Chris Long says feedback proves power of protests

(Warning: Story contains coarse language)

Chris Long has already noticed a change since he supported teammate Malcolm Jenkins during his national anthem protest.

Jenkins put his right fist in the air during the playing of the national anthem Thursday as a symbol of his protest of racial injustice in America, and Long put his arm around his Philadelphia Eagles teammate.

"No one gave a shit, frankly, until I put my hand around Malcolm," Long said to NFL.com's Tom Pelissero of the response to the gesture.

"That just goes to show you the power of symbolic protests. All of a sudden, everyone cares about my protest, but they never cared about my actions - which kind of proves, well, why do you need (to protest during the anthem)? If guys were just like, 'Hey, I'm over here! I want to talk about social issues,' the reporters would be like, 'We don't care.'"

The gesture came days after protests and violence in Charlottesville, Va., Long's hometown.

Since Thursday's game, anthem protests continued in Seattle on Friday, Oakland on Saturday, and in Cleveland on Monday night. A group of 11 Browns players prayed during the anthem, including the first white player to kneel in a protest.

"Guys love each other, man," Long said. "We're lucky that we get to interact with each other. And we just know the reality is there's some pockets of America where you might go to work every day, you wake up every day and only see people that look like you. You never get a chance to interact or really hear people out."

The Eagles' next game takes place Thursday against the Miami Dolphins.