Michael Thomas And Other Saints Took Drew Brees To Task For Still Not Understanding Kaepernick’s Protests

Drew Brees decided to come back to the Saints on a two-year deal this offseason, but the longtime New Orleans quarterback put his position as a locker room leader in jeopardy on Wednesday as he continued to criticize Colin Kaepernick’s silent protest of police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the anthem prior to NFL games — something that has gotten him blackballed from the league for three years.

Those comments earned swift and rightful condemnation from Brees’ top target in recent years, as Michael Thomas took to Twitter to call out Brees while also posting about how black veterans were denied access to the GI Bill and other veteran programs after World War II. This was a clear message to Brees, who invoked his grandfathers’ service as a reason for not agreeing with the method of protest.

https://twitter.com/Cantguardmike/status/1268224561008574465

Thomas wasn’t alone on the Saints in responding to Brees, as Cam Jordan and Alvin Kamara both offered some thinly veiled responses.

Others from around the NFL and beyond also gave their thoughts, with Julius Peppers, Richard Sherman, and LeBron James explaining why Brees is so wrong on this issue.

Brees’ statement is a reminder of how Kaepernick’s protests and the message they were meant to deliver got hijacked and spun into some discussion of whether or not it was disrespectful to the flag or the military, when it was simply an effort to spark conversation around injustice in America, which years later remains a major issue. One would hope Brees would listen to his teammates and change his stance, but that seems unlikely given it’s been years of people explaining what Kaepernick was actually protesting and people still insisting he was disrespecting the military.