LeBron James Calls Out Drew Brees For Still Not Understanding Why Colin Kaepernick Knelt

The protests that have occurred across the United States over the last week in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer, have brought Colin Kaepernick’s protest during his final season in the NFL back into the discourse. Kaepernick famously sat on the bench and then knelt during the national anthem, saying that he wanted to bring light to the issues of police brutality, injustice, and systematic oppression that exist in the United States.

That conversation never really happened, though, because it was quickly morphed into a conversation about disrespecting the flag of the United States and the national anthem. A number of folks adopted that line of thinking, including New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who was quoted at the time as saying, “there’s plenty of other ways that you can do that in a peaceful manner that doesn’t involve being disrespectful to the American flag” and “it’s an oxymoron that you’re sitting down, disrespecting that flag that has given you the freedom to speak out.”

While that wasn’t what was happening, it still caught on, and these important conversations never happened. Now, they’re back in the discourse following Floyd’s death, and on Wednesday, Brees made it clear that his thinking has not changed in a cameo on Yahoo! Finance.

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Brees said. “Lemme just tell you what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army, one in the Marine Corps, both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place.”

The sentiment led to Brees getting called out by a number of individuals in the world of sports, with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James joining the chorus. James, in a pair of tweets, made it clear that he believes Brees does not understand why Kaepernick did what he did, and that he spoke to his father-in-law, a veteran, who supported Kaepernick.

LeBron is hardly the only athlete who has expressed serious discontent with what Brees said, as a number of his teammates on the New Orleans Saints have also expressed disappointment in the team’s Super Bowl winning quarterback.