NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal took part on the call that quarterback Drew Brees used to apologize to his New Orleans Saints teammates after some caustic words sent waves across the NFL.
During a recent interview, the Saints gunslinger noted he “would “never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America” during an interview with Yahoo Finance.
His opinion had a massive reverberation in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, as many notable athletes were disappointed with the Saints veteran's response. That ultimately prompted his apology, one Shaq witnessed first-hand during a call:
Article Continues Below“About two weeks ago, I was contacted to speak to the Saints players today,” O’Neal said in a conversation with NBA on TNT about the entire situation developing in New Orleans. “Then, this happened. I’m not going to get into because coach (Sean) Payton doesn’t really want us to get into it, but I was on the call today when Drew apologized to his teammates, and most of his teammates accepted his apology. They said, ‘Drew, we know your character. We know you stepped into some stuff that you can’t get out of, but guess what? We want you to do more, more positive things and less talking.’ And they all said, ‘We accept your apology.’ . . . He made a mistake.”
.@SHAQ joined the @Saints team meeting today and described Drew Brees' apology to his teammates. pic.twitter.com/U9nKtOiydd
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) June 5, 2020
O'Neal went to LSU and still holds great roots in the state of Louisiana, hence his connection to Brees and the Saints. It's also largely why he was asked to speak by Payton.
It seems the Saints QB's apology was heartfelt and widely accepted by his team, and he has further educated himself as to why Colin Kaepernick kneeled and the many years of black oppression that have brought the country to its knees in recent weeks. His comments to President Donald Trump reflect that:
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