Speaker 1: Drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. It's been ten days since George
Speaker 1: Floyd was brutally murdered. How many times do we need
Speaker 1: to ask you to listen to your players? What will
Speaker 1: it take for one of us to be murdered bout
Speaker 1: police brutality? What if I was George Floyd, If I
Speaker 1: was George Floyd, If I was George Floyd, if I
Speaker 1: was George if I was George Floyd, George Floyd, I
Speaker 1: am Brian, I am About, I am Eric, I am
Speaker 1: Tamir Right Marker, I am Walking Scott, I am Michael Brown,
Speaker 1: I am Samuel the Boys. I am Friend. I'm find
Speaker 1: of wife Jordan Baker, who will not be silent in
Speaker 1: the protest. It shouldn't take this long, Love, then so on,
Speaker 1: behalf of the National Football League. This is what we
Speaker 1: the players would like to hear you. Stay. We National
Speaker 1: condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people. Be
Speaker 1: week National admit wrong and silence in our players from
Speaker 1: peacefully protesting. We believe black lives matter. Black lives matters.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Drafted. You just heard the biggest stars
Speaker 1: in football from Super Bowl m v P Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year sa Kwan Barkley, to this year's
Speaker 1: number two draft pick, Washington rookie Chase Young, all of
Speaker 1: them featured in a rogue viral video demanding change in
Speaker 1: the NFL and our country. In previous episodes, we've gotten
Speaker 1: a unique look at the lives of eight athletes entering
Speaker 1: the National Football League, and now in the final installment
Speaker 1: of this season of Drafted, these players are joining their
Speaker 1: teams and beginning their careers in the middle of a
Speaker 1: pandemic during a social revolution denouncing racial injustice, police brutality,
Speaker 1: and systemic oppression. People are protesting everywhere, during sporting events
Speaker 1: and in the streets. For the first time in their careers,
Speaker 1: the eight NFL rookies we've been hearing from will have
Speaker 1: a major platform for their voices, one that has been
Speaker 1: shrouded in political controversy since two thousand sixteen. It's almost
Speaker 1: a three sixty going back to Kaepernick. That's Damarius Bilbo
Speaker 1: from Clutched Sports Group, Like when you have a guy
Speaker 1: that was as talented as he is and he stood
Speaker 1: up for something and our our neil for something and
Speaker 1: end up not being employed anymore. You know, it puts
Speaker 1: fair in these guys. What began as a debate about
Speaker 1: kneeling during the national anthem turned into worldwide outrage over
Speaker 1: officers taking a much more horrifying knee on the neck
Speaker 1: of another man. I won't justice for my brother, my
Speaker 1: big brother. That's Big Floord. Everybody know who Big Floyd is.
Speaker 1: Now everybody gonna remember him around the world. He's going
Speaker 1: to change the world. In death, George Floyd has become
Speaker 1: the symbol for action everywhere. His final words I can't
Speaker 1: breathe have been displayed on signs and chanted by crowds
Speaker 1: in solidarity protests across the globe. A world already turned
Speaker 1: upside down by the novel Coronavirus, became further disrupted by
Speaker 1: the tragedy in May, affecting politics, business, culture, and of
Speaker 1: course sports. The George Floyd videos one of the most
Speaker 1: disturbing things that I've ever seen personally. That's cornerback Bryce
Speaker 1: Hall now with the New York Jets. The reality is
Speaker 1: just that, you know, I haven't experienced something to that
Speaker 1: kind of depth, and to see that for myself and
Speaker 1: internalized that was shocking, And it's a different thing when
Speaker 1: you hear about things um, when you are taught things
Speaker 1: from other people or in school, when you learn things
Speaker 1: UM versus actually being present during in a situation and
Speaker 1: environment where you see the whole thing infold and manifest
Speaker 1: with your own eyes. You know, it's just it's just
Speaker 1: kind of awakening and come to realization that this stuff
Speaker 1: is real. My dad he grew up in Louisiana and
Speaker 1: he's kind of been exposed to some things along those lines.
Speaker 1: And some of the things that my dad talks about,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not just saying it just to say it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's very real. Bryce's father wanted to
Speaker 1: shield his children from the racism he experienced in this country,
Speaker 1: repeating occurrence. He was certain his kids would also be
Speaker 1: subjected to. I have so I have two older brothers,
Speaker 1: my blood brothers, um there, and their names are Derek
Speaker 1: and Philip, and obviously my name is Bryce. But he
Speaker 1: had named us these names because he never wanted us
Speaker 1: to have a disadvantage if somebody were to look at
Speaker 1: our names and they couldn't tell if you know who
Speaker 1: we are, but they just looked on paper and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to racially profile you know, they sound
Speaker 1: just like any other name, so they couldn't discriminate on
Speaker 1: the name. And I thought that was something that I
Speaker 1: just kind of blew my mind. Was very interesting because
Speaker 1: I never knew that, and that's something that he shared
Speaker 1: with me recently. I grew up in the South and
Speaker 1: we's in Dad Michael Hall, So my exposure to racism
Speaker 1: or a feeling of blacks being inferior or treated differently
Speaker 1: or whatever, I mean, that was a reality there. If
Speaker 1: you're a black person, you defer to white people. In
Speaker 1: particularly older black people were trained that way. One world,
Speaker 1: all I had was a band director, Mr. Wilhide in
Speaker 1: sixth grade. Um, he was a black man. If he
Speaker 1: would come from the different he would go to a
Speaker 1: couple of different schools and teach a band. He came
Speaker 1: to school late and we were messing around and stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, as kids cutting up. He basically thanked all
Speaker 1: of us and he told us, I want you all
Speaker 1: to learn this lesson and never forget it. If you
Speaker 1: want to be treated, if you want to get equal
Speaker 1: treatment this world, if you apply for a job or anything,
Speaker 1: and you have to be twice as good just to
Speaker 1: get equal. Right, cognition and you never forget that. So
Speaker 1: that's why you can't afford to be wasting time not practicing,
Speaker 1: not working, not doing your homework. And that lesson stuck
Speaker 1: with me. So I always realized, as a black person,
Speaker 1: I've got to try twice as hard just to get
Speaker 1: a fair break. And that's the injustice, that's the unfairness,
Speaker 1: that's what we've had to deal with. And Bryce and
Speaker 1: he always felt like, well, things are different. I'm not
Speaker 1: getting treated differently. That was your world. That's not my world.
Speaker 1: But when you see what happened to George Floyd Nor,
Speaker 1: my world is still exists. That world has never gone away.
Speaker 1: So I think that was like a bucket of cold
Speaker 1: water in his face to realize that, you know, things
Speaker 1: have changed, but they haven't changed that much at all.
Speaker 1: Has been taught to stand up for yourself and stand
Speaker 1: up for what you believe in. That's Denver Broncos cornerback
Speaker 1: is saying, Bassie, if I see somebody treating my teammate,
Speaker 1: my classmate a different way, you know that's gonna affect
Speaker 1: me because they could easily turn that that hate towards
Speaker 1: me or something. You know. So when I was younger,
Speaker 1: my parents would always be like, you know, not everybody's
Speaker 1: your friend. Be careful what you say around these people
Speaker 1: who are act the third way around these people because
Speaker 1: they don't. You don't want them to think something else
Speaker 1: than what it is. Similar to how Bryce didn't feel
Speaker 1: or experience the overt racism his dad warned him about
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis, is saying also didn't
Speaker 1: think the warnings applied to his daily existence, at least
Speaker 1: not until one night this past summer, while he was
Speaker 1: home waiting to join his new team for training camp.
Speaker 1: I was in Atlanta, uh Lily around the corner down
Speaker 1: the street from where Brookes was shot and killed at
Speaker 1: that Wendy's Um. Less than the while away I was.
Speaker 1: I was right there, and I remember having that conversation
Speaker 1: with my parents, the fear and their voices, and like
Speaker 1: I said, those things, when you see those things happen,
Speaker 1: that's when you start to realize, Oh, this is what
Speaker 1: she was trying to tell me. This is what my
Speaker 1: dad was telling me about when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: This is what he means. This is what he meant
Speaker 1: by you don't talk back to a police officer. Don't
Speaker 1: do this, don't you know carry yourself a certain way,
Speaker 1: So do everything in your power that no harm comes
Speaker 1: to you. And that's just how it is growing up
Speaker 1: as an African American. These are things that black people
Speaker 1: have been enduring for four years, these social injustices. It's
Speaker 1: just it's like a it's like that bad dream that
Speaker 1: you keep having. It's just you keep having that same nightmare.
Speaker 1: Tragon Martin was the first time that I really felt that,
Speaker 1: And then you have all these Philando Castile, Alton Sterling,
Speaker 1: Eric Gardner, Like I said, that bad dream keeps happening
Speaker 1: and happening and happening. George Floyd, you know, keeps happening.
Speaker 1: Brianna Taylor, it keeps happening. That was an accident. It
Speaker 1: should have never happened. They were at the wrong house.
Speaker 1: She was not supposed to be killed. This is Garmet,
Speaker 1: Mama Lou, another member of Clutched Sports Group. So why
Speaker 1: didn't Why has no one done anything about that? That's
Speaker 1: that's what makes you feel like the experience of a
Speaker 1: black woman and a black man are different. The cops
Speaker 1: in that situation, in Brianna Taylor's situation have yet to
Speaker 1: be arrested. Garmet is part of the team representing many
Speaker 1: of the top rookies joining the NFL, and she offers
Speaker 1: a rarely heard perspective in this predominantly male sports world.
Speaker 1: When you talk about in dissect the safety of what
Speaker 1: it means to be a black woman in this place,
Speaker 1: when you don't feel protected one because of your sex,
Speaker 1: because the people that should be protecting you, you gotta
Speaker 1: worry about them harming you. You see cops body slamming women,
Speaker 1: You hear about cops raping women that are taken into custody.
Speaker 1: You don't feel valued when you are constantly shown video
Speaker 1: of your life meaning nothing. You feel insignificant. You feel helpless.
Speaker 1: When you are a woman and you're sleeping in your
Speaker 1: bed and you die, and your cops are your killers,
Speaker 1: your murderers are still walking enjoying their life, you feel
Speaker 1: like nobody cares. So in the same way we are
Speaker 1: enraged and making sure what happened or whatever will happen
Speaker 1: with George Floyd's murderers, whatever happened to the men that
Speaker 1: murdered mad Aubrey, I just want us to have that
Speaker 1: same concern and compassion for Brianna Taylor and every other
Speaker 1: woman who has lost her life at the hands of
Speaker 1: the same social injustices and the same needs on next.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, sorry, a lot of times black
Speaker 1: women are encouraged and forced to be strong, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't always seem like people see that we need to
Speaker 1: be soft too, and we need to be protected, and
Speaker 1: we need to be cared for, and we need justice.
Speaker 1: We go and march for our brothers. We go and
Speaker 1: make sure that their lives are never forgotten. That who
Speaker 1: killed them, whoever her harm them, we go and make
Speaker 1: sure that they go to court, go to jail. Whatever
Speaker 1: needs to happen, we make that happen. As a woman,
Speaker 1: as a black woman, I would love to see us
Speaker 1: make that happen for us. I'm sorry, I was not
Speaker 1: expecting to cry. We'll be right back. When you talk
Speaker 1: about the word hate, it doesn't have a color. Hate
Speaker 1: is a mindset Rich Paul had of clut sports. It's
Speaker 1: something that's taught to you based upon an environment that
Speaker 1: you grew up in a situation that you're going through.
Speaker 1: And then there's the other layer added to where colors
Speaker 1: added because as an individual, you have to have someone
Speaker 1: to take that hate out on. So here we are.
Speaker 1: This is the first time I feel like people are
Speaker 1: listening and the right steps are being taken. Is well
Speaker 1: things happen overnight. No, can you expect people to feel
Speaker 1: sorry for you? No, but we can take two steps
Speaker 1: for me. It starts with better educating yourself all the
Speaker 1: way around the board. The only way this system could
Speaker 1: change is its leaders has to be willing to listen
Speaker 1: and want to change. I think seeing lives being taken away,
Speaker 1: they've been taking us almost like it's become so second
Speaker 1: nature to see these type things. To marry his billbo again.
Speaker 1: It puts the fear of God and me when I
Speaker 1: get pulled over, when I even see a police officer
Speaker 1: come behind me, And you don't want to live like that.
Speaker 1: And I found this topic just occupying. It affects the
Speaker 1: way I raised my son. It affects, you know, the
Speaker 1: way I moved, Like the way I jump. I mean
Speaker 1: literally when I jump in my car. Now I'm looking
Speaker 1: around in the car, I'm making I'm checking my lights,
Speaker 1: making sure lights because I don't want to get pulled over.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm just it's just it's
Speaker 1: just it completely changes everything and how you move. And
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, I love being a black man,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, but it's some days that
Speaker 1: I wake up and I'm just like, when is this
Speaker 1: gonna hit home? You know what I'm saying, When is
Speaker 1: it gonna you know? Because like I, like I said,
Speaker 1: I've been pulled over by cops and I've seen and
Speaker 1: I'm a big dude, I've seen the fear and I
Speaker 1: kind of get emotionally even talking about it because it sucks. Man.
Speaker 1: It's just it's something that you know, like you have kids,
Speaker 1: you don't even want to raise kids, Like I we
Speaker 1: talked about having another kid at one point. It's like
Speaker 1: you don't even want to bring another kid in the world. Man.
Speaker 1: For to Marrus, it's not just the fear of what
Speaker 1: might happen. It's about what has already happened and what
Speaker 1: continues to happen the community I live in. I'm the
Speaker 1: only African American family in my community. It was hard
Speaker 1: for me to move into this neighbor hood. Million dollar
Speaker 1: homes in this neighborhood and see everybody. I moved my
Speaker 1: family here for a reason, and then all the windows
Speaker 1: in the front of my home were busted. To have
Speaker 1: my home vandalized to that extent, and uh, to see
Speaker 1: the camera pick up the white kids faces, multiple white
Speaker 1: kids faces, and no arrest being made, and it's just
Speaker 1: kind of like goes away. But it's hard for me
Speaker 1: to walk this neighborhood and blame everybody for that right,
Speaker 1: for that one person's actions, because I have, for for
Speaker 1: a moment, I was better, I was mad. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I moved my family here because it's a beautiful neighborhood,
Speaker 1: grade school systems, and we have a lovely home just
Speaker 1: like everybody else on the block, you know, But why
Speaker 1: my home? And then you start to kind of look
Speaker 1: at yourself and they don't know me, they don't know
Speaker 1: you know, my heart, they don't know my family, And
Speaker 1: this is how we welcome to this neighborhood, if that's
Speaker 1: what it was. But it was hard for me to
Speaker 1: leave that someone didn't intentionally do this to my home
Speaker 1: because I had just been here for a couple of
Speaker 1: months and um. But again, I don't judge a whole
Speaker 1: race of people for one person's actions, because I know
Speaker 1: how that feels to be pre judged before you even
Speaker 1: get in the room with people. Uh, And that's what
Speaker 1: coming from mass point allowed me to do it allowed
Speaker 1: me to see very diverse people. Damarius grew up in
Speaker 1: Moss Point, Mississippi, a place where he earned high school
Speaker 1: All American accolades and football and baseball, but that athletic
Speaker 1: success didn't change how people in the area saw him.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Masspow, Mississippi, really small town on
Speaker 1: the Gulf coast of Mississippi. I mean it's a hop
Speaker 1: from Mobile, Alabama, and I had my fair share of
Speaker 1: running with people with Confederate flags on their trucks and
Speaker 1: throwing bottles out of a window at me when I
Speaker 1: was running just trying to get the work out in,
Speaker 1: or you know, being in the middle of a baseball
Speaker 1: game and second baseman calling me the inn word, and
Speaker 1: you know things like that. So I seen my share
Speaker 1: of racism, but that doesn't breed hate in my heart.
Speaker 1: After the George Floyd thing, obviously there were a lot
Speaker 1: of situation from Trey von Martin, Philando Cashier to all
Speaker 1: these people who have before George Floyd. But to finally
Speaker 1: see it and have that that moment where that could
Speaker 1: have been a friend of brother, a cousin and made
Speaker 1: it more realistic. What it made it real because that
Speaker 1: man life was taken right in front of all our eyes.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've had players again going back to
Speaker 1: that that that John Lewis quote. You know, that's not fair,
Speaker 1: that's not right, that's unjust. You know, we have to
Speaker 1: do something about it because it's a more obligation. Just
Speaker 1: five weeks after George Floyd's death, we lost Congressman John Lewis,
Speaker 1: the trail blazing civil rights legend from Georgia, a leader
Speaker 1: in this movement and many of the others that came before.
Speaker 1: The late Congressman, often referred to as the conscience of Congress,
Speaker 1: regularly spoke on this inherent obligation stand out, speak up
Speaker 1: when you see something that is not right, not fair,
Speaker 1: not just. If you have a moral obligation to do something,
Speaker 1: to say something and not be quiet. As Dr Martino
Speaker 1: the King Jr. Said, hate is too heavy a burden
Speaker 1: to bed. Yeah, we have come a distance. We made
Speaker 1: a lot of programs as a nation and as a people,
Speaker 1: but we're not there yet. Congressman Lewis participated in this
Speaker 1: fight since the nineteen sixties, when Americans last experienced protests
Speaker 1: of this magnitude. Let at the time by Dr Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. You know, as I looked too, people
Speaker 1: who have been through so much adversity but have made
Speaker 1: a huge difference. That's Bryce Hall again, Martin Luther King.
Speaker 1: One of the things he's famous for saying is, you know,
Speaker 1: darkness can't drive out darkness, only light can do that.
Speaker 1: In the same with hate. You can't drive out hate
Speaker 1: with hate. It takes love, and so I truly believe
Speaker 1: that's the answer. You know, what I'm trying to model
Speaker 1: is having to move with love first. And you know
Speaker 1: that's not the easiest thing, but you know it's it's
Speaker 1: a commandment because you know, that's what one thing we
Speaker 1: are called to do. And if we could ever get
Speaker 1: that right, I think we will see a huge impact
Speaker 1: and a huge difference on everything that we're seeing. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. As bad as it sounds, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that conversation is being had. I'm glad people
Speaker 1: are starting to realize that change needs to happen once again.
Speaker 1: It's saying Bassie football was taken away. People are starting
Speaker 1: now to focus on things outside of just what they
Speaker 1: can go through in their daily lives, their daily routine,
Speaker 1: and are trying to realize that other people around them,
Speaker 1: even the people closest to them, could be going through
Speaker 1: things and and are affected by these these events, and
Speaker 1: people are starting to be more considerate towards that, and
Speaker 1: conversations are being to have that that haven't happened before,
Speaker 1: and people are trying to implement change into how we operate.
Speaker 1: So just like I said, I've been growing up with it.
Speaker 1: I've been living it like my whole life. I'm glad
Speaker 1: people's eyes are starting to open up. And now other people,
Speaker 1: it's like other people are starting now to you know,
Speaker 1: see into what's been going on. It's not always easy.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not gonna sit here and say that
Speaker 1: I've always done that and I've always even though that's
Speaker 1: what's been in my heart. But that's something I'm learning,
Speaker 1: like as a leader, and some something that um needs
Speaker 1: to be done is understanding that, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the I think one of the things I'm really learning,
Speaker 1: especially during the times, is no matter what you do,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, you can be the most kind person,
Speaker 1: you can smile, you can just care for people, but
Speaker 1: work through all less of that, there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: somebody who just this. You're not always going to be
Speaker 1: able to please everybody is what I'm trying to get at.
Speaker 1: And so then it comes down to standing for your
Speaker 1: core and what you believe and to your point of
Speaker 1: saying when you see something, say in something. And that's very,
Speaker 1: very true because like a lot of times we don't
Speaker 1: because of the you know, it's easier to avoid timeflict
Speaker 1: and it's easier to let something slide. But I mean,
Speaker 1: part of being of leadership is stepping outside that comfort
Speaker 1: zone and understanding that you got to stand for your
Speaker 1: convictions and if you don't, you know, um my, my
Speaker 1: wife loves to remind me that wife is Nzelville Yun
Speaker 1: who said yes to Bryce's proposal last episode. They're now
Speaker 1: happily married. My wife loves to remind me, if you
Speaker 1: don't stand for anything, you'll fall for everything. And so
Speaker 1: that's one of the areas that I'm growing in. But
Speaker 1: that's absolutely something I believe in. My core is is
Speaker 1: is that it is if you see something, you say something,
Speaker 1: do something, say something, don't stay quiet in the face
Speaker 1: of injustice. John Lewis's message is more important than ever.
Speaker 1: Our four mothers and our forefathers wrote us to this
Speaker 1: place maybe our four mothers and our forefathers all came
Speaker 1: to this great land in different ships. But as the
Speaker 1: late E. Philorandolv said on one occasion, we are all
Speaker 1: in the same boat now, and we must look out
Speaker 1: for each other and care for each other. You're never
Speaker 1: too young or too old to lead, to speak up,
Speaker 1: to speak out and getting good trouble necessary trouble you
Speaker 1: cannot afford to stand on the slideline. We're seeing history
Speaker 1: unfold to marry his billbo again, and things are are changing.
Speaker 1: But the thing about the civil rights movement wasn't a
Speaker 1: weak thing. It wasn't a month thing, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: year thing. It went on and on and on until
Speaker 1: things changed. And I think that's what we have to understand,
Speaker 1: that we have to keep the consistency going. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it might start off with with riots and marches and
Speaker 1: things like that. At first, that's the attention grabber, but
Speaker 1: at some point, what do we drive all that momentum
Speaker 1: towards getting things changed and find a solution. Here's Garmet
Speaker 1: Mama Loo again on what she sees firsthand from NFL
Speaker 1: players and what needs to happen next. Those black men,
Speaker 1: those strong black men that I know that are in
Speaker 1: the league, the ones that stand for something, that want
Speaker 1: to use their platform to highlight those things. They haven't
Speaker 1: let up. They're not They're always going to be vocal
Speaker 1: about injustices. You have people like Eric Reid who has
Speaker 1: not stopped. He was right there kneeling with Colin Kaepernick,
Speaker 1: and he has not stopped using his voice, using his platforms,
Speaker 1: using his social media, whatever is necessary to keep the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter message going. The importance of understanding and
Speaker 1: highlighting social injustices until they are no longer injustices. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of situations that I unfortunately we can
Speaker 1: go back in history and like it's like it's repeating itself.
Speaker 1: But one of my favorite quotes is lessons are repeated
Speaker 1: until lessons are learned. We haven't learned our lesson yet.
Speaker 1: I think that we should still be like, out there,
Speaker 1: you do whatever that means for you, whatever protesting means
Speaker 1: for you. If it means marching, if it means not
Speaker 1: spending money in certain places, if it means signing petitions
Speaker 1: and organizing petitions, if it means posting links, if it
Speaker 1: means going out and making sure the the protesters have water.
Speaker 1: Whatever it means for you to make sure that this
Speaker 1: message and this mission does not die down. I feel
Speaker 1: like you should still be doing that. Every two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty NFL rookie faces a decision do they want
Speaker 1: to carry the torch of protesting and activism and professional
Speaker 1: sports Beyond the well known examples like Muhammad Ali fighting
Speaker 1: against war and racism and for civil rights, there's Tommy
Speaker 1: Smith and John Carlos stand at the Olympics waiting for
Speaker 1: their medals on the podium, fists clenched above their heads
Speaker 1: and protest against racial discrimination. Jackie Robinson calling out Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball for its lack of black managers on the
Speaker 1: anniversary of his day you with the Brooklyn Dodgers and
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick bona fide star striving to use his new
Speaker 1: found platform to call attention to police brutality and racial
Speaker 1: inequality and losing his career as a result. But the
Speaker 1: tide may have turned. We the National Football League condemn
Speaker 1: racism in the systematic oppression of black people. This is
Speaker 1: Commissioner Roger Goodell. On June five, We the National Football
Speaker 1: League admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL
Speaker 1: players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protests.
Speaker 1: We the National Football League believe black lives matter. The
Speaker 1: NFL's brightest stars stood up and said something, and their
Speaker 1: league responded and what is being described as a stunning
Speaker 1: reversal of policy at a bell Weather for the national
Speaker 1: conversation and movement, the NFL changed its position and this
Speaker 1: novel support creates an opportunity and a huge responsibility for
Speaker 1: these young players entering the league because we look at
Speaker 1: our athletes as role models and we listen to their
Speaker 1: voices in the media. Because sports can bring us together,
Speaker 1: they can help pave the way forward. We all have
Speaker 1: a platform, no matter how big are small. Demarious Bilbo again,
Speaker 1: you know, if you can go to war with your
Speaker 1: brother in the football game for four quarters and you
Speaker 1: can play a nine inning baseball game with me, and
Speaker 1: then you should be able to fight this fight with me.
Speaker 1: And I think that's when people will start seeing the
Speaker 1: change with NASCAR, right when they decided to remove the
Speaker 1: Confederate flag, a scene as an all white sport being
Speaker 1: really diversifying. We're bringing a guy like Alvin Kamara and
Speaker 1: you got a young kid from Atlanta with Dres and
Speaker 1: a nose ring, you know, out there waving a flag
Speaker 1: at NASCAR. It's a beautiful thing to see. And I
Speaker 1: think what we need to do is just share a
Speaker 1: bit of our world with with different people. Just bring
Speaker 1: them in our world as we're going in their world.
Speaker 1: And I think when you have that perspective, you have
Speaker 1: a different understanding. You have to tear some of those
Speaker 1: walls down to to build some positive things back up.
Speaker 1: And from what I've been saying that it looks as
Speaker 1: if it's going in the right direction. The future depends
Speaker 1: on the Alvin kamara is waving a green flag at
Speaker 1: Bristol Motor Speedway. It depends on the Patrick mahomes Is
Speaker 1: and Deshaun Watson's demanding change in a viral video. It
Speaker 1: rests on the Bryce Halls, that Chase Young's, the Saying Bassies,
Speaker 1: the Tremaine Anchrums and Jeff Okudas, the Leviscus Chelts and
Speaker 1: the Keyshawn Vaughans and the Mackay Beckton's. Because we look
Speaker 1: to our athletes as role models and we listen to
Speaker 1: their voices in the media, sports can bring us together
Speaker 1: and help pave the way forward and can inspire young
Speaker 1: people all over the country to stand up, speak up,
Speaker 1: and speak out, refusing to remain on the sidelines. We're
Speaker 1: at a time where our country and our world is
Speaker 1: really getting shaken. And when that happens a lot of times,
Speaker 1: and when I relate this to my own life, and
Speaker 1: when storms of life come, you really have to rely
Speaker 1: on your foundation, and that's what you've what's inside you.
Speaker 1: And I believe America is a strong country. But whenever
Speaker 1: you go through things that shake you at your core
Speaker 1: and shake your foundation and shake everything that you know
Speaker 1: and you believe, it takes something like a crushing before
Speaker 1: we can get to the point of where we can
Speaker 1: grow and and get better. And you know, that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I feel like I've been put on
Speaker 1: this earth is to help um be a part of
Speaker 1: the hope and be a part of a difference being made,
Speaker 1: because I truly believe that, like everybody was born for
Speaker 1: such a time as this, nobody's here on accidents, And yes,
Speaker 1: I do believe there's hope. I absolutely believed his whole
Speaker 1: drafted as a production of tree Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. The executive producers are Kelly Garner,
Speaker 1: Lisa Ammerman, Eric slot Seawan To Toone, l Key, and
Speaker 1: me Keegan Michael Key. The series is produced and written
Speaker 1: by Eric Winer. Jared Brom is our coordinating producer. Tom
Speaker 1: Monahan is our senior audio engineer. Mixed and edited by
Speaker 1: Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen,
Speaker 1: and Hayley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more
Speaker 1: information on Drafted, go to tree Fort dot fm, and
Speaker 1: for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.