Drew Brees Slams NFL Players For Taking Knee During National Anthem

Wild Card Round - Minnesota Vikings v New Orleans Saints

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Drew Brees recently made headlines after he and his wife donated $5 million to provide families in New Orleans with assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a spectacular display of willful ignorance, the Saints quarterback shared in a new interview that he will not support NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem, prompting football Twitter to throw a flag on the play. Brees sat down with Yahoo! Finance Editor-At-Large Daniel Roberts, who asked the player his thoughts about the peaceful and silent kneeling protests first started by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. With the specter of police brutality and its effect on Black Americans in particular, Roberts pointed a question asking Brees how the league should respond to players taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem.

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Brees responded, which again is another tone-deaf response to the injustices that sparked Kap’s current movement as an activist and effectively got him ousted from the league and a sport he loved. What is incredibly disappointing is time and again, Kaepernick and other players both Black and white have articulated what the kneeling represented and should have been a wake-up call to the league and the nation to spark a true nationwide dialogue about race in America. Instead, the bumbling leader of our nation, President Donald Trump, referred to players who protested racial injustice as “sons of b*tches” and has routinely misinterpreted the true aim of the players. Now somewhat dripped out in MAGA sauce, Drew Brees is getting sacked for his incorrect assertion that kneeling disrespects the flag instead of the gesture being a call to white Americans to look Black people and other persons of colors directly in the eyes and ask how can we collectively fix this broken system. Brees’ comments are also hurtful because, as some have noted on Twitter, he is one of New Orleans’ most beloved athletes. Check out the reactions to Drew Brees’ comment below.

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