Before Colin Kaepernick and an Internet sound chamber that magnifies every single opinion a million times, there was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
Abdul-Rauf made headlines a little more than 20 years ago when he sat during the playing of the national anthem, calling the American flag a symbol of oppression that went against his Muslim beliefs. Abdul-Rauf, then playing for the Denver Nuggets, received death threats and hate mail in 1996. He was suspended for one game by the league before a compromise was reached that allowed him to stand and pray with his head down. “You can’t be for God and for oppression,” he explained at the time.