Tom Brady tells Oprah how the Patriots discussed National Anthem protests
While New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has never been seen kneeling during the National Anthem, he revealed to Oprah in a new interview that he has empathy and a better understanding of the reasons behind the protests, thanks to some healthy conversations with his teammates, reports the Daily Mail.
“I think there were a lot of good, really healthy conversations coming out of it in our locker room,” Brady said.
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“The great part about sports is the relationships. I’ve been with it for a long time. I’ve been with guys from all different parts of the country, every color, race, belief.
“And you know what you respect…why people are doing what they’re doing. They’re doing it for different reasons and that’s OK,” Brady admits.
“You can do things for your reason and they can do things for their reason and you can have respect for that.”
That’s interesting considering that his friend President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have respect for the athlete’s rights to protest racial injustice.
Hundreds of football players kneeled over the years after Colin Kaepernick decided to take a knee to protest police brutality against Black people and racial injustice. Trump has spoken out vehemently against the protests and has called for athletes to be fired for exercising their constitutional rights.
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The NFL feared more backlash from Trump and announced a new policy last month that requires players to stand during the anthem and will penalize teams if players take a knee on the field. Players would be allowed to stay in the locker room during the song if they so choose.
Brady said he values the players who chose to demonstrate.
“We had meetings after practice, talking about we wanted to, you know, deal with that particular situation at the time, taking a knee. We chose to lock arms.”
“I respect why people are doing what they’re doing. We support what people are going through,” he said.
“I’ve been playing sports long enough. Everyone comes from something different, and I think showing respect for everybody is—in a locker room, in a team with guys trying to go in the same direction—you’d better have that empathy for everybody,” Brady says.
“That’s what sports are about.”
Trump’s going to unfriend Brady after this for sure.
