NFL world reacts to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer | Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
Yahoo Sports senior NFL writers Terez Paylor and Charles Robinson share their thoughts on the brutal killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer and the reactions around the NFL.
Video Transcript
TEREZ PAYLOR: The latest thing which has commanded all the headlines, the murder of George Floyd. Now we have some football things to talk about in this podcast but we'd also be negligent if we didn't at least talk about the story of the week, which was Floyd's murder, because it actually does relate to the NFL.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yes.
TEREZ PAYLOR: So the killing of Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has spurred outcry among NFL stars, with many channeling Colin Kaepernick's message. Now we had a good column on this from our colleague, Shalise Manza Young, who noted that Seahawks left tackle, Duane Brown recently said the following, quote, "I mean, it seems like things like this continue to happen every year at some point." And he shook his head and signed and continued, "I don't know what it will change. But it's sad, it's sad. It's been happening for a long time, and we'll see what transpires from it."
Now in my opinion, Charles, I think Brown captured it all here. Because if you're tired of hearing black players, black people complain about the issue of police brutality, I would just urge you to have a little empathy, consider how they feel, consider how we feel, and just listen as to why this issue constantly resonates with black players. I'm going to tell you why this keeps coming back up over and over again and why they can't let it go. And I'll do it quickly.
So historically black people have been in America for 400 years. And for at least 350 of them, there were laws that were coded into the rule of the land that made it clear that equality did not apply to black people. From slave codes to Jim crow, historically, this has not been a land of equality for people of color.
That's just a fact. It's unassailable. 350 years. And you can't reverse that in 50. So you still see the effects of that on a socioeconomic level as it relates to the wealth gap between blacks and whites in the neighborhoods they live in, education level, all that. Again, you can go find it. It's unassailable. That's there. That's real. OK.
But one other way that this has been evident, and we haven't always been able to see this because we just now have gotten camera phones, is in policing, where I promise you that many of the African-Americans you know, either they suffer from this or they dealt with it themselves or they have a cousin or a family member or friend have had an encounter with police that can only be described as unfortunate. But nothing could be done about it because back then there weren't phones. So if you want to know why there's so much outrage, why there's always such a visceral reaction, that's why.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I'm white, so what I can contribute to this conversation is more of a one-off. What I mean by that is, when I watched that video the only feelings I can explain-- and I watched the entirety of it. I wanted to see the entirety of what happened. And it was the full nine minutes. And my anxiety level grew the longer that went. It was hard enough at the beginning, but then as he begged and said, I can't breathe, he clearly was--
TEREZ PAYLOR: It was intense, man.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yes. He reached a point of begging for his life. And I found myself leaning toward my computer screen, not even realizing I was doing it, and wanting to yell, someone there stop this. Because there were other people that were approaching the police officers. And I myself was having an extreme leveling of anxiety.
And I can tell you from sitting there and watching this, the person whose life experience mine most mirrors is the guy who is kneeling on the dude's neck. OK. That's a white dude. I have friends who are police officers. I have-- the person who I probably know best, in terms of just looking at that frame, is the white cop because I know white cops. I know guys who talk about being on beats and dealing with arrests and all these different things.
TEREZ PAYLOR: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And it was really hard to sit there and watch it happen, know that this guy died. He died. He was killed right in front of us, and that this went on that long and the helplessness of sitting at a computer screen and watching it. I cannot imagine what it would be like to identify more closely in terms of my life experience with the person laying on the ground and having a knee in my neck.
TEREZ PAYLOR: The one thing I want you to maybe consider if you don't understand where the fury comes from, it's just 400 years is a long time to have a history of bad stuff happening in inequality. That's a long time. And even though rules were changed in the '60s and laws were passed, the effects of the stuff from the first 350 years are still felt. And they're not forgotten.
They have wide ranging impacts on families in every state, multiple socioeconomic statuses. Just from something as simple as not being able to trace your family tree back, there's only a limit-- I'll share this. There's a limit to how far I can go. OK?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right.
TEREZ PAYLOR: That's a hard-- that sucks. But there's a limit to how far I can go. And I know that's the case for a lot of black people. So it's not a victim mentality. I really want people to understand it's not that. I think most black people, all of them would like nothing more than just be able to really forget it, like forget the fact that skin color does matter. But the problem is far too often you're reminded of it without it being something you want to have happen.
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