As protests against the death of George Floyd and police brutality in general continue, NFL teams like the Chicago Bears are devoting more time to discuss these same issues. Head coach Matt Nagy shared that his team engaged in a two-hour videoconference to discuss race relations, and he’s hopeful that the Bears will be unified in the coming months.
Matt Nagy: Bears will do it ‘together’ if they protest racial inequality
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Nagy wouldn’t commit to anything concrete. In fact, he would not say whether he’d support a player doing something like take a knee during the anthem if that’s not something the entire team agrees upon.
“I try not to think that way,” Nagy said, per Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I just don’t see that. We have some really, really special leaders on this team. Everybody has their own opinion, and that’s OK. I’ll look for advice from the players. That’s what’s most important. As long as people feel comfortable, there might be times that people agree to disagree. The national anthem… We’ll talk through that. I just have ultimate confidence in our players leading that I believe in them.”
There’s a big reason the anthem is being discussed all of a sudden.
Drew Brees sparked a firestorm with anthem comments
This is a hot-button topic right now because Drew Brees came out with a strong statement against players taking a knee during the anthem on Wednesday. He called it a “disrespectful” act and said he’d never agree with it — something that did not sit well at all with at least one of his teammates, if not many more.
Nagy acknowledged that this will be “a big discussion” within his locker room but did not say whether he would support it or not.
“Whatever we end up doing together, it would be that [together]. What the players want to do, we’ll do. We’re gonna listen. We’ll talk through it. Then whatever we all decide to do, or they decide to do, we’ll do that. I know that we’ll do it together.”
No doubt, this is a discussion most — if not all — teams will have in the coming months.