NFL’s Richard Sherman Stands by ‘All Lives Matter’ Comment “I find it difficult to fully support [the Black Lives Matter] movement.” Trey Sanchez
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is standing behind comments he made last year in which he stated, “If black lives matter, then they should matter all the time,” including deaths due to black-on-black crime.
In an interview with The Undefeated, Sherman was asked to reflect on his previous comments and provide any additional thoughts:
“I stand by what I said that all lives matter and that we are human beings. And speaking to police, I want African-Americans and everybody else treated decently. I want them treated like human beings. And I also want the police treated like human beings. I don’t want police officers just getting knocked off in the street who haven’t done anything wrong.
“Those are innocent lives.”
He was asked to give his opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement:
“It’s hard to formulate an opinion and generalize because they have several different messages. Some of them are peaceful and understandable and some of them are very radical and hard to support. Any time you see people who are saying, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and then saying it’s time to kill police, then it is difficult to stand behind that logic. They are generalizing police just like they are asking police not to generalize us. It is very hypocritical. So, in that respect, I find it difficult to fully support that movement.”
Sherman, a Stanford graduate, doubled down on what he’s said before, stating that at some point, black-on-black crime and the problems in the inner city have got to be addressed by the BLM movement:
“There is low funding for education and very few jobs to go around. But there are also people who work hard to take care of their families. My parents did a great job, same inner city, Watts, South Central. They worked hard, didn’t make the most money, but took care of the kids in the neighborhood, took care of us, made ends meet, kept us out of gangs and all the nonsense. But I think there is also a mentality that we want to blame someone else for black fathers not being there for all these people having all these kids and nobody raising them. We want to say that’s systematic, but when do we stop saying it’s systematic and move forward and make a difference?”
Sherman was asked about the NFL’s role in offering support to the black community. The interviewer wondered if the white players on his team “should feel the same obligation as the black players.”
“I don’t think it’s the white players’ obligation to speak up,” he said. “I think it would be nice to show some unity within our league. But it truly hits home for a lot of the African-American players who are from these environments where people are getting killed.”
If he was able to assemble a team of athletes to descend on the black community and help, Sherman said the first order of business would be “to stop the senseless violence” perpetrated by gangs.
“Because once we stop that, once we unite as a people, once we come together and stop looking at each other as enemies,” he added, “then we can move forward in a very powerful way. And combat issues in a different way than it has ever been done before. But until we do that, we are fighting on two fronts.”
But despite the troubles now facing the country with race relations at a new low, Sherman says he remains optimistic:
“Yeah! You have to be, because if you’re pessimistic, you don’t believe there’s a future, then why are we here? I believe that things will come together. This country has overcome worse things than this, like slavery. Obviously, this is a different time with different issues, but there were powerful people from every race coming together to do the right thing and I think that will happen again. There are good people in this country and that’ll shine through.”
Of course “Black Twitter” raged on Sherman’s personal opinions made in the interview, but why go there and ruin the good vibe of this story?
Sherman isn’t alone in his thoughts and is echoing what another famous athlete, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, recently said. Read about that here.
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