kapler said he’s articulated his thoughts to players on an individual basis. He said he didn’t know if any players will be demonstrating and that he reserves the right to change his mind.
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
