Adair Rutledge’s Photo Essay Poses the Question: Can You #Takeaknee and Still Stand for the National Anthem?

About three years ago on her daily evening commute, commercial and editorial photographer, Adair Rutledge drove past a field dotted by five- and six-year-old kids smashing into one another in tiny plastic armor. This was The Nashville Cardinals Pee-Wee Football practice in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Adair currently lives in Seattle, WA, but was born and raised in the South. It’s no secret where she’s from that the game of football is deeply rooted in tradition; boys start playing this full-tackle sport as early as five years of age. Adair knew she had to take a closer look at what was happening on the field because it continues to reflect and inform societal norms of race, class and gender today and for the generation to come. 

“One of the concepts I explore with The Nashville Cardinals photo essay has always been race, particularly the way black boys and men, who make up the majority of college and pro teams, are groomed to play football at a young age, used by the NFL and discarded as soon as they’re injured—all to benefit white team owners and the larger secondary economy. It’s a symptom of the bigger issue in America where black Americans are considered disposable,” says Adair.

The reactions this award-winning story elicits are always powerful and often polarizing and that's OK with Adair. She doesn't have all the answers; her aim is to keep the dialogue open on an extremely tough subject.

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Images from Adair’s Nashville Cardinals were chosen among thousands of entries to appear in the prestigious 2017 American Photography 33 hardcover annual and as a 2017 Critical Mass Finalist. 

Please visit www.sallyreps.com for more information on this essay.