http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/sports/football/carolina-panthers-charlotte-shooting-keith-scott.html 2016-09-26 00:36:07 Are You Ready for Some Football … and Riot Gear and Pepper Spray? The fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., brought a different tenor to the Carolina Panthers’ game. === Before the Should they have the word Panthers spray-painted in teal and silver on their foreheads? How about the full-face panther, sparkly fangs and all? Just a few feet from Jones and her girls were police officers in riot gear. A legion of them was surrounding the stadium before the game, less than a week after Keith Lamont Scott was killed in this city — yet another unsettling police shooting of a black man in America. The officers wore helmets with clear face masks. Hanging from their belts were thick zip-ties to be used as handcuffs. Several carried guns that shoot round rubber bullets. At least one stood with a red canister of pepper spray at the ready, at his feet. “How do I explain this to my girls?” said Jones, a waitress whose daughters are 11, 7 and 5, as she nodded in the direction of the officers. “It’s just sad to see this and what’s happened to our country. It’s sad because this game is supposed to be all about fun.” Sports are hardly a safe haven or an escape from reality anymore. Some fans might hate that. Some players might, too. Regardless, at N.F.L. games throughout the country, every Sunday this fall is providing plenty of reminders that the United States is painfully divided. Jones tried to make it a carefree weekend for her and her girls because one of her daughters was celebrating a birthday. But their plans to stay at a hotel in downtown Charlotte on the eve of the game had to change. Jones wanted to stay safe. A protester was shot and killed there last week during riots. Jones, who is from Greensboro, N.C., said she hadn’t told her girls about the shootings. But because of Scott’s death, and what she sees as injustice against blacks in the United States, she told me that she would not stand during the national anthem at Sunday’s game. “I just feel like this country isn’t doing anything to protect its people,” she said. “It’s my way of protesting that.” Some of the Panthers wanted to protest, and protest as one, on Sunday. Tre Boston, a safety, said he spent nearly a week counseling other players to get on board with a plan for the team to show its support for the community — every part of the community — and that Sunday was the day to do it, because the world would be watching. There was a lot of buy-in. Boston said the Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman and the coaches were on board, but that the plan only came together Saturday afternoon, with not enough time to execute it on Sunday. Some players just didn’t feel comfortable speaking out, for various reasons, Boston said, and needed to be coaxed. “This is way bigger than football,” Boston said after the game. “Football’s a sport. I’m thankful for the sport I play, but at the end of the day, you’re talking about a human being’s life being taken. You’re talking about people being victims.” Boston didn’t rule out the team protesting during the national anthem, an idea sparked by Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco quarterback who has been kneeling during the anthem to protest police brutality and injustice. In about a month, look what Kaepernick has done using the power of his sports fame. Kaepernick — who is The protest has spread to the WNBA, where players have knelt, en masse, during the anthem, and also to college teams and high school teams. Megan Rapinoe, a player on the United States soccer team, also has been kneeling – and one team owner in the women’s pro league even changed the timing of the anthem to sabotage her political statement. Fans now show up at games with strong opinions on the anthem situation, and even end up booing their own players based on how those players act during the song. “I would be really, really angry if Cam Newton didn’t stand during the national anthem,” said Amel Salihovic, a construction manager who is from Bosnia and lives in Charlotte, before Sunday’s game. Jennifer Hibner, a librarian who was headed into the stadium, said she’s “all about freedom of speech,” but said that players who don’t respect the anthem “can go and play football in Canada.” Last week, Newton talked about the situation in Charlotte, but he was far from forceful in his words. While only a few others players, including Boston, spoke loudly and clearly about what was happening in the city, Newton took the wishy-washy, less courageous route. He said it would be “a lose-lose” situation for him if he publicly took a side. Instead, Newton carefully walked a noncommittal line on Sunday, when the spotlight – however unfair it might be — shone on him harsher before the game than during it. Some fans expect athletes these days to be moral leaders, and social leaders, but it’s clear that Newton and others players just aren’t comfortable with that. During warm-ups, Newton wore a black shirt with a Martin Luther King Jr. quotation on it: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” But as two gigantic American flags were unfurled on the field and the first note of the anthem played, Newton was standing at midfield on the sideline, and standing tall. Just feet away, his teammate Marcus Ball raised a fist. After the game, Ball wouldn’t explain it, repeatedly saying only the phrase, “One love,” when asked several questions about his protest. While his fist was in the air, though, some fans were still arriving. Many thanked the police officers who were standing guard. Some fans even stopped to pose for selfies with the officers in riot gear, with officers grinning wide. A group of maybe 50 protesters gathered across from the stadium, with more than three dozen officers lined up nearby, staring at the protesters in silence. Bomb-sniffing dogs were weaving through the crowd. A helicopter was hovering above. The group chanted, “Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!” Back inside the stadium, the game unfolded without incident. Fans cheered Newton, but many left early, anticipating the Panthers’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings, 22-10. Off they went onto the streets of this city in turmoil, where riot officers – and reality — waited.