NFL players are coming together and working with officials to further discuss police brutality and race relations.
ESPN reports five NFL players Anquan Boldin, Glover Quin, Malcolm Jenkins, Josh McCown and Andrew Hawkins went to Capitol Hill. This was spawned by Detriot Lions wide receiver, Anquan Boldin who does tons of off the field community work. He wanted to take action with other well-respected guys from the league that have the same goal as him.
They’ll be meeting with multiple representatives including House Speaker, Paul Ryan.
Anquan Boldin tells Jim Trotter,
There’s a “huge mistrust” between the police and the African-American community.
“I want to help close that gap,” he said.
As the only white player there, Josh McCown stated why he was there,
“I don’t believe we, as white people, can understand what African-Americans go through on a daily basis, because it’s different,” McCown said. “For me, first and foremost, I want to be able to acknowledge that, and say that our stories are different and our histories are different, but let’s just try to be a part of making it better moving forward.”
When it comes to THESE issues the NFL hasn’t been as progressive as the NBA. There are clear divisions in locker rooms when these issues are brought up. You have NFL coaches and players who support Trump despite him disrespecting people’s humanity.
It’s great that athletes are taking initiatives to build bridges and trying to figure things out. For a lot of these players, this issue is deeply personal as they’ve been affected by them like Boldin, whose cousin was shot and killed by an officer who failed to show a badge or identify himself as an officer.
These are great steps, however if people wanted to solve police issues and race relations, we could have a long time ago.
We’ll see how these discussions continue to go under Trump’s presidency.