NFL quarterback Drew Brees just offered a textbook example of why white people need to talk less and listen more when it comes to the demonstrations currently taking place across the country in response to George Floyd‘s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Related: Fans are freaking out over NFL star Drew Brees partnering with antigay hate group
In an interview with Yahoo Finance today, Brees, who has a long partnership with the antigay hate group Focus on the Family, said he will “never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America” when asked about NFL players peacefully protesting police brutality by taking a knee.
Related: Drew Brees to people criticizing his work with antigay hate group: “Shame on you!”
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“I love and respect my teammates and I stand right there with them in regards to fighting for racial equality and justice,” Brees rambled on. “I also stand with my grandfathers who risked their lives for this country and countless other military men and women who do it on a daily basis.”
Highlight: @readdanwrite asks @drewbrees what the star NFL quarterback thinks about "players kneeling again when the NFL season starts."@drewbrees: “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
Full exchange: pic.twitter.com/MpCkFyOMed
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) June 3, 2020
These were his first public remarks since Floyd’s murder.
A backlash ensued almost immediately. One of the strongest rebukes came from NBA superstar LeBron James, who (once again) informed Brees that kneeling during the national anthem has “nothing to do with the disrespect of [the United States flag] and our soldiers.”
men who fought as well for this country. I asked him question about it and thank him all the time for his commitement. He never found Kap peaceful protest offensive because he and I both know what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong! God bless you. ?????
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 3, 2020
But James wasn’t the only one repulsed by Brees’ racially-coded comments.
Here’s what other people are saying…
Drew Brees didn’t get the message. But at least he’s proving my point that for some folks, there is *no* acceptable way for Black people to demand their full rights as American citizens & equal protection under the law. https://t.co/WSREIBJlwF
— nick wright (@getnickwright) June 3, 2020
Well @drewbrees sounds pretty fuckin racist to me.
— Miklo (@Miklo93656428) June 3, 2020
How can anyone watch George Floyd get murdered and their first response when asked about it is ResPEcC tHe fLAg.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) June 3, 2020
This is a disgrace! To speak about your grandfathers as if there weren’t black men fighting next to them.Those men later returned to a country that hated them. Don’t avoid the issue and try to make it about a flag or the military. Fight like your grandfathers for whats right! https://t.co/qag3Igic3V
— Devin&Jason McCourty (@McCourtyTwins) June 3, 2020
.@drewbrees the reason my children have to live in a world that won’t empathize with their pain is because people like you are raising your children to perpetuate the cycle. Drew, you are the problem.
— Douglas Baldwin Jr ? (@DougBaldwinJr) June 3, 2020
When Drew Brees see Black teammates peacefuly protesting social injustices pic.twitter.com/VHudnsIz1s
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) June 3, 2020
It’s really up to people to see what they want. If Drew Brees, who’s in an NFL locker room full of black men and lives in a city with a black population of 60%, doesn’t have the empathy to understand different views of the American flag, he’s intentionally closing his eyes.
— Melissa Jacobs (@thefootballgirl) June 3, 2020
If you're still talking about players "disrespecting the flag" by kneeling during the national anthem clearly you're not ready for these conversations. Call a time out and come back later.
— Julius Peppers (@juliuspeppers_) June 3, 2020
Drew Brees, “I” fought for this country for 6 years in the Air Force. I fought for someone like Kap to use his RIGHT to be able to peacefully protest injustice. IT’S NOT DISRESPECTING THE FLAG. YOU are disrespecting the cause. This is the wrong audible for you to call! https://t.co/yilzLqkgJf
— Mike Hill (@ItsMikeHill) June 3, 2020
Drew Brees getting cancelled?!! Turn that shit up
— ??T-Time?? (@Ayo_TTime9) June 3, 2020
Drew Brees is an excellent example of how 'non racist' white people enable racism.
They make friends with and act like they share common cause with those black friends, but when the rubber meets the road, they're "more devoted to order than justice" as MLK wrote about. pic.twitter.com/lAVT957U3G
— Matt Rogers ?? (@Politidope) June 3, 2020
Welp! This is all I need to see! #DrewBrees is dead to me! pic.twitter.com/lnHH0gvERb
— TheComedyCop (@DwayneLGill) June 3, 2020
As we mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time Brees has demonstrated that he’s on the wrong side of history.
Last fall, it was revealed he had been quietly partnering with the antigay hate group Focus on the Family for almost ten years, appearing on its radio program, being profiled on its official blog, and filming a video to promote “Bring Your Bible To School Day,” which was designed to combat National Coming Out Day.
Hey, Ellen, you wanna come get your boy?
Related: Ellen’s radio silence on the Drew Brees antigay scandal is deafening
WSnyder
Drew Brees is a ‘closet racist’ and homophobe. He’s smart enough to know that coming out of that closet will ruin his career and valuable endorsement contracts, so he skirts around the out & out racism and uses camouflage by accusing Players who take a knee of being anti-Flag, anti-Armed Forces personnel. Does he believe that? No. But he can’t actually say what he thinks about them.
Like the KKK, he’s hiding behind a mask, too cowardly to be grossly overt because he knows his racism is not popular and he’d lose millions. Next time you see macho Drew Bress on the field, remind yourself there’s a little racist coward under that uniform.
Chrisk
Apparently it’s to the tune of 12 million per year through companies like Nike, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Wrangler.
It is interesting watching him carefully tap dance around bigotry. He’s going to slip up eventually.
sonic_source
If Drew Brees still doesn’t get it after all this time he never will.
missvamp
exactly! just one more reason to tune out & turn off the nfl. but if things keep going this way- it may not even happen this year anyway. or they may play to empty stadiums. who cares.
Jim
I’m not sure what I think of white privilege.
But if it had a poster boy it would be Drew Brees.
CarterATL
Defenses are going to be aiming for Brees’ knees if the NFL plays this fall.
dhmonarch89
Did he have a problem when the white lock down protestors marched on capital buildings with guns???? I missed it if he did.
frapachino
Stopped reading at “everyone” what would be the point of going any further?
Den
Perhaps going further would have allowed an intelligent thought to enter your mind.
But I guess it somehow makes you feel good (or “big” or oppositional) to always support homophobes and racists and those who despise social justice of any sort.
EVERYONE (who thinks), sees you as intellectually deficient, unless you are yourself heterosexual, xenophobic, racist and homophobic.
curiobi
If there was no point in reading what the F was the point in commenting.
Since you are always doing this trash trolling on this site, there is no way you meant, oh Lord it’s that dumbass again, -I’m not reading this, I’m out.
How many times do you have to be told your trash racist, sexist homophobic comments are not welcome? Get lost troll! I have seen protests that I never thought I would see in my lifetime, and little miserable pathetic insects that hate people based on their skin colour are being exposed for the useless POS they are!
No one is going to excuse it anymore! You cannot hate people for being gay, or what shade their skin is, or what gender they are. It is stupid, evil, and we have all had more than enough.
So get on board or leave and take your boy with you! He supports a anti-gay hate group, and now this, why is he needed because he can play a game? So can thousands others without being scumbags.
Heywood Jablowme
Frapuchinos are BI-RACIAL, you know. All that white whipped cream mixed up with all that deep dark mocha! You are a Half Breed lol.
Black Pegasus
I don’t support Drew Brees in the least, but the title of this article is intentionally misleading. Brees said he does not support players kneeling at football games while the national anthem and flag was being displayed. He said nothing about the protests and riots currently griping the nation.
Kangol2
@Black_Pegasus, I know you are sharper than the comment you just posted. The exact respectful, silent kneeling protests he has denounced were aimed at calling attention to the police violence and murders that led to the protests that have now surged all over the US and the globe. The two are inextricably linked.
In fact, had mayors, governors, state legislators, and the US Justice Department taken Colin Kaepernick’s and other players’ respectful, silent protests against police brutality and murders of unarmed Black people seriously, we probably would not have witnessed Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd or those cops breaking the law with a no-announce warrant that led to them riddling Breonna Taylor with bullets, and so on.
And with the enacted reforms, which began when Barack Obama was president (because of the series of police killings then), there’d have been none of the legitimate and ongoing protests we’d witnessed this past 7 days.
rocknstan
When there are no “acceptable” ways for citizens to demonstrate for equality–and taking a knee is about as peaceful as it gets–we are left with … ?
As the late Larry Kramer urged, “Act up!”
Jared MacBride
I’m not seeing how the kneeling players were “disrespectful” of the flag or the anthem any more than the ones who tugged on their jock straps while it played.
designdude
?
designdude
He’s a pile of shit
Hussain-TheCanadian
I don’t understand why more Americans don’t criticize this propagandistic claim that the troops “protect American freedoms” – They don’t, they have nothing to do with “defending” the American Constitution, which is from where I imagine these freedoms come from.
American civil society, lawyers, judges, professors, journalists, and academics are the protectors of those freedoms, the upholders of the constitution. The American military is something else, it has nothing to do with protecting anything.
Inspector 57
Yup.
TonyPSP
There are so many ways the military protects America but unfortunately the only time the public hears about the military is during a war. The military is involved in medicine, building and teaching people around the word. Unfortunately people like Trump are taking advantage of them and using them for things like crowd control. Hopefully this will change soon. The military is also one of the biggest civilian employers in the country and I’m not talking about private contractors.
Neoprene
Nice to see Drew and the Orange Anti-Christ hanging out with their respective escorts.
Inspector 57
I know that boycotts are not typically an effective action. But this a-hole is making me wish that I would have been an NFL fan, just so that I could stop supporting it because of him.
Cam
The false patriotism of Republicans is what they use instead of policies and governing for the people.
Republicans have convinced their base that patriotism means wearing a little flag pin on your lapel, and if a politician does that, it doesn’t matter if they steal America’s money and hand it out to billionaires, or sell us out to Russia or China in return for lobbying money.
People like Drew Brees want to deify the flag and not worry about the fact that America isn’t a flag or a pin. To Brees, the flag is more important than innocent people murdered by police. He doesn’t see “Those people” as Americans anyway.
rbernard
Unfortunately and it is a sad statement of fact, Drew Brees attitude is common in south Louisiana and is a accurate reflection of the majority of white people living in his community and how they feel about black people in the Greater New Orleans Area he lives in.
Even though one can say things are a lot better better than they used to be for black people, entrenched racism is still fact of life and white people still deny it exists.
Why do racist deny being racist?
There lies the rub ….
SteveM
There’s a saying that I heard many years ago and it goes like this (I actually heard it on the show Queer as Folk). There are two kinds of straight people: those that hate us to our face and those who hate us behind our backs. I’m not quite cynical – I happen to think that just 75 per cent of straights are at least contemptuous of us. They are certainly jealous of how much we gay and lesbian people have achieved and how far we’ve gone, in spite of all the road blocks they have thrown in our path. Drew Brees is simply part of the minority of straights who hate us to our face, but even so, he’s part of the majority of them who are at least contemptuous of us.
sillyme
If this jerk is still making money color me surprised for a racists piece of crap I couldn’t listen to any more of his bull crap after a 1:40 I had to get out of that and seeing him as a Trumper buddy makes me wonder how he’s a sports “star”? really He’s too full of himself and who knows what else to be a star of anything more than a part of him being a decent person ran down someones leg at some point and time before he got conceived from what I heard. What a looser.!!!!
Patsy Stoned
Oh honey. Nobody is “coming” for this bit of nazi mayo drying on the carpet.