49ers hold practice, but vow they will be part of discussion
The 49ers practiced Thursday while much of the rest of the sports world paused.
But they indicated they will remain part of the racialjustice conversation that was reignited Sunday by the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
The 49ers’ players decided to have a walkthrough practice after head coach Kyle Shanahan met with them
Wednesday and gave them the option of canceling the session. On Thursday, nine NFL teams canceled practice after Blake, a 29yearold Black man, was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer.
The Packers watched “13th,” a documentary detailing mass incarceration in America. The Ravens practiced, but replaced their football meetings with a team discussion about a plan for continued socialjustice work. The team released a long statement late Thursday afternoon, calling for the arrest and charge of the officers responsible for shooting Blake and killing Breonna Taylor, 26, who was shot in her home in March in Louisville.
It was the continuation of unprecedented movement that began when the Milwaukee Bucks opted out of their playoff game Wednesday, a decision that led to the postpone
ment of all three NBA postseason games that day and three more Thursday.
“I usually follow the lead of our players on that,” Shanahan said. “If they didn’t want to practice today, we definitely would have done that. But no one brought that to my attention. I opened it up to all of them and that wasn’t what they wanted to do.”
Said running back Raheem Mostert: Shanahan “let us know, ‘Hey, look, there’s still things we need to talk about. I’m going to leave it up to you guys to see if you want to talk about it.’ ”
Shanahan spoke passionately about racial justice in early June after the officer killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Shanahan pointed to the NFL’s shortcomings, noting the 32team league with a majority of Black players has just four Black head coaches and two Black general managers.
Shanahan spoke, virtually, with various 49ers position groups in June about ideas that will promote change, such as educating the public on voting. Shanahan and general manager John Lynch spoke with 12 veteran players on the same topics.
At the time, Shanahan said the players planned to do “a lot,” but specifics had yet to be finalized.
On Thursday, both Shanahan and Mostert, the only player who was made available to speak with the media, vaguely referenced a potential plan that could be revealed in the coming weeks.
“I’m sure we will do something when the season starts — I’m just guessing,” Shanahan said. “But I think guys are proud of what they do on a daytoday basis.”
Said Mostert: “There could be a plan — I’m not promising anything — but there could be a plan as far as just standing up and doing what’s right because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Human life is the most important thing.”
The 49ers’ offseason conversations have led to action.
Eight members of the team have taken part in a playersorganized YouTube series, “Subject to Change,” that features discussion on societal issues. That group includes defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who last week shed light on hate crimes and said he planned to discuss socialjustice issues in each of his meetings with the media this season.
The 49ers are recording player publicservice announcements that promote voting. And several 49ers have been involved in the process of reviewing and selecting the organizations that will be given grants from the organization’s $1 million donation to address socialjustice causes that was pledged in June.
“I think they have discussed a lot of things they want to do,” Shanahan said. “I know we discussed it a lot during the offseason when we weren’t in here. And I know players were real active. … Since we’ve been here, we haven’t had a group setting where we’ve discussed it. Guys have been in here and have been pretty focused on doing their job and going to work.”