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The Saints held a team meeting after Drew Brees’ comments. It featured an unlikely face: Shaq

The New Orleans Saints endured a public relations firestorm of epic proportions last week.

It began with Drew Brees spouting the same dated, insensible rhetoric that cast national anthem protests as disrespectful to the flag. Then came the chorus of disapproval among black athletes across sports — highlighted by a video of NFL players calling on the league to denounce racism. Finally, there was commissioner Roger Goddell admitting the NFL mishandled the national anthem protests

Amid all this, the Saints reportedly hosted a 100-minute teleconference Thursday which, Pro Football Talk’s Peter King reported, featured Brees’ tearful apology and the expertise of one larger-than-life figure: Shaquille O’Neal. Likening the situation to the Los Angeles Lakers’ drama of the early 2000s, Big Diesel implored the team to stay together.

“They’re going to try to divide you, just like they divided us with the Lakers!” O’Neal told the Saints, according to King. “Me and Kobe [Bryant], we had a great thing going, but the media divided our team. We could have won five more championships! Stay strong. Don’t let the media divide you! Don’t let social media divide you!”

O’Neal briefly discussed the meeting during on TNT’s Inside the NBA.

Despite three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002, the Lakers dealt O’Neal to the Miami Heat before the 2004-05 season due to his fractured relationship with Bryant.

Brees first made headlines Wednesday when Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Roberts asked him about protesting police brutality during the national anthem. Citing his grandparents’ military service, the future hall of famer said he’d “never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America.”

He later apologized on Thursday.

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I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday. In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused. In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country. They 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. This is where I stand: I stand with the black community in the fight against systemic racial injustice and police brutality and support the creation of real policy change that will make a difference. I condemn the years of oppression that have taken place throughout our black communities and still exists today. I acknowledge that we as Americans, including myself, have not done enough to fight for that equality or to truly understand the struggles and plight of the black community. I recognize that I am part of the solution and can be a leader for the black community in this movement. I will never know what it’s like to be a black man or raise black children in America but I will work every day to put myself in those shoes and fight for what is right. I have ALWAYS been an ally, never an enemy. I am sick about the way my comments were perceived yesterday, but I take full responsibility and accountability. 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.

A post shared by Drew Brees (@drewbrees) on

Brees later tried educating Donald Trump who, keeping in line with his 2017 sentiment that a protesting player (or in his words, a “son of a *****”) should be fired, said he shouldn’t have apologized.

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To @realdonaldtrump Through my ongoing conversations with friends, teammates, and leaders in the black community, I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It has never been. We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities. We did this back in 2017, and regretfully I brought it back with my comments this week. We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform. We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history! If not now, then when? We as a white community need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of our black communities. We must acknowledge the problems, identify the solutions, and then put this into action. The black community cannot do it alone. This will require all of us.

A post shared by Drew Brees (@drewbrees) on

The Saints’ PR nightmare came amid worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed May 25 after ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Chauvin faces second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. State prosecutors also charged the other three officers — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao who watched as Floyd begged for air — with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 1:50 PM.

Profile Image of C. Isaiah Smalls II
C. Isaiah Smalls II
Miami Herald
302-373-8866
C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.
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