Marshawn Lynch Shares His Thoughts on Colin Kaepernick Protests on 'Conan'

Marshawn Lynch appeared on Conan on Tuesday night, and while a lot of his sit-down interview with Conan O'Brien was lighthearted in nature, he also took a few moments to address Colin Kaepernick's decision to take a knee during the national anthem prior to recent games. Conan asked the former NFL star what he thinks about Kaepernick's protests, and Lynch provided a short but strong take on the situation and showed his support for the 49ers quarterback in the process.

"With what’s going on, I’d rather see him take a knee than stand up, put his hands up, and get murdered," Lynch said. "So I mean, my take on it is shit gotta start somewhere, and if that was the starting point, I just hope people open up their eyes to see that it’s really a problem going on and something needs to be done for it to stop. And I mean, if you really not racist, then you won’t see what he’s doing as a threat to America, but just addressing a problem that we have."

Lynch's Conan appearance came just hours after Kaepernick revealed that he has received death threats for choosing to take a knee. While speaking with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Kaepernick addressed the backlash that has taken place since he started kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner. "There’s a lot of racism disguised as patriotism in this country," he said. "And people don’t like to address that. And they don’t like to address what the root of this protest is."

You can watch Lynch talk about Kaepernick's protests in the clip above.