The wife of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees said she and her husband have received death threats following comments the NFL star made earlier this week.
Brees, one of the league’s highest-paid players, expressed a refusal to condone players who he said disrespect the flag by taking a knee in protest during the national anthem before games. The death of George Floyd while he was in police custody has sparked a national movement demanding criminal justice reform and the eradication of police brutality.
“We are the problem. I write this with tears in my eyes and I hope you all hear our hearts,” Brittany Brees said in a statement this week. “Only until the last few days, until we experienced the death threats we experienced the hate. Did I realize that these words were speaking directly to us. How could anyone who knows us or has had interactions with us think that Drew or I have a racist bone in our body?”
As the Black Lives Matter movement gains steam in the wake of Floyd’s death, questions have arisen about whether NFL players would once again partake in kneeling during the anthem before games as they did in 2017.
Brees sparked controversy last week when he disavowed players kneeling before games, saying, “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
Several athletes, including some of Brees’s teammates, expressed shock and insult at the quarterback’s remarks.
“You literally still don’t understand why Kap was kneeling on one knee??” said NBA superstar LeBron James.
“I am sick about the way my comments were perceived yesterday, but I take full responsibility and accountability,” he said in a statement. “I recognize that I should do less talking and more listening … and when the black community is talking about their pain, we all need to listen. For that, I am very sorry and I ask your forgiveness.”
President Trump, who has decried the kneeling protests and attacked former NFL star turned Black Lives Matter activist Colin Kaepernick, expressed support of Brees’s initial statement, saying he should not have apologized.
“I am a big fan of Drew Brees,” Trump said over the weekend. “I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high … We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag – NO KNEELING!”
I am a big fan of Drew Brees. I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2020
Brittany Brees said the episode has been a learning experience for her and her husband.
“To say, ‘I don’t agree with disrespecting the flag’ I now understand was also saying I don’t understand what the problem really is, I don’t understand what you’re fighting for and I’m not willing to hear you because of our preconceived notion‘s of what that flag means to us,” she said. “That’s the problem, we are not listening, white America is not hearing.”
