The first time Robert Quinn raised his fist during the national anthem, on Sept. 12, 2016, the Rams and the 49ers were moments away from kicking off their season opener. One hundred-thirty days remained in Barack Obama’s presidency. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile had just been buried in Baton Rouge and St. Louis, respectively. Stephon Clark of Sacramento had a year and a half to live; Terence Crutcher of Tulsa had four days. The white police officers who killed those four black men would eventually all be acquitted at trial, or not prosecuted at all.
Receiver Kenny Britt stood with Quinn on the Rams’ sideline that night, each player raising a balled right hand toward the Santa Clara sky, just 10 miles from a statue on the San Jose State campus depicting Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith doing the same thing 48 years earlier, and for largely the same reasons.