When the Team USA women’s basketball squad won gold at the Paris Olympics, everyone was going through a plethora of emotions including Brittney Griner. Griner became so sentimental that she was seen shedding a few tears when “The Star-Spangled Banner” was playing. Now this came as a surprise since Griner had once kneeled during the national anthem. But despite her ‘unpatriotic’ stance before, an ex-ESPN employee feels that Griner should be given a second chance.

Charly Arnolt, who worked with ESPN before, was present at Outkick’s The Morning on Monday and shared her take on Griner’s 360-degree turnaround. She supported Griner so much that even her haters must have contemplated twice before reacting against Griner.

“And honestly Merry Margaret, a lot of people might say now what we don’t care. You had the opportunity to represent the country really at a time when we needed you the most. You know we don’t care that now you’re standing for the anthem but I will take the opposite position. For me, I think people deserve the right to have some type of redemption. I think that if you go through something where you finally are realizing how much it means to be an American and the position you’re into in representing this country. That I am totally in support of her going through this evolution,” Arnolt stated via Outkick’s The Morning on Monday.

“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season,” Griner stated via The Arizona Republic. The year was 2020 and one could easily see that Griner was worried about the conditions in her nation. The country had recently witnessed the Black Lives Matter protest and Griner, who has never shied away from expressing her feelings, sided with the victim. She decided to kneel during the national anthem, apart from claiming that she wouldn’t be present if the WNBA continued to play the national anthem before games. But does that make her unpatriotic?

Growing up Griner had seen her father’s love for the country. Raymond Griner was a Vietnam veteran who toured the country twice in 1968 and 1969. He made sure to instill the same values in his daughter. Apart from that Raymond also worked as a police officer in the Houston area. All this made Griner sensitive to her nation and anything about the country definitely affected Brittney.

“I wanted to be a cop. I didn’t want to play basketball growing up, I wanted to be a cop and go into the military, actually,” Griner revealed her dream job as a child on being questioned about her patriotism in July 2020. Even at that time, she did somewhat defend her right to protest by enumerating “doesn’t it make me more American that I’m demonstrating a protest?” Thus Griner put her side of the story expressing that she was “blown away” by these ‘ unpatriotic’ accusations. But she did give hints of her turnaround when she was released from Russia.

Brittney Griner’s stance goes through a full circle

Fast forward to February 2022 and Griner is imprisoned in Russia. She as per NPR feels like an animal in a zoo. Her freedom is taken away, her talent denied, and a whole medley of emotions crosses her mind daily, where she longs for her country, home, and freedom. The unexpected tragedy is surely known to change people and with Griner, it was no different. “Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different,” Griner told reporters in May last year as per AZ Central. It was a complete change in her stance.

At one point she was rebellious but then circumstances made her realize the value of the national anthem. “Everyone has made a mistake before,” Griner remarked when the reporters asked about her ‘unpatriotic’ stance at The View last month.

And now that Griner also gave a real-time example of loving her country, her haters will stay shut. And now that Arnolt has come forward to share her take on Griner’s patriotism, it might once and for all end negative narratives about her.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger