How the Carolina Panthers feel about social unrest in the wake of Jacob Blake shooting
Nine NFL teams canceled practices Wednesday and Thursday in protest of police brutality against Black people, but the Carolina Panthers weren’t among them.
Their Wednesday night practice at Bank of America Stadium, planned as a televised event, carried on for more than two hours under the uptown lights, a decision coach Matt Rhule said was made after discussions with team leaders.
“They wanted to take some time, and do something besides just missing a Wednesday night practice,” Rhule said of the practice that was televised locally. “I think they recognize a lot of people here in Charlotte were anticipating seeing them playing, and I just think they felt like, ‘let’s do this at the right time.’ ”
But when that right time is and what bigger display of activism the Panthers are planning remains unknown.
Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater told The Observer on Thursday that he wasn’t sure how close the team was to canceling practice because he was not one of the leaders Rhule consulted.
“We practiced yesterday. It happened,” Bridgewater said. “If he had asked me, I probably would have said we shouldn’t practice.
“But it’s one of those deals where we try to find what’s right, and at the end of the day, nothing can make these situations right, but it can send a message.”
The idea to cancel practice spawned from the Milwaukee Bucks refusing to play Game 5 of their NBA playoff series against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday afternoon in response to Sunday’s police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.
Blake, who is Black, was shot seven times in the back as he tried to enter his vehicle against police orders.
As a result of the Bucks’ protest, the NBA postponed its remaining playoff games. The WNBA also postponed its games. Three Major League Baseball games and five MLS matches were postponed. Nine NFL teams, including the Broncos, Packers and Washington, canceled practices.
Rhule said the players he spoke with were hurt and angry after seeing the video of the shooting and want to support the NBA players in their protest. Wednesday night’s practice was supposed to be the team’s annual Fan Fest event. However, because of the coronavirus, no fans were allowed to attend this year. Despite that, the practice was held at Bank of America Stadium and broadcast on television.
Panthers linebacker Tahir Whitehead said the team didn’t want any decision to be “erratic.“
But Whitehead, a black father of four boys, said Wednesday it was “extremely hard” to practice Wednesday night. He said he’s already starting to have a conversation with his 12-year-old son about how to handle himself around police.
“We know that it can easily be them at any point in time,” Whitehead said of Black players’ children, while wearing a “Black Fathers” hoodie. “We know it can easily be one of us ... I think it’s down right wrong to have to have that conversation with your children, because you feel like they’re targeted when they go out in society in this world.”
Panthers’ running back Mike Davis tweeted that he couldn’t focus at practice.
“Thinking about the stuff that is going on right now and what hurts the most is the “what if’s” what if it was me what if was my family member,” Davis tweeted. “Just sad to see this stuff happen over and over.”
The Panthers are planning to practice at 8:45 a.m. Friday.
This offseason, after the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor and the death of George Floyd, many athletes, including some Panthers players had been vocal about seeing change happen as it relates to police brutality. Thompson advocated for the arrests of the Louisville police officers who shot Taylor.
Carolina defensive end Stephen Weatherly plans to wear a decal on the back of his helmet that reads, “All Black Lives Matter.”
“Oftentimes when I’ve met with people, my life has been validated because of what I do, because I play for the Panthers and I’m a professional athlete, so people see value, see worth in me as an individual,” Weatherly said earlier this month. “But when people don’t know what I do for a living, I get treated differently. It shouldn’t take what someone does, or when you learn who they are, for them to deserve to be treated fairly. And so that’s something that I definitely want to echo, and that’s a real thing that happens.”
In 2018, the Panthers formed a player impact committee after David Tepper became the team owner. Since then, the committee has focused on voter registration and improving police and community relations.
“I do think the message that I heard today was it’s time for change,” Rhule said of the meeting with the team’s leaders. “Something has got to change. We can’t just keep doing this and saying something is going to change. We have to make a change. And I think the Carolina Panthers are completely committed to that.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 5:45 PM.
