Sports columnist Jason Whitlock praised the Steelers’s head coach Mike Tomlin for his “clever rebuke” of Black Lives Matter, a group Whitlock described as the “antithesis of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement.”
“I hope NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sees the video. I hope Goodell’s assistant Troy Vincent sees the video. It’s an example of the kind of leadership that should be coming out of the league office,” Whitlock wrote on Monday of Tomlin’s public speech with players.
The coach on Friday addressed protests within the NFL and across the country, which have intensified since the police shooting of Jacob Blake during an arrest on Aug. 23.
“This evening, as we go about our normal football business, we come before you, standing united as an organization, as a football team, as football men from different ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and even countries of origin,” Tomlin said. “We stand united by our talents and our love for the game of football.”
We stand united. pic.twitter.com/I3OcL50qjz
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 28, 2020
Tomlin concluded his address by asking for players to pray “for betterment,” which Whitlock praised as “a beautiful moment.”
Whitlock said Tomlin’s speech “was a step in the right direction. Rather than damning and vilifying the nation that virtually no black person wants to leave and many black people desperately try to enter, Tomlin called on his players to pray that our nation improves.”
“It is a clever rebuke of the BLM movement, aka, Bigots Love Marxism. BLM is a secular (anti-religion) movement. Its founders admit being trained Marxist. Marxism rejects all religions,” Whitlock said.
The sports columnist went on to say the Black Lives Matter movement incites anger and stands in contrast to the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King Jr.
“BLM is the antithesis of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement, which was founded in Christian love,” he wrote. “Mike Tomlin’s call for prayer is the perfect rebuttal to BLM. It would be awesome if Roger Goodell or Troy Vincent could formulate a speech similar to Tomlin’s and then call for prayer before the start of NFL games.”
Whitlock has condemned the Black Lives Matter movement in recent months and last week criticized Lakers star LeBron James for saying black Americans are “are terrified” following the shooting of Blake.
“I’m black. I’m not scared. I’m not terrified. Neither is LeBron James. He’s lying,” Whitlock wrote Tuesday on his website Outkick. “He and the political activists controlling him want black people to immerse themselves in fear. Fear is a tool used to control people. If you comply with police instructions, there is virtually no chance of an American citizen being harmed by police.”
