Garrett says Browns cut practice short to discuss social injustice

Myles Garrett BEREA — revealed that the Browns cut their practice in half by an hour on Thursday and went inside to brainstorm social justice initiatives in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting by aWisconsin police officer.

“We wanted a unified message,” he said. “It’s our privilege to play in front of millions, to have a platform. It’s our responsibility as human beings to do our best for the people around us, our communities.”

Garrett said the Browns “stand in solidarity with” the eight teams that canceled their practice on Thursday, but that the

Browns opted to get some work in and then put their heads together to effect change.

“Our meeting after practice will be about howcan we move the needle, how can we get the ball rolling?” he said. “We’ll put our heads together on how we can make change happen in the community.”

He said one of his ideas is to start a petition to criminalize hate speech.

“I don’t think it should be allowed,” he said. “It shouldn’t be accepted.”

He said he’d like to provide help for the family of Blake, who has six children. Blake is now paralyzed fromthewaist down.

He also began his interview by calling for the police officers who shot Blake seven times in the back and fatally shot Breonna Taylor to be held accountable.

He also said theNBAboycottWednesday nightwas “a long time coming.”

He acknowledged it will be difficult to step onto the practice field today with the issue of police brutality foremost on the minds of the players.

“It’s hard,” he said. “To see stuff like that happen every day, it hurts.”

The teams that canceled were the Packers, Bears, Jets, Colts, Washington, Cardinals, Titans and Broncos. TheLionswere thefirst team to cancel a practice, on Tuesday, in protest of the police shooting.