DETROIT _ Drew Brees is free to say what he wants. He has that right. The New Orleans Saints quarterback is also free to stand during the national anthem and place his hand over his heart and think about his grandfather who served during World War II.
None of that is illegal. Nor should it be.
But he's not free from criticism, from others disagreeing with his opinion, or his stance, or his notion of what the anthem and the American flag symbolize _ Brees said Wednesday he'd never agree with anyone kneeling during the anthem and that it was disrespectful to the flag.
The condemnation was swift and wide, especially from players in the NFL, including some of his teammates. Thursday, he issued an apology. And then later that night, he issued a second apology.
His words, he said, "lacked awareness and any type of compassion or empathy. Instead, those words have become divisive and hurtful and have misled people into believing that somehow I am an enemy. This could not be further from the truth, and is not an accurate reflection of my heart or my character."
The key word here is "awareness." A close second is "empathy." In other words, Brees thought about what he said in the context of the backlash.
Now, you can fault him for not getting there on his own, almost four years after Colin Kaepernick took a knee. And you can dismiss his apology as damage control. And maybe it is.
But if we can't let someone apologize, then what?
It's often difficult to think beyond our own experience. For Brees, all he could think about were his family members who'd served in the military, and that the American flag represented those in his family who'd served.
That's a narrow view of the flag. Frankly, it's a privileged view _ his grandfather, for example, came back to a different version of America than, say, so many black soldiers who served in World War II. To think about that is painful. Because it's easier to think that our grandfathers fought for an America that was just and right.
It wasn't. It was segregated _ by law in some states. Brees isn't likely thinking about that when he lines up on the sideline during the anthem before games.
Yet Kaepernick was. Or at least the effect that segregation has on us to this day, particularly in the form of police brutality and unequal justice.
Again, this is uncomfortable for many. It certainly was for Brees, even as he spent so much of his week in a locker room surrounded by players who had either experienced that brutality directly or whose family members had.
All he had to do was listen. He did not.
But he did this week.
So are countless others who couldn't stomach Kaepernick's protest four years ago but are beginning to understand why he took a knee now. The death of George Floyd and the protests for justice demand it.
Even the NFL is acknowledging a broken system. Yes, it's late. Yes, the change of tone is expedient. But then that's the point of the protests, too, right? To rattle the status quo?
It takes a push from the perimeter to move the center. Maybe, just maybe, it's beginning to move. Can you imagine the Detroit Lions organization releasing a statement like this three years ago?
"The painful examples of racism and social injustice reflected in the senseless deaths happening in our country are incredibly disturbing and it is clear that immediate change is necessary."
No, you can't. Because the Lions didn't. Nor did any other NFL team. The league took the temperature of the culture, of its fan base, of a president calling Kaepernick and those who kneeled a "son of a bitch," offered hollow platitudes, and ... ducked.
Yet, here we are. Fewer are ducking. Or running away.
Brees expressed similar thoughts about kneeling during the anthem four years ago and didn't feel any heat. He wasn't the only one.
Well, he felt the weight of what's unfolding across our country. He felt history. He felt shame. Or at least remorse, according to his apology.
At no point was he silenced. Nor did he lose his First Amendment right to free speech. He was simply forced into a kind of reckoning because he spoke without thinking about perspectives other than his own. None of us are free from that.
Hopefully, Brees will reconsider his specific view of the flag. Hopefully, he will think about it as symbol for us all, and that symbols are powerful things. And that while we often share symbols, our experiences under those symbols are different.
