The Washington Football Team‘s practice facility in Ashburn, Virginia is about 30 miles away from The Capitol.
As extremists stormed the Capitol in DC on Wednesday and protested President Trump‘s election loss by scaling walls and riding scaffolding on the side of a sacred federal building that hasn’t been breached since the British burned Washington to the ground in 1812, the players watched in amazement and horror as the power of white privileged flexed its audacity, causing total mayhem in the name of “Trump’s Revolution.”
We have come full circle with the trauma and mistrust for a government that has done nothing to help relieve or prevent the damaging effects of the coronavirus, record unemployment, and the stain of white supremacy on our nation.
2020 was a year of racial reckoning in this country. It was supposed to be a year of change after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake (just to name a few ) at the hands of police and a call to activism throughout professional sports forced the conversation about race in this country to be taken a step further. Corporations, companies, conglomerates and organizations in every sector of society were forced to reevaluate the way they conducted business and approached race.
Athletes in the WNBA, NBA and NFL led the way with protests, Black Lives Matter initiatives and fighting voter suppression. They used their platforms as a means of improving this country. Unfortunately, as 2021 stumbles in, we see that we are in for a long fight. The athletes haven’t gotten a day of rest as far as fighting social injustice is concerned and after a brief break to gather their mental health, NBA players were back at it last night, commenting on the days events and realizing just how far we are from accomplishing real change in this country.
The events of yesterday was an example how damaged and fractured the country has become under Donald Trump’s reign. And of course, he was nowhere to be seen while his goons disrespected our nation’s capitol in a planned attack.
On January 6, armed Trumpist militias will be rallying in DC, at Trump's orders. It's highly likely that they'll try to storm the Capitol after it certifies Joe Biden's win. I don't think this has sunk in yet.
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) December 21, 2020
NBA players, Jaylen Brown and Kawhi Leonard among them, voiced their frustrations and concerns about he turn of events, the recklessness and lawlessness exhibited by American citizens over an election that was lost fair and square a long time ago.
“In one America, you get killed by sleeping in your car, selling cigarettes or playing in your backyard. In another America, you get to storm the Capitol, and no tear gas, no massive arrests, none of that.”
Jaylen Brown cites MLK’s two Americas in discussing breach of Capitol pic.twitter.com/YnJbOxqRd8
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 7, 2021
Kyle Lowery spoke out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CWCV3gfxI8
WFT’s Ron Rivera, the only Hispanic-American HC in the NFL appeared on First Take Today
“Gosh, once we walked off the practice field, I heard all the buzz around the facility and so we flipped on the television and we saw it. It was disturbing.,” Rivera said. “To see the violence at our nation’s capitol was really disappointing.
Rivera was brought in to change the culture of a dysfunctional franchise that had been in the news for various offenses that cut to the heart of oppression and gender and race exploitation.
READ MORE: The Washington Football Team’s Sexual Harassment Investigation Now An NFL Case
He pointed to Stacey Abrams as an example of how Americans should handle political losses. Throwing classless fits is not one of them.
“To be honest with you, Rivera continued, “the whole attitude and thought process here was…the biggest thing that we decided more than anything else. we are not going to be judged on what we used to be. When you look at what’s going on in society today, people don’t approach it that way. But I will say this, in Georgia, Stacey Abrams did that. She lost an election and didn’t make a fuss about it the wrong way. She went about it the right way and that’s whaty’s impressive. that’s how how you change a culture, a mindset. ”
“She said I’m going to beat on these doors. I’m going to go out and speak at these different events and I’m going to alert people as to what we can do and how we can become. To me, that’s the kind of role model you want.
The thing that I’ve learned, because I was one of those early on who didn’t feel athletes and coaches should get involved in politics to where I realized that we do have a voice that people listen to and we’ve got to be the right kind of role model for people to follow.”
Right now, there is no model for kids to follow. All they see is in the words of EPMD. “total chaos and mass confusion.”
