Maurice Jones-Drew sprinted the last 30 yards into the endzone Friday night, stopped, put his head down and his hands up and froze. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” It was an important statement for the Raiders running back to make, in support of the protestors of the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

“I am raising three African American boys,” Jones-Drew told the Chronicle. “Whenever you see things like that … and it’s not just Ferguson, I was in Jacksonville when Trayvon Martin happened, I was in Jacksonville when the gas station shooting over the loud music happened. Those things touch home.

“I definitely wanted to show the people out in Ferguson and around the world that as athletes, we understand and we try to do whatever we can to make a statement. If we could do more, we would.”

Jones-Drew said, when he was growing up in Antioch, his mother would often lecture him about how to talk to police officers.

“I never understood it until now,” he said. “And now, I am having a talk with my boys about it. That’s a shame, that we have to talk about how to talk to police. …

“You want to continue as a nation to grow and become a better people. It starts there. You have to take care of home first. I just wanted to show people from Ferguson and around the world that we’re going to fight with them and be there with them as long as we can.”

The 40-yard touchdown run was one of only five plays that night for Jones-Drew, who is in great shape and looks poised for a big bounce-back year after the Jaguars chose not to re-sign the free agent. He has 67 yards on 11 carries (6.1 average) and three catches for 36 yards in three preseason games.

“It was one of those plays where it was the right call,” Jones-Drew said. “They were in a defense where they blitzed everybody. I just had to make one cut, get north and break a couple of arm tackles.

“I feel like we’re on the right track. We’re getting it, we’re moving the ball well. We just have to be more dialed in to our footwork, and we will be alright.”