Diddy bails on NFL dreams ‘I don’t want to be associated with oppressing black men’
For Diddy, it’s not all about the Benjamins when it comes to the culture of fighting for justice for black men. It’s all about the principle of standing for something.
The 48-year old hip-hop mogul has thrown the flag on the field and given up his bid to buy the Carolina Panthers and become an NFL owner, now that the league has implemented heavy-handed penalties against players who kneel on the field during the national anthem, reports the NY Daily News.
“I was one of the two last bids for the Panthers,” Diddy admits. “Man, I really wanted to go in there and be a part of the NFL and try to be a positive change. This last move, though, I don’t even want to own an NFL team no more,” the Harlem native said during an appearance on BigBoyTV Thursday.
“I don’t want to be associated with oppressing black men. I don’t want to be associated with telling grown a– men what they can do and cannot do.”
The NFL recently rolled out new policies that will now require players to stand while on the field during the national anthem or stay in the locker room.
If players don’t stand for the national anthem while on the field their teams will be fined.
“This season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “Personnel who choose not to stand for the Anthem may stay in the locker room until after the Anthem has been performed.”
Colin Kaepernick is now suing the NFL, claiming collusion and that he was blackballed from being hired after leaving the 49ers because of his activism.
Kaepernick’s legal team is reportedly preparing to subpoena President Donald Trump to prove that there was political influence that resulted in the NFL colluding and black-balling the star quarterback.
The federal subpoena is expected to be issued in the coming weeks, according to a source who spoke to Yahoo. Colin Kaepernick’s legal team is seeking testimony from Trump Vice President Mike Pence and other officials familiar with the president’s agenda on protesting NFL players, sources told Yahoo Sports.
—Dancing plastic surgery doctor who posted rap videos in operating room loses medical license—
Diddy added his support of the protesting NFL players.
“Y’all in a messed-up position, but this is a defining time and if Ali and all them was able to do it, if Jim Brown was able to do it, if y’all stick together, they can’t break you,” he said.
“I’m just at a point where my feelings are hurt because I’m such an NFL fan. And I hope they do what they have to do to fix it. And I hope that they re-engage my dream to want to do that, because if not, I don’t want to be associated, to be around a table that does that to people at all.”
He adds that if he was an NFL owner, things would have been different:
“My players could have done whatever they want.”
