Dontari Poe will continue taking a knee during national anthem

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Dontari Poe this season became the first Cowboys player to protest during the national anthem. He continues to stand alone.

The defensive tackle talked to reporters Wednesday for the first time since taking a knee in protest of social injustice and police brutality.

“I felt like America, in the whole, wasn’t doing the right thing about stuff that was happening to the people of my color,” Poe said. “I feel like the oppression that’s being had, the racial injustice that is being had was really unfair, and I feel like us as a country can do more. That was just the beginning part of me just saying what I wanted to say. A lot more to be had. A lot more to be done. There’s a lot more that I will do. It was just the beginning part of my fight that I want people just to understand where I was coming from and how I was feeling. That’s just what it was.”

“I hope it takes a step in the right direction, but as long as I feel this way, I will be taking a knee until I feel like it’s taking a step in the right direction.”

Owner Jerry Jones long has made his stance on the national anthem clear. Even Michael Bennett and Robert Quinn, who previously have protested during the anthem, stood for the anthem last year in their only season with the team.

Poe, who signed with the Cowboys in the offseason, said he talked to Jones before taking a knee in Week One.

“Hopefully in the future, me and him can have more talks,” Poe said. “It was all positive from both ends. It’s a lot of stuff we can still go forward and talk to each other as men. Him and his life experience(s) are different from mine. As long as we can kind of put that in each other’s heads and just talk about it, I feel like it’ll be all good so I’m looking forward to those, too.”