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J.T. Brown says he is proud to support the removal of Confederate statues. USATSI

Not long after donating $1,500 toward Hillsborough County's relocation of a Confederate statue from the downtown Tampa area, Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown said that if "everybody stuck to what they're supposed to do, we wouldn't have made the strides we made to get to where we are."

In talking to ESPN's Emily Kaplan, Brown is, of course, referencing a common social-media response to athletes voicing their concerns about politics or social justice -- "Stick to sports."

"Stick to sports? I've heard it," he said, per ESPN.com. "I heard it last year. I've heard it now after this [donating]. I'm not afraid of backlash. Everybody has their opinion on what people should say and when they should say it."

Brown first made headlines in September 2016 by tweeting his opinion about Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who suggested he would bench any players on Team USA in the World Cup of Hockey if they mimicked the national anthem protests of then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The Lightning winger asked aloud whether "benching a black man for taking a stance" would "only further prove Kap's point of oppression."

Now, post-Charlottesville, where even an NHL team was prompted to denounce the use of its logo at white nationalist rallies, Brown isn't intending to carry out any anthem protests of his own, according to Kaplan. He is, however, eyeing more chances to unite against perceived injustice in America, especially after the combined efforts of the Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former NFL head coach Tony Dungy to move Tampa's downtown Confederate statue.

"I will look for more opportunities to positively impact my community and bring awareness to racial issues," he said, per ESPN.