It's been a contentious week as far as sports go, and mid-Michigan high school football coaches are getting ready for that ahead of Friday night.
"Sports and athletics can go a long ways in this world and have a huge impact on what happens in America," says Everett varsity football coach Chad Foster.
For that reason, he's making an effort to explain to his players why protests are going on in the NFL during the national anthem.
"It's definitely something that has to be brought up and has to be brought to light and I think that for our kids--we had a conversation yesterday--and to just shed light on our kids on what the meaning behind kneeling for the national anthem or locking arms or the peaceful protests that are going on right now," Foster explains.
The protests started last year with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick pushed back against police brutality and racial inequality against black people.
That protest has slowly evolved into a league wide stand for unity against racism, and a show of defiance against president Donald Trump's view that players who don't stand for the anthem should be fired.
High school coaches like Chad Foster want to make sure his players understand why they're taking a stand.
"The big thing that we talked about is making sure all our kids understand why," Foster describes to News 10. "Why people are doing the things that they're doing. Again it's not to disrespect America. It's not to say 'I don't want to stand for the national anthem.' It's about making sure our country--which is the greatest country in the world--understands what's going on right now. Black, white, latino, whatever it might be that we all understand that something's going on in our country that's just not right and what can we do to fix that?"
As it stands now, Everett isn't planning on doing anything, but Foster says some districts will be.
He says if his players are interested in doing something, they'll talk about it one more time before game day and decide then.
