Former New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson admits that he wasn't initially surprised by Drew Brees' comments about the flag, but that doesn't mean he agreed with him.
Back in 2016 when Collin Kaepernick kneeled, Watson wasn't on the same team as Brees, but the two had a conversation back then, so he knew what his feelings were:
“My initial thoughts on the comments were: I know Drew. We’ve had this conversation before. Even though I wasn’t on the team with him in 2016,” Watson said of the Drew Brees situation on the Double Coverage podcast Devin and Jason McCourty via MassLive. “I remember this happening and I remember him saying the exact same thing, so I wasn’t surprised.”
Watson said he reached out to Drew Brees after he made the comments and said Brees was beating himself up about the comments, not because of his feelings, but because he was tone-deaf with the comments:
“A lot of people were taken aback by what he said. I totally understand that because of the atmosphere we’re in right now,” Watson added. “I spoke to him. We had a long conversation. He was really beat up about it. He was very remorseful not necessarily for his stance about the flag, but for being tone-deaf when he said it. And for not being able to bring the conversation back to where he could show the empathy that I know that he has.”
Watson has accepted Drew Brees' apology, but he still thinks it's important that the biggest conversations still happen. Watson also has no doubt that Brees loves black people, he just thinks the comments were a little out of touch.
Brees has done overwhelming good for New Orleans and Louisiana, but it's clear that his initial comments weren't well-received by lots of people.
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