WIDE WORDS OF SPORTS
Burning down our own communities will only delay the progress and CHANGE that we desperately need! WE ARE ALL ANGRY AND HURT! But this is not the way! I don’t proclaim to have the perfect solution, but I can personally choose to use my platform to spread love not hate. Enough lives have been lost!”
Pro Bowl CB Patrick Peterson of the Arizona Cardinals on social media, saying he was compelled to speak out one week after a white police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis. The NFL released its own statement Saturday night reiterating an “urgent need for action” with the “pain, anger and frustration that so many of us feel.”
His story is not unique. Countless others have also experienced this use of excessive police force while trying to have their voices heard.”
Former Braves All-Star Dale Murphy on Twitter saying his son had been shot in the eye with a rubber bullet while “peacefully protesting for justice for George Floyd” in Denver. Murphy, who played 15 seasons in Atlanta, did not identify which of his seven sons was injured. Murphy posted a photo of his son’s injury and credited one stranger for handing out goggles to protesters and another for driving his son to the emergency room.
I hope that our country can learn from the injustices that we have witnessed, to become more like the locker room where everyone is accepted.”
Super Bowl-winning QB Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs.
We cannot continue to ignore racism as though it has ended, or never happened.”
Super Bowl-winning QB Russell Wilson of the Seahawks.
Why is the color of my skin such a crime for a country I represent so proudly.”
Olympic hurdler Ashley Spencer
With my white friends or nonblack friends, they are very empathetic to what’s going on. With my black friends though, it hits more personal. It hits closer to home because in every person that you see murdered, that could be my dad. That could be my cousin. In some instances, it could be me.” Golfer Cheyenne Woods
I see those of you who are staying silent, some of you the biggest of stars, yet you stay silent in the midst of injustice. Not a sign from anybody in my industry, which of course is a white dominated sport. I’m one of the only people of colour there, yet I stand alone.”
Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
He’s not just divisive. He’s a destroyer . ... He will eat you alive for his own purposes. I’m appalled that we have a leader who can’t say ‘Black Lives Matter.’ That’s why he hides in the White House basement. He is a coward. He creates a situation and runs away like a grade-schooler. Actually, I think it’s best to ignore him. There is nothing he can do to make this better because of who he is: a deranged idiot.”
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to The Nation on racism and what he described as a failure of leadership at the White House.