FOXBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - New England Patriots veteran captain Devin McCourty on Thursday reemphasized a need for social justice reform following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
“I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple of days and I’ve had so many emotions of being angry, being sad,” McCourty told the media when asked about the professional athletes who decided to boycott their games in protest of racial injustice and police brutality.
McCourty added that he “felt very hopeless” after learning Blake was shot in the back in front of his three young kids as he tried to enter his vehicle in Kenosha.
Defensive back Jason McCourty added, “There is hurt inside of me, there is anger inside of me, and I’m like, ‘Does football mean anything?'”
Running back James White said “it hurts” to keep seeing incidents involving police brutality unfold across the country.
“It hurts to keep seeing these things happen over, and over, and over again,” White said.
Jason McCourty went on to say that “we are completely lost as Americans.”
Several NFL teams on Thursday opted to cancel practice in response to the shooting. The Patriots were on the field at Gillette Stadium for training camp but players took time to discuss how they can use their platform to make an impact.
“If you don’t practice one day but go back to practicing the next…I don’t know what that really accomplishes,” Devin McCourty said.
White stated that the United States is in desperate need of change, especially with regard to racial injustice.
“We just have to do better as a country, we have to do better as people, and we just have to treat each other better,” White said.
Earlier this summer, Devin McCourty expressed hope that America could move forward by making positive changes after George Floyd was brutally murdered by Minneapolis police.
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