Popovich pans Trump, rips on Goodell, Kraft and Jones
“You’re a privileged son of a [expletive] and you still don’t get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You’ve gotta call it out.”
— Gregg Popovich, from a conversation he had with himself
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich hasn’t been shy about expressing his contempt for President Donald Trump.
Popovich, 71, an Air Force Academy graduate, has called Trump a “soulless coward” and someone who “brings out the dark side of human beings for his own purpose.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Popovich continued his presidential criticisms, but found new targets for his disdain at the nation’s current state of affairs: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Popovich explained that as a white man coaching black players, understanding their background is an important part of his job.
“It would bring you to tears,” Popovich said of the emotion in recent calls among Spurs players and staff. “It’s even deeper than you thought, and that’s what really made me start to think: You’re a privileged son of a [expletive] and you still don’t get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You’ve gotta call it out.”
That stance is partly why Popovich turned his attention to Jones and Kraft. Both men are two of seven NFL owners who donated at least
$1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee while simultaneously running franchises who rely on a roster of mostly black players. That combination doesn’t mesh well with Popovich.
“It’s just hypocritical,” he said. “It’s incongruent. It doesn’t make sense. People aren’t blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don’t get it. I think they put themselves in a position that’s untenable.”
As protests regarding social inequality and police brutality have taken place throughout the country, there has been renewed scrutiny of the NFL and its owners with regard to their treatment of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began the player protest movement in 2016 and has been out of the league since.
Weeks after kneeling with his entire team before the national anthem early in the 2017 season, Jones said any Cowboys players “disrespecting the flag” during the anthem would not play for his team.
Trump was — and still is — highly critical of those who kneel during the anthem. Saturday, Trump tweeted that he would not watch the NFL or the United States national soccer teams if they protest during the playing of the national anthem. NFL owners approved a policy in 2018 hoping to quell any anthem protests.
Popovich believes Goodell originally capitulated to the desires of Trump and the NFL owners.
“He got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling,” Popovich told The Times, adding that Goodell “folded.”
“A smart man is running the NFL, and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich said. “The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons, just like [former vice president Dick] Cheney back in the Iraq War.”
Earlier this month, Goodell admitted the NFL’s wrongdoing in not taking a more openminded approach with the players who protested
during the national anthem.
In a video released by the Spurs last weekend, Popovich said he was “embarrassed as a white person” at the nonchalant manner in which now-former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, leading to Floyd’s death. That moment led to a series of marches for racial equality and against police brutality across the United States and the world.
Popovich recently criticized the president for his lack of leadership and ability to unite a nation in pain after Floyd’s death. The three-time NBA coach of the year called the president a “deranged idiot,” a “fool” and a “destroyer.”
“It’s unbelievable,” Popovich told The Nation a few weeks ago.
“If Trump had a brain, even if it was 99 percent cynical, he would come out and say something to unify people. But he doesn’t care about bringing people together. Even now. That’s how deranged he is.
“It’s all about him. It’s all about what benefits him personally. It’s never about the greater good. And that’s all he’s ever been.”