WEBVTT - Michael Bennett 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to The No Sports Report, a production of our 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:14.240 heart radio entry Fort Media. My name is Jensen Carpon. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.480 I'm a sports fan, and right when we thought we 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.279 were facing the largest world problem with COVID nineteen, like 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.520 Mathra joining forces with Godzilla, our country is facing a 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.840 new wave of mainstream attention on the epidemic of systematic racism, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.360 and it shook us to the core. Even if sports 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.840 does return in July, will the civil rights issues that 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.280 we know are front and center on the minds of 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.920 our most influential athletes keep them off courts and fields 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.000 and hope of political change and justice. It's all very heavy, 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.519 and this week we've produced the podcast a little differently. 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.680 I continue to talk to athletes and sports industry professionals 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.880 about how they're feeling during this unprecedented time while sports 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:48.880 is still not in our lives. This is the No 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:54.280 Sports Report. Michael Bennett has always admitted he's a complex 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.320 guy on the field. He takes no prisoners, he's aggressive 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.680 and a Super Bowl champion. At one point on the 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.000 seat of Seahawks, he was a league favorite because of 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.040 his pelvis thrusting celebration dance that he once described as 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.800 two angels dancing while chocolate is coming from the heavens 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.320 on a nice Sunday morning. The only thing better than 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.400 Michael Bennett's god given skills is his personality. But alongside 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.600 that outspoken humor was a desire to make change. Bennett 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:19.759 has proven that although on Sundays he could be ruthless, 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.600 outside of work, the soft spoken defensive end might care 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.120 too much. He spent years supporting Black Lives Matter, created 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.399 his own foundation focused on improving the health and well 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.160 being of children, called himself a feminist and the toxic 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.080 masculinity of the NFL, and in front of millions of fans, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.959 peacefully protested the national anthem in the name of police 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.560 brutality and racial inequality by kneeling, sitting, or staying in 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.880 the locker room. As a well covered victim of racial 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.319 profiling himself, I wanted to speak to the now NFL 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.680 free agent about what he's seen this week, what it's 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.320 like to fear for your life while being held down 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.880 by police, and if things might actually change this time. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.200 This is my conversation with football player Michael Bennett on 0:01:55.240 --> 0:02:09.200 the No Sports Report from Humanitarian also often of I 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.440 think that make white people uncomfortable to accept press one. 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.639 Hello Michael, Yeah, what's up. We'll start off by asking 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.760 where you're quarantining. How have you been handling it? Your 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:21.680 your wife, your three daughters, you guys all in the 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.520 same house. Yeah, we're in the same house still in Hawaii. 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.960 I mean I think we've been handling pretty well. I 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.200 think it is this, uh, when you are a buggy 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.200 person and you used to running around and finally you 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.639 get to slow down, you start to really feel like, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.080 what's the most important essential things in life? And I 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.120 think you realize that and this quarantine, these are the 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.519 most essential things, and it's your family and your kids, 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.320 and you realize that amount of time that you get 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.040 to spend with them is very short. And then once 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.239 you start just being together, you realize like, oh, I 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.040 didn't really know that. Then you just started to get 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.880 re introducing yourself. I think sometimes we're relationships, you forget 0:02:57.919 --> 0:02:59.920 to water them so they don't grow as much as 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.800 we want to do. And being forced to be at 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.640 home a lot every day, you are forced to, you know, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.680 guard your plans and guard your relationships with your family. 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:11.840 And I talked to a couple of athletes who are 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:13.839 from Hawaii, and I've asked them the question of being 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.960 inside in Hawaii is more torturous than you know, like 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.160 being in Los Angeles or something. It's like you're looking 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.080 at the water, You're looking at these beautiful things, and 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.480 you can't go partaking it is that Does that just 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.040 crush you at all? It's not just an incursed me 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:27.680 at all. I think it's just a part of it. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.359 I think is the safety of the whole is more 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.720 important than the one moment of being in the ocean, 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.440 of being in the grass, but just being able to 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.920 have time to steady and just half time to being 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.160 your thoughts and half time to be inside this cocoon 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.320 and hoping that you come out a different person. I 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.720 think that's what has been the hardest thing, is really 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.960 dealing with with yourself. I think that's more, um, it's 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.200 been harder than going outside. Well, I'm honored to have 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.080 you on the show today and what is obviously a 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.000 very volatile time in America. For those that have followed 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:05.600 your career and activism closely, they would know that you've 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.480 been on the front lines of this subject for a 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.720 very long time. So I wanted to start first by 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.120 asking what went through your mind when you saw the 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.640 video of the just absolutely tragic George Floyd murder. For me, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.919 I think all the videos, when you look at the 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.359 death of African American man's historically, it's just it's the 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.240 lack of humanity. I think when you are looking at 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.200 somebody who doesn't see the other person's life, doesn't have 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.960 any value in any think that this third job to 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.239 end it. When you look at the George Ford case, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.919 you see a man who is constantly trying to reclaim 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.520 his humanity and his dignity. Bobby minding the officer that 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.680 he has a mother, and that he has a wife, 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.920 and that he has kids and he wishes to see 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.200 them again. I'm not resistant. A chess want to survive, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.440 a chess want to live. I think we're looking at 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.600 this in this video. We're looking at a group of 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.160 people in America who just want to live, who just 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.680 want to be safe, who just want to have the 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.560 opportunity two do what the constitution said, who have been 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.440 a part of this country and have been a part 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.880 of this fabric. Even though they're just has been traumatic. 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.080 They still pay taxes, they still follow their laws, and 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.200 they just want to exist. And I think when we 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.840 see somebody's life slowly being drained out of them and 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.640 we watched it, our heart becomes our heart becomes torn, 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.840 our minds become numb because we're seeing so much death 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.120 so often for watching another black man die, it becomes 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.839 so normalized in America. It's like we're watching reality TV. 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.560 But the reality TV isn't scripted, but it's almost like 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.240 it's scripted because the show always in exactly the same 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.359 it ends in the death. Yeah, and and being raised 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.040 in Texas, which is extremely segregated between the rich and 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.680 the four especially in Dallas, I know, and uh, you 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.919 can have wildly different experiences from one side of the 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.680 state to the other. Did did you and your family 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.440 run into a lot of races in white supremacy growing up? 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.520 Racism and our supremacy is is pretty I feel like 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.919 it's noted in Texas, and it's woven into the history. 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.320 If you think about June Team, and if you think 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.920 about you drive because the originally for Louisianna and having 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.320 to drive to certain parts of Texas and hoping that 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.360 you don't run out of gas because you know that 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.040 there's a reality that there's you're gonna have to deal 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.760 with something, maybe the k K K. Maybe who knows 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.760 what you're gonna have to deal with if you stop 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.520 then Invider and I always thought, even with the James 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.119 burd situation in Jasper, that always it was a sense 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.720 of um danger. Always felt like there's a danger for 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.920 life when the police because growing up in in the 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.560 neighbors I grew up, we thought about the police. We 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:49.599 didn't think about the story historical, you know, think that 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.640 the cartoon was like they helping you take the cat 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:53.520 out the tree and doing all this kind of stuff. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.400 We always felt like it was like the opposite. It 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.599 was like they were vilified because people were horrified of 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.680 them because the history of black people being police point 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.480 I thought, growing up, we are always felt that heat 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.960 of that on my back. It was like this crowd 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.920 spider at my spine. There's of conscious fear of what 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.880 am I going to be? Yeah, totally. It's something that 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.800 I think a lot of us. When I say us, 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.400 I mean white people are starting to sort of try 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.840 to understand. I don't think we ever will fully understand it, 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.120 but to hear those words over and over this week 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.040 has been very powerful, and we fast forward to two 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.600 thousand seventeen when you had your own experience with police 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.760 brutality and racial profiling in Vegas, where cops used successive 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.120 force on you and threatened to blow your head off, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:42.440 and though you had nothing to do with what they 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.080 were looking for it and yet it seemed like it 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.400 was pulling teeth to get them the answer for their actions. 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.160 I mean, even when I did research going into this interview, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.840 I can't really get them apologizing. I can't find anything. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.080 They seemed to have immediately went on the defensive. What 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.120 did you learn from that experience? You, Uh, facing it firsthand? 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:01.720 I had me in my back. I felt the feeling 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.480 that can't breathe, and I felt I wanted to exist, 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.640 not to be deleted from the universe. I felt all that, 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.560 I felt the heat, I felt the history, what it 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.320 what it was, the threat of death, the threat of 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.440 losing my life. And and what I learned from that 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.720 was that as a black man, we really don't have that. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.120 I didn't have value on my life the way that 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.600 every other American felt. Felt that the police, at the 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:29.160 end of the day, they were going to protect their 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.040 own there wasn't going to protect the citizen who had 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.079 been wronged. And and then that I felt like that 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.600 that line he was it was a line drawn between 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.920 protecting that their own and actually protecting the citizens rights 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.240 to exist. If you make a mistake and you thought 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.599 somebody was the wrong person, you should apologist. Hey I 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.959 thought you get a wrong person. Everybody was running, Hey, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.160 I'm sorry. But that never happened. So it was like 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.480 I was I was just upon. I wasn't didn't I 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.319 wasn't a human. I was a thing that didn't didn't 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.160 have a voice. And I think the only reason people 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.160 past you was because I was an athlete and because 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.719 I was a high profile person. If anything goes, it 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.360 had just been swoop up into the road. Yeah, and 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.520 and and now we see the protests and riots and 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.439 cities and other countries. But when you see this on television, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.160 there's there's clearly a narrative going on between the word 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.480 sugs versus the oppressed. What do you see when you 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.480 look at it at a larger scale of what's happening 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.120 around the world. I think we're looking at the power. 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.240 We're looking at suffering, and we're looking at that what 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.400 comes with power is a sacrifice, suggestice. We're looking at 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.480 people who are in power and they have done so 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.200 much to become into a power that they have created 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.360 so much injustice for those at the bottom. And we're 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.559 looking at people who are screaming and try to reclaim 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.560 their humanity and they dignity to have a voice. We're 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.880 looking at a war on poverty in the in the world. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:57.240 We're looking at one man having one chillion dollars. We're 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.400 looking at people wanting water, fair water. We're that people 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.199 wanted fair treatment. It's just beyond just the death of 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.720 George Floyd. The death of George Ford is the fire 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.959 that ignited the world's pain and the world's engine to 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.840 want to have equality in every single fact of the world. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.720 And I think we're looking at anger, we're looking at love, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.520 we're looking at passion, we're looking at trauma, We're looking 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.680 at all types of things. We're looking at a system 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.360 that was supposed to be protecting and the government who's 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.640 supposed to be governing his people and reflecting the issues 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.559 of his people. It has not been recognized. And now 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.520 we're looking at the traumatic experiences of everybody else being 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.040 put out into the streets, and people don't know how 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.640 to react to people don't know what to do because 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.520 they've been asking and being patient and being peaceful, and 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.320 now people are at the point we're fighting. Is their 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.480 first option, you know, their first their second option? Now 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.640 they're fighting is this thing does fight to survive? If 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.960 I don't fight, how am I going to survive? And 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.840 now we are here the president who doesn't know, who 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:05.160 doesn't have the common sense to connect what's happening into 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.560 the world and what's happening to his people. He has 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.080 to control of these people. He's had the control of 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.400 America and has done nothing but perpetuate more hate and 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:21.280 more division between the citizens. And he's made more barriers 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.240 between the color of people's game, between the wealth gap 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.720 in America and everything is happening at one time. And 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.680 I believe that the COVID nineteen really showed what America 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.199 has been really focused on it and it's the economy. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.800 When we have a hundred thousand people who have deaf 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.240 and you have somebody who is numb to one death, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.080 then we have an issue because you're seeing the people 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.560 die every single day and you're not recognizing the numbness 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.600 and the pain that each person feels when they lose somebody. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:53.839 So we didn't want a lot of things, and they 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.079 think that the thing, the most important thing that we're 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.559 dealing with, we're dealing with a spiritually bankrupt system. That 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:07.960 there's more more with Michael Bennett after this right now, 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:12.080 Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.080 like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.040 whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.880 have access to food and other needed resources during the 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.319 COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.240 committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.200 and their greatest need is donations and support of local 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.280 food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.920 of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:37.600 we hope that you can join us in this effort 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.360 to find out how you can help Feeding America dot 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:49.640 org backslash COVID nineteen. Now here's the rest of my 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.640 chat with NFL alignment and co host of the podcast Mouthpiece, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.400 Michael Bennett. You've been vocal about your support of Black 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.480 Lives Matter over the past few years, even when it 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.800 wasn't the cool thing to do, and this week, more 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.520 than ever, there is so much going on about them 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.280 and around them, smear campaigns and assumptions of what they are, 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.559 and disinformation on the internet. What is it that drew 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.360 you to that organization specifically? What you mean was the 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.840 idea that that black lives matter. I grew up in 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.079 the idea that when I watched TV, when I look 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.800 at the world, that black lives don't matter. Here's somebody 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.040 saying that I matter. And I think people are offended. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.480 But the concept of somebody saying that a particular people matter. 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.840 See what happens with privileges that as soon as somebody 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.400 says that they have privileged, that makes another person. I 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.680 want to acknowledge that your privilege isn't over my privilege, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.240 But the privilege to live is the privilege of every 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.600 single human being, and I think that that shouldn't affect 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.240 anybody else. To start process for saying that black lives matter, 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.000 that women lives matter, they do. At this point, we're 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.640 dealing with the issue that our black brother and around 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:59.160 the world lives have been lost on the deity and 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.559 we watch it every single day, and so that was 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.440 a draw drew me to the situation. But it also 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.600 drew me is that this is an opportunity for us 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.760 as people to use our platform to talk about the 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.520 humanity of another person and the humanity of what connects 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.760 each person to enter connection between us. At the end 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.720 of the day, everybody's blood is read, and the most 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.960 important commodity on the planet is the human being. As 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.000 much as we don't want to agree that, we want 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.600 to talk about black culture and love black culture, but 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.280 the commodity of the black man, or the black woman, 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.920 the black child, the black school, the black existence is 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:39.000 important because they're human beings. And I think we overlooked 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.960 the fact that human beings exists. And I think because 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.360 if you look at the historical context of African American 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.600 person was never a full human being. They never had 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.520 the right to feel human being. We had to go 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.880 to court, We had to go to court. We literally 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.080 had to go to court and get a judgment. But 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.080 it's a pretty court to say that we are a 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.680 full human being. And that is amazing. But that's the 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.040 history of the country. And I think a lot of 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.120 white people have failed to forgift, have forgotten the story 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.640 of the other people around us. And I think Black 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.440 Lives Matter reminds us that there is a story. There 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.840 is a story belong before Martin became There's a story 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.480 of slavery and what has that done to our society. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:27.000 We're looking at the grandchildren of those slaves. We're looking 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.280 at the grandchildren of pain. We're looking at the grandchildren 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.160 of so many things that have happened to their forefathers, 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.640 that this is the only way that they feel is 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.160 to bring the light unto the history of what has 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.480 happened and the traumatic situations. Would be an African American 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.320 in America, and you've participated in peaceful protests in the past, 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.920 taking a knee during the anthem or state, staying seated 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.000 or waiting in the locker room, kind of following early 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.160 leads from from Colin Kaepernick. You were endlessly criticized for 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.800 doing that. And now we see non peaceful protests in 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.720 the streets, and now that is problematic as well. Does 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.440 this give black people a mixed message? How can you 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.760 actually protest? The problem is that we're protests in the system, 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.880 and whatever we protest and how we do it is 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.560 constantly going to affect the people who think they know right. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.080 But the people who think they know right. They never 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.520 do right. They think there's this way to protest, this 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.000 this way, What is the what is the boy to protest? 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.000 When you want to live, When you want to live 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.120 in your dreg there you're fighting to survive out that water. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.920 When you're running when you reward somebody should and you've 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.520 running the sacs you can, you're trying to survive. What 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:36.760 is the right way to survive? I don't know what 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.320 the right way to survive is. All that know is 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.520 there's many people trying to survive, and there isn't a goddess. 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.480 But the people who have all the answers on how 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.240 to protest aren't the people telling us how to survive. 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.680 There aren't making the rules that people feel like they 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.560 could survive. They're only sitting in the room and saying 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.120 the world, this isn't the way I could do it, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:55.960 this is how I wouldn't do But the end of 0:16:55.960 --> 0:17:00.600 the day, it is about surviving and living and creating 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.840 a future for their kids and our kids. And like 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.639 I said, peaceful protests wherever, type of protests, but at 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.120 some point their voice has got to be heard. It's 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.919 on the government of the United States to stand up 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.800 and speak for its people. But if those people don't 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.000 have values, then what's the question If white men we're 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:19.800 going and white men were getting drug out their car, 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.800 shot in their head and pulled out, and then have 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.960 the rules, guess what will happened? Do you know? Boston 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.119 Party would happened to? The American Revolution will happen. These 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.720 are the things that have happened to white people. And 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.520 they fought for the independence with the against the monarch 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.960 gave the British. They wanted to be. Really, they wanted 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.280 to create a new country. The idea of America, the 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.720 idea of the ideology of what Americas is supposed to be. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:47.440 It sounds so great, it sounds so dignified, But the actualogy, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.240 the people within that system that is supposed to be 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.560 upholding that idea have been spiritually bankrupt and morally corrupt 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.159 that they can't even see what it means to what 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.360 people are fighting for the same thing that they were 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.280 fighting for, but they're only fighting for what was promised 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.640 to them. Well, you've always been sort of in front 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.800 of the league before everyone else, calling yourself a feminist, 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.640 aligning yourself with numerous clean food charities, which was something 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:13.679 I had never really heard of in the NFL. At 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.280 least you've criticized the toxic masculinity in the league. You 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:21.000 supported Bernie Sanders presidential bids twice. What makes you unable 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.720 to follow when people say to just shut up and play? What? 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.399 What is the importance in speaking up for you? I 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.159 think the importance is my children. I think the idea 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.440 that if I want my children to have a voice, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:32.880 and I want them to speak up and I want 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.600 them to be a certain way, do they need to 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.840 local TV to find inspiration? Was it important for them 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.280 to find inspiration at home and you see that their 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.760 father and their mother stood up for what was right 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.719 all the time. And also the ability to have a platform, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.600 the ability of free will. You know, when you think 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.159 about the Biblical tooriums and you think about religion in 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.080 this point right, free will is the think that the 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.280 devil fought for and we left the heaven for free 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.960 will is a burden, and so what our free will, 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:05.600 it's one of the greatest things that we have. And 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.120 what our free will be choosing to do wrong, then 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.040 that's shame on us. But the free will to will, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.760 you neighbor, to will, the situation, to bring others to 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.280 the light that are in the darkness, the sickness, the 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.120 opportunity to people who are sick, to bring them, to help, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.240 to people who don't have food, to give them food. 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:24.720 That is the reason of being at the end of 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:26.159 the day, I do it is because it is the 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.760 reason that for a living is to build a community. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.840 Is not just to be in my capitalistic mindset. And 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.000 I think what's happened in America and what has happened 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.159 to us. We have become so capitalistic and materialistic that 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.840 we've forgotten that every time we have a luxury, it 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.800 preys suffering. And I think it's important that we remember. 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.119 And that's the reason why I speak, because people are 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.040 literally suffering every single day. And I speak on all 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.920 these issues because there are people suffering who want help 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.159 and who need it, and people like us, it's a 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.800 bee and an obligation to stand upon our forefather's shoulders 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.680 and continuously build these bridges that other people can see 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.159 and bring light and continue to bring help to others. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.200 I don't know anything else, honestly, And I know you've 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.760 become friends with John Carlos over the years. Who do 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.159 you look to as mentors or idols for for this 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.960 kind of activism and speaking up. I think John Carlos 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.479 for sure. I think historically I love breathing Martin ud 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.440 King because I feel like Martin Luther King was such 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:28.359 a complicated human being. I think about the intellectual that 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.040 he was. I think, um, I love reading his stuff. 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.480 Just those people. I just look up to John College 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.480