‘The most hated player in Jersey’ will keep kneeling
The self-styled “most hated player in Jersey” doesn’t plan to stop kneeling for the anthem, even though he has endured merciless taunts on social media. Kaylon Bradley just doesn’t care.
“I’m not going to let somebody change my mind,” says Bradley, a senior at Monroe High School. He is one of the best 195-pound wrestlers in the state. “You can’t threaten me. You can’t punish me. You can’t do anything to tell me not to do what I believe in.”
Those attacking him might not know that he never knew his father or that his mother died when he was only 4-years-old and maybe it wouldn’t matter to them. But regardless, he is tough and has grown a hard shell over the years that shields him from the worst they can throw at him. He is willing to take the hatred in order to stand up for what he believes in.
His friends admire his courage and his willingness to stand up for what he feels is right.
“He has courage,” Monroe senior Mekhi Abbott, a close friend, says. “He’s not letting anybody or public opinions deter him from the stand that he’s taking. He’s still doing what he feels is right in his heart, and I respect that about him.”
He isn’t a household name yet but you might have heard the name Kaylon Bradley before. A few months ago, he was one of four Monroe football players to kneel for the anthem in order to protest racial, gender and social injustices around the country.
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Before the game in October started two high school officials walked off the field in response to the players kneeling in protest. The coverage of the incident led to the hatred he has been dealing with since that day.
“It definitely hurt seeing four of my close friends receive scrutiny like that by people who are grown men and women,” says Abbott, a black football player who did not kneel during games but supported the teammates’ who did. “Even friends’ parents made comments about how they’re thugs, they’re ignorant, they should get kicked off the team. A whole bunch of names.”
This wrestling season Kaylon Bradley decided he would do things a little differently. These days he protests by himself and for himself but it is more discreet. He slips out of line during the anthem and kneels alone, out of sight in a hallway.
“It’s kind of something between me and me,” Bradley shares. Most people don’t even know it’s happening.
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“It’s brave,” says Amol Sinha, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. “He’s doing something that takes a lot of courage. He’s following in the footsteps of a long legacy of athletes taking a stand for justice, from Jackie Robinson to Colin Kaepernick to Malcolm Jenkins.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a professional athlete or a high school athlete because it certainly has an impact.”
