One Detroit Lions player who took a knee Sunday in an effort to shine a light on racial inequality said his father was denied a job because of his protest.

Lions defensive tackle Akeem Spence tweeted Thursday that his father, Floyd, was denied a job by a contractor.

"Got some awful news from my father a contractor deny giving him a job on doing a house because of my peaceful protest #smh," Spence tweeted.

Floyd Spence did not return a voice message left for him Thursday, and Akeem Spence's agent, Peter Schaffer, said the elder Spence wished to maintain a low profile.

Spence was one of eight Lions players who took a knee while linking arms with most of the rest of their teammates and owner Martha Ford during the playing of the national anthem before Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Similar protests, sparked by outrage over comments president Donald Trump made last week, happened across the NFL.

Spence told the Free Press on Wednesday that his taking a knee was "no disrespect to the American flag."

"It’s about right and wrong, like I always say," Spence said. "And what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. It’s no offense to nobody, no disrespect, just like I always tell people, love one another and we’ll be alright."

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Spence said the Lions planned to meet this week to determine what form their protests should take going forward.

"But it’ll probably be something that continues just cause of what’s going on in our country, the injustice and everything like that," he said.

Along with Spence, running back Ameer Abdullah, linebackers Tahir Whitehead, Steve Longa and Jalen Reeves-Maybin, and defensive linemen Cornelius Washington, A'Shawn Robinson and Jeremiah Ledbetter also took a knee during Sunday's singing of the anthem.

Spence said Wednesday that he did not want to talk about Trump, and that along with the protests players are trying to figure out what ways to best help their communities.

"It’s important," he said. "It’s an issue that we can’t turn a blind eye to. It’s something that needs to be talked about and something needs to be done about it. You just take – that was a major step, I’d say, when you have your owners, Jerry Jones and those guys coming out and just supporting their team. Now, it’s a light being shined on the injustice and everything going on."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!