Drew Brees Apologizes for Calling Kneeling During the Anthem ‘Disrespectful’

Several commentators said the remarks were particularly insensitive, coming from a white quarterback in a league in which three-quarters of the players are African-American yet almost every owner and top team executive is white. Brees, a Super Bowl champion who holds a number of N.F.L. records, is also a major star in a city where a majority of residents are black.

“SMH. You represent New Orleans Louisiana. Don’t ever forget that! #Bottomofthemap,” Tyrann Mathieu, a safety for the Kansas City Chiefs, wrote on Twitter.

Josh Hart, who plays in the N.B.A. for the New Orleans Pelicans, said that kneeling during the anthem was “never about disrespecting the armed forces.”

“It’s about police brutality and racial injustices in our country,” he wrote on Twitter. “This country can’t be unified if African Americans are unjustly killed in the street because of the color of their skin.”

Brees later defended his remarks, reiterating why he believed it was important to stand for the anthem.

“I believe we should all stand for the national anthem and respect our country and all those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms,” Brees told ESPN in a text message. “That includes all those who marched for women’s suffrage in the 1920s and all those who marched in the civil rights movements and continue to march for racial equality. All of us … EVERYONE … represent that flag. Same way I respect all the citizens of our country … no matter their race, color, religion.”

Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/sports/football/-drew-brees-nfl-anthem-kneeling.html