Will Fangio’s comments divide the Broncos?
Saints HOFer Rickey Jackson says coach’s heart in right place
Sure, high-schoolers, and some college football players, can be conditioned by football coaches not to question. But grown men? Grown men can smell a phony from three yards away.
“After his apology, I’m sure some of them will forgive him. And some of them won’t,” Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Rickey Jackson said Thursday in a phone interview when asked about Broncos coach Vic
Fangio, and about how his players wrestle with their coach making national headlines.
“And some of them will keep in the back of their minds what was said. Eventually, if he’s the right person for them, they’ll forgive him and go on.”
Jackson, a linebacker, played for Fangio as a six-time Pro Bowler with the Saints from 1981-93. He credits the Broncos coach with helping him to become one of the baddest dudes of his era. He’ll tell you that Fangio’s heart was in the right place.
He’ll also tell you that when the Broncos coach said Tuesday he “didn’t see” racism or discrimination in the NFL, the man’s brain was somewhere west of Aruba. Which is why he called Fangio on Wednesday night.
“I talked to him. He’s regretful. He understands,” Jackson said. “The issue is the police brutality, that what they’re trying to do to these young black men, this needs to stop and it needs to come to a head. As a society, we don’t need that, because it’s not good for
“Once you apologize for something, and once you let the team know that what (you) said was wrong, some people will forgive you and some won’t. You can’t sit there and wallow in that. You’ve got to move on.”
Saints Hall-of-Fame linebacker Rickey Jackson on Broncos’ coach Vic Fangio
anybody.” Seven out of every 10 NFL players are minorities. For league coaching staffs, that ratio is basically reversed. Young white kids are raised to see the police as their protectors, a figure of trust, someone you run to. African-American men will tell you, growing up, that they were raised on a very different narrative. The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis reminded us all why. “(Fangio) wasn’t thinking about the big picture and the black-and-white issue,” Jackson continued. “And that’s where he made the mistake.” It’s bigger than football. It always was. I reached out to two of the best players to ever play for Fangio on Thursday, and read Fangio’s initial statement on the NFL and racism to one. After a second of silence, his voice rose with justifiable frustration. He said he’d just finished watching the memorial service for Floyd, whose senseless, tragic death lit a fuse that’s still burning. It was all too raw, too fresh, too emotional. “When someone says something, the first time is usually the truth, what comes from the heart,” he said, and respectfully declined to comment on the record. And yet Jackson, a black man born in southern Florida, counts Fangio, a white man born in eastern Pennsylvania, among his closest friends and confidants. “The one thing about Vic is that Vic’s been with me for all these years,” the former Saints’ star said. “He’s always been like a brother. So he’s for the right. And when things come out, a lot of times, it doesn’t sound right. And I know it’s hard. I know he loves me and he loves all the players. And he’s not trying to have anything against blacks. But sometimes, when you say stuff, you’re talking about something that’s not the issue.” So how can Fangio calm nerves already frayed? How does he return a sense of unity to a locker room that’s been stuck in their respective homes for months? “There isn’t anything you can do but go forward,” Jackson said. “Once you apologize for something, and once you let the team know that what (you) said was wrong, some people will forgive you and some won’t. You can’t sit there and wallow in that. You’ve got to move on.” Nothing kills an NFL locker room quicker than doubt. Doubt in your coaches, especially.