With Albert Breer on vacation, we have guest columnists who come to his entire Quarterback column Monday morning. Check out last week’s article, co-written through brothers and teammates from the New England Patriots, Devin and Jason McCourty. Today’s guest columnist is DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of NFLPA.
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This MMQB column talks about The Legacy of Congressman John Lewis and what it still means to our country. It’s also a consultation of why the sport, the lucky ones to be a part of it and those who claim to love them, will have to be part of a broader history of a country that aspires to be wonderful since protesters threw tea in Boston Harbor.
We have two complicated options. In the near future, tomorrow, we will be able to emerge more powerful and intelligent as a country if we face the truth of our history and our present. Or, as some have done, we can hold on together to a more comfortable truth of choice that allows for a less misleading and more strident feeling that corresponds to what you don’t need to think about or prejudices you don’t need to communicate openly about. Array Obviously, there are many currents and influences that have made other people feel better about the latter.
Congressman Lewis, who died Friday, chose a path just before the Freedom Riders were defeated, so he had the ability to fight and forgive. Occasionally I do not forget his grace when, decades later, a KKK member apologized to him and others for his violence and hatred. Therein lies the hope of the past, the provision and long-term greatness of our country. It is a fantasy to forget about division, but there is no escape from duty to others, and he has chosen to give us hope. We all get bigger by embracing the truth of an unusual destiny we have as Americans.
We are now engaged in a new fight opposed to a virus that confirms how our fates are linked. We’ve lost nearly 150,000 Americans to a pandemic that’s still in sight. We can expect things to come, but we’ll have to act to save each other.
This truth is no less true when it comes to the business and the game of football. Our destinations – players, management, staff, supporters – are linked and this union has acted in the face of danger. We chose another course from some of the others when, in mid-March, I hired some of the most productive and brilliant epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists and researchers to help our medical team and advise our executive committee and the board of player representatives at the helm. . of an emerging truth that threatened our workers, our company and our game.
I sense that other people sought quick answers and quick decisions, but I also know that the most productive responses don’t come quickly. We were informed in March that with a new emerging coronavirus, we would want to be very informed. We created a framework and negotiated with the NFL to allow you to dictate what we think, the most productive fluid and responsive course of action based on how the virus worked and, just as importantly, how the country responded as a total and in specific geographic areas. .
There are no undeniable answers, but there is no room for ignorance. There are no miracle cures and therefore there is no room for unfounded conspiracy theories. We are at a time when everyone has an opinion, however, when there are lives at stake, there is no equivalence of reviews with which Dr. Anthony Fauci rightly says, they have “a roadmap to tell the truth, they have a track record of information, policies and recommendations based on clinical evidence and smart data.”
It is transparent that some other people need to feel better about their own beliefs, but this has never made those emotions right, genuine or the direction of our security and our lasting freedoms.
Once we are about to open educational camps and our enthusiasts are focusing on what will happen over the next few weeks. Will we have educational camps? Are we going to start the season on time? Will we have enthusiasts in the stadiums? Our players ask many of the same questions and our union leaders will continue to ask the right questions, finding the right answers and emphasizing the duty to the staff the union fights for when negotiating with management.
The questions we all ask ourselves: what will happen in two days, let alone two months? When is it safe to return to work? Am I as sure as you imagine on the site of my structure? Will our youth return to a college campus or elementary school? Will they be as safe as you can imagine? Will my condition close? The ultimate life answer we always start with is: Do we have the right procedure and the right people to answer those questions and make the difficult decisions to get the most productive effects for everyone?
The good news for us and our players is that, despite the new and emerging nature of COVID-19, they have a union of player leaders and trained staff who support them. Since March, we have been advocating for the highest criteria to ensure the protection of our players and that they are paid. For example, we moved on to a virtual off-season that was the culmination of a skilled collaboration, a strong defense of player leaders, and, yes, NFL leadership.
These skillful recommendations will continue, as will the continued participation and advocacy of our Executive Committee led by our Chairman JC Tretter, our Board of Directors and the star players who have rightly carried the torch on behalf of all players. I’m proud that they use their voices and platforms for the collective good. There will be difficult decisions and the best disruptions with the best solutions. We know that the NFL has the right to set reporting dates, open the season, and close the season in the same way that any business owner has that right.
What our union has done, however, is to put transparent and rigorous safety and fitness checklists in place to ensure the protection of our men and their families. This is how we take responsibility for the control by the operational protocols and other agreements that we have asked to start our season. It is an undeniable fact, which also encourages me through the NFL, that the old tactics of making these paintings will have to be repositioned given the truth of a virus that can, has and will continue to harm us.
Finally, despite everything we don’t yet know and we’re not informed about the virus, we know that transmission is the enemy. Wearing a mask avoids this in a way that genuine Americans and genuine enthusiasts deserve to embrace so that everyone returns to the stadiums, all of our staff to our economy, and we’re all back to normal.
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I know that Albert’s same column format includes the best of the Internet and articles that are still outside of football, so here are some links I recommend.
1. I finished John Barry’s eBook “The Great Flu” at the end of March and, although there are many lessons, here are my conclusions: society cannot serve as if they are all for themselves. By definition, civilization cannot do it. Officials must maintain public confidence. The way to do this is not to distort anything, not to put the most productive in anything, to check not manipulate anyone. Lincoln said the first and most productive. A leader will have to make any horrors that exist come true. Only then will other people be able to break it.
2. Whether it’s the civil rights movement of my parents’ generation, the black force movement a little ahead of my generation, or today’s Black Lives Matter force movement, we want coherent, non-secular and philosophical thinking and understanding. James Cone and Howard Thurman have been my touchstones for decades. Here’s a 2019 article titled ”Reviewing the Legacy of Howard Thurman, the Mystic of the Civil Rights Movement’.
3. I am very proud of my classmate.
4. Cape Town, South Africa, is confusing. A truly charming place, with a wonderfully varied organization of people, inextricably connected through the horrors of apartheid and the resolve to face its beyond with hope. It is one of the largest reports of redemption that continues today.
5. Why collective immunity doesn’t work, through the Republican governor of Mississippi
6. Final proof of why you are wearing a mask.
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