Just a month after publicly and resoundingly rebuking Donald Trump’s whining and divisiveness over the NFL protests over police brutality, it was revealed that Houston Texans owner Bob McNair had very different private feelings. In fact, he disgustingly compared his black players to “inmates” running a prison.
Trump, always seeking a distraction from his Russian and corruption investigations, and always looking for red meat for his rabidly racist base, chose the peaceful NFL protests started by former player Colin Kaepernick as his pet grievance, or at least one of his pet grievances.
On September 23rd, Trump even went so far as to tell the owners to fire the players who refused to stand for the National Anthem.
Publicly, McNair supported the protesters on his team:
From #Texans owner Bob McNair concerning President Trump: pic.twitter.com/uCRKJQfSNu
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) September 24, 2017
McNair, like too many very wealthy people, and too many NFL owners, is a staunch Republican. In fact, he’s the largest donor to GOP candidates and SuperPACs in the NFL. At least he was during the 2016 campaign.
Robert McNair, the Houston Texans owner and a Republican super donor, also doled out big donations to JFCs, giving a total of $249,200 to two JFCs that sent the proceeds to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s PAC and campaign committee as well as two other GOP committees. As in previous CREW analyses, Mr. McNair ultimately made up the majority of the donations by NFL owners as he continued to donate at a high level in 2016. In the calendar year so far, he has given a total of $1.3 million in political contributions. While he did not donate to any presidential super PACs in 2016 after putting money behind seven of the 17 Republican presidential candidates last year, he did cut a $1 million check to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to protecting the Republican hold on the U.S. Senate, as well as $100,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aiming to help Republicans maintain control of the House. Mr. McNair also gave to the campaign committees of various members of Congress, including Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Peter Olson (R-TX) and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).
Knowing the kind of people he supports, it’s no great surprise that behind closed doors, McNair isn’t quite as supportive of his African-American players as he would have us believe. In a report by ESPN, during a meeting of NFL owners, discussion showed that despite their public support of the protests, the owners saw them as a problem. It was McNair, though, who shocked many of the owners in the room, when he compared the protesters to inmates.
At a meeting of NFL officials earlier this month to discuss the protests, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said, “We can’t have inmates running the prison,” ESPN reported.
Troy Vincent, a former NFL player, responded to McNair, saying that his comment was offensive and that he did not feel like an “inmate” during his NFL career. McNair later apologized, according to ESPN.
Source: The Hill
Even if you somehow give McNair the benefit of the doubt and say that he was referring to all his players, not just the black players, about 80 percent of NFL players are black. Less than 20 percent of NFL quarterbacks (the most public and powerful position) are black. Aside from that, only one white player has taken a knee thus far in solidarity, and he doesn’t play for the Texans.
Beyond that, though, the word “inmate” is especially tone-deaf, given that more black men are currently in prison than were enslaved in 1850.
It’s not that black people are more likely to be criminals. It’s that they are more likely to be stopped, more likely to be arrested, and more likely to be convicted for the exact same crimes as white people. Odds are pretty good that the majority of McNair’s African-American players at least know someone who is a victim of our very unjust justice system. That’s exactly why they’re protesting.
Perhaps the biggest insult of all, though, is that every single NFL player, regardless of race, has worked their ass off to become the cream of the crop. They are dedicated and professional athletes. They are not inmates, and they certainly have the right to protest the fact that far too many black men are.
Featured image via Tim Bradbury/Getty Images.
