NFL Network coverage focuses on social justice conversations

NFL Network analyst and former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew explained why he lives in constant fear and wants to see less talk and more action:

“These conversations, you have to have these conversations. But I feel like having that time to converse is over. It needs to be about actions. We have been having conversations long before 2020. … I’ve had this conversations with my sons and nephews multiple times that were living with me, I’ve had these conversations when George Floyd was murdered, why do we have to keep having these conversations? I think (Los Angeles Clippers coach) Doc Rivers put it perfectly, and Mike Garafolo no disrespect to you but you don’t have to have those conversations, you don’t have to tell your son how to act when he gets pulled over, the same way my mother taught me, and the same way my grandfather taught her and my uncles, and so forth. That is the problem. Why do we keep having to have these conversations? There needs to be action taken. In Wisconsin, a Black man was shot seven times, unarmed. There was a young white male who had an AR-15 kill people and nothing happened to him. Those are the issues these players are seeing. There is an issue, and if you can’t see it you’re part of the problem. As a Black man in America, forget football, forget everything else, every day I wake up scared, every day I wake up in fear of my life that I may make a wrong turn, I may be in the wrong neighborhood and I may get pulled over, my life may end. We shouldn’t have to live that way, regardless of how much money I have or how much money I don’t have, what my platform is or what it isn’t, every day as a Black man from players to political people to teachers, whatever you may see or whoever’s in your life, that Black person wakes up in fear every day, and that is a problem.”

Fellow retired NFL player and NFL Network analyst Andrew Hawkins delivered a message to the “stick-to-sports” crowd:

“For people that want to say, I want to get away in sports. I hope they understand that for the Black players in the NFL, the Black players in the NBA and all across the country, there is no getting away. Race is something that I literally have to wake up every day and think about, and it’s not by choice. As much as a burden you may feel in these times, and when you watch certain television programs, that burden for us is 24-7. Having to have that conversation with my 8-year-old son, it’s a day that I’ve dreaded since he’s been born … and it hurts. It hurts. The innocence of a kid and how sweet they are, and the children and the world you want to create for them, it’s disheartening to know that there’s no place to go for refuge from it. There’s no bubble I can keep them in, as much as I home-school them, keep them at home, prevent them from going to certain places, don’t let them play with toy guns, don’t let them play video games with shooting, just in case he enjoys it and wants to play with a toy gun in public. When I was in the league in 2014 and I wore a T-shirt calling for justice for the murder of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old playing with a fake, toy gun in the park and was shot instantly, and then I see the situation in Kenosha, Wisconsin where a young man could walk around with an AR-15 and it not be a problem, that is the difference. As much as the players have to lose, because they do, again, these are people who are revered, who make a ton of money, this isn’t something they’re doing on a whim, these demonstrations, these protests, this speaking out, isn’t for popularity. Most times it is because these are team players, and you cannot separate the players from the community that they come from. It doesn’t matter what height they climb to, it doesn’t matter how many fans they garner, these are team players. It’s the reason why you love them, it’s the reason why you cheer them on Sundays, you cheer them on during basketball games because they understand that for the greater good of the team, they have to do what they have to do. Now because these are the only Black people that you might listen to because they’re on TV, because they do play sports, because they do play for your favorite sports team, or they play for the team that represents your city, they are still the team players the same way you love them when it comes to their community. They are the voices for the people that grow up how they grew up, they are the voices for the people that look like them. And I hope they understand that the on-field, the on-court demonstrations, that was the bargain. And what the NBA players have done is taken it to the next level. At some point, someone’s got to listen. Otherwise they’re going to continue to do what they need to do with their influence, with their platform, with the only leverage that they have to try to effect systemic change.”