Detroit Lions canceled practice on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, to stand in solidarity against police brutality after the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The cancellation followed two postponements as the players, mostly African Americans, come to grips with the fact that another unarmed Black male was shot. The father of three survived several gunshots to his back. However, his father, who is also named Jacob Blake, said his son is paralyzed from the waist down.
“We had our team meeting this morning and no football was talked about,” Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said Tuesday, according to the Detroit Free Press. “Coach just opened the floor. The conversations lasted four hours and it was incredible to be a part of it.”
Stafford added that he’s never been more proud to be a Lion as the team met with the media to air their feelings at the team’s practice facility in Allen Park, Michigan, about 10-mile drive southwest of Detroit.
The Kenosha Police Department has yet to deliver an explanation about what precipitated the extreme use of force by officers. The incident incited angry demonstrations in Kenosha and across the country, some of which turned violent, according to the Free Press.
“We are all brothers, the human race,” says Trey Flowers, a two-time Super Bowl winner and four-year veteran. “We are all one, and once we realize that and overcome just the difference of skin color, the difference of culture, then we’ll start to love one another, treat others as they are us.”
