Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Taking a stance — whether that means, in some cases, literally standing or kneeling — comes with a polarity that will bring heavy doses of adoration and condemnation.
“Yeah, I was pretty popular there for a few days,” Sam Coonrod said with a soft smile Tuesday.
The Giants reliever does not have any regrets about remaining standing while all of his Giants teammates and Dodgers opponents took a knee July 23, during a pregame ceremony in which everyone on the field — Coonrod included — held a ribbon in reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.
In his first extended public comments since, Coonrod held by his original comments in which he said he would only kneel before God.
“I definitely stick by what I did,” the righty said over Zoom before a series opener at Coors Field. “I meant no ill-will by it.”
He briefly became a national figure, a wildly differently viewed symbol for the right and left, especially because he said Black Lives Matter leans “towards Marxism,” conflating the movement and organization. But he also suggested he is part of a clubhouse that features many players who would rather not weigh in on political or human-rights issues.
The Giants were part of a postponement last week, when the Dodgers decided not to play after the Wisconsin police shooting of Jacob Blake, though the San Francisco clubhouse was mixed.
“The consensus in the clubhouse is a lot of guys just want to remain neutral,” said Coonrod, a 27-year-old from St. Louis. “And they feel like they can’t necessarily do that anymore. They don’t want to … they just want to come to the field and play, is probably the best way I can put it. And they feel that no matter what they do, they’re going to be condemned for it.
“So I’m kind of the same way. I just want to be neutral.”
His manager has not been. Gabe Kapler joining the Black Lives Matter movement and taking a knee during the national anthem to protest social injustice and police brutality against minorities. Coonrod said he has talked plenty with Kapler, who has been “great” and understanding.
“No matter what we talked about, he can always take it,” Coonrod said. “Even if we disagree or if we agree, no matter what he’s the same, so I have a lot of respect for him.”