Dan Quinn, Falcons staff join protest march organized by Dikembe Mutombo's son
Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and his wife, Stacey, participated in a protest march to the Governor’s Mansion on Sunday along with members of the coaching staff and players. The “Buckhead4BlackLives” march was organized in part by Ryan Mutombo, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Yeah, the locker room is a special place,” Quinn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But I also recognize that not everybody has the same experience when they leave the locker room, and I hate that. That’s not OK.”
Quinn was joined by assistant coaches Bernie Parmalee and Doug Mallory. They were also joined by general manager Thomas Dimitroff, defensive tackle Tyeler Davison, linebacker LaRoy Reynolds, safety Ricardo Allen and rookie linebacker Mykal Walker. Per the AJC, about 3,000 people were there at the start of the march.
Allen, his wife and their child held up a sign, per the Morristown Daily Record, that read “America has no problem standing up for them on game day! Black Lives Matter.”
#Falcons coach Dan Quinn is marching with the protesters in Buckhead today. pic.twitter.com/yC8ql9J4oT
— D. Orlando Ledbetter (@DOrlandoAJC) June 7, 2020
The march was organized by current and former students from the three private schools in the Buckhead district of Atlanta to memorialize George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and to raise awareness about “the systemic racism that Black Americans continue to experience.” They ended at Gov. Brian Kemp’s mansion.
Ryan Mutombo helped organize the event with Nicholas Jackson, a sophomore linebacker at the University of Virginia. Dikembe Mutombo also marched with the group.
Quinn organized a social justice committee with in the Falcons after Colin Kaepernick began receiving media attention and criticism for kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. He donated $10,000 to quarterback Matt Ryan’s GoFundMe designed to help “improve the community for people of color” in Atlanta.
He wrote, per the Daily Record: “Like many of us, I've been holding back for too long. It's time to step up. Thank you Ice for your leadership.”
Protests continued for a second weekend around the country. Von Miller and several members of the Denver Broncos helped lead a protest in downtown Denver on Saturday.
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