Dolphins players, Flores criticize league hypocrisy on race in powerful team video
Miami Dolphins players revealed Thursday evening how they will add their voice to the conversation on racial justice and police brutality:
By staying inside the locker room during the national anthem and the playing of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” — the black national anthem — before Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
They did so in a moving video that featured Dolphins players reciting a powerful poem, pointing out injustices in the world and their view of the league’s inadequate response, calling it “fluff and empty gestures.”
The poem, which included verses spoken by team leaders Bobby McCain, Kyle Van Noy, Ted Karras, Christian Wilkins and others — including Dolphins coach Brian Flores:
It is authentic? That’s the mystery.
Or is it just another symbolic victory?
Now there’s two anthems. Do we kneel do we stand.
If we could just right our wrongs we wouldn’t need two songs.
We don’t need another publicity parade.
So we’ll just stay inside until it’s time to play the game.
Whatever happened to the funds that were promised. All of a sudden we got a collapsed pocket?
The bottom line should not be the net profit. You can’t open your heart when it’s controlled by your wallet.
Decals and patches. Fireworks and trumpets. We’re not puppets. Don’t publicize false budgets.
Ask the pundits and we shouldn’t have a say. If you speak up for change, then I’ll shut up and play.
If we remain silent, that would just be selfish. Since they don’t have a voice, we’re speaking up for the helpless.
It’s not enough to act like you care for the troops. Millions for pregame patriotism. You get paid to salute.
Lift every voice and sing? It’s just a way to save face. Lose the mask and stop hiding the real game face.
So if my dad was a soldier, but the cops killed my brother, do I stand for one anthem, and then kneel for the other?
This attempt to unify only creates more divide. So we’ll skip the song and dance. And as a team we’ll stay inside.
We need changed hearts. Not just a response to pressure. Enough. No more fluff and empty gestures.
We need owners with influence and pockets bigger than ours. To call up officials and flex political power.
When education is not determined by where we reside. And we have the means to purchase what the doctor prescribed.
And you fight for prison reform and innocent lives.
And you repair the communities that were tossed to the side.
And you admit you gain from it, and swallow your pride. And when greed is not the compass, but love is the guide.
And when the courts don’t punish skin color, but punish the crime.
Until then, we’ll just skip the long production and stay inside.
For centuries, we’ve been trying to make you aware.
Either you’re in denial, or just simply don’t really care.
It’s not a black/white thing. Or a left/right thing. Let’s clean the whole bird, and stop arguing about which wing.
Then, Flores faced the camera, and concluded:
Before the media starts wondering and guessing, they just answered all your questions. We’ll just stay inside.
Others who lent their voice to the video include Davon Godchaux, Shaq Lawson, Eric Rowe, Jesse Davis, Byron Jones, Preston Williams, Elandon Roberts, Kavon Frazier, Isaiah Ford, Matt Brieda, Mike Gesicki, Durham Smythe, Jamal Perry and Patrick Laird.
The video is available here:
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 7:22 PM.
