The National Football League, in stark comparison to previous years, has seemingly fully embraced the Black Lives Matter movement in a number of ways for the 2020-21 season, including allowing players to put the names of select African-Americans who’ve died as a result of a police encounter, on the back of their helmets.
But in the Pittsburgh Steelers organization, two players have recently opted out of donning the names of those people. According to Daily Wire, Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey started off the season by wearing the name of Antwon Rose Jr. on his helmet, but later realized he’d made a mistake.
Taking to his Instagram account on Thursday, Pouncey not only said he wouldn’t wear Rose Jr.’s name anymore, but also offered a sincere apology to law enforcement officials for not initially doing more due diligence on the facts surrounding Rose Jr.’s death.
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“I want to personally clarify what transpired this past Monday night in regard to having Antwon Rose’s name on the back of my helmet. I was given limited information on the situation regarding Antwon, and I was unaware of the whole story surrounding his death and what transpired during the trial following the tragedy. I should have done more research to fully understand what occurred in its entirety,” Pouncey wrote, before also pointing out all the work he’s done with the law enforcement community.
You can read his full statement below:
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Pouncey’s change of heart came after he learned that Rose Jr. wasn’t exactly the innocent victim of a police shooting, like the BLM movement and liberal mainstream media would like you to believe.
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The 17-year-old was shot and killed by police in 2018 after fleeing from an officer who pulled him over while he was in the driver’s seat of a car that had been involved in a drive-by shooting just minutes before.
Not only that, a handgun was found in the car he was driving with his DNA all over it.
The NFL, which is already plummeting in the ratings compared to previous years, is obviously doing the BLM/social justice thing to appease a portion of their audience, apparently with absolutely no regard to the important details surrounding many of the cases involving black men who’ve died in police shootings — most of them being justified, according to the evidence and courts of law.
Politics aside, it’s always tragic when an encounter with law enforcement results in death — nobody disputes that. But many Americans firmly believe that professional sports shouldn’t be in the business of backing social justice initiatives and pushing agendas just to score points with a particular demographic.
Steelers offensive lineman and former U.S. Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva — Pouncey’s teammate — made headlines last week after he wore the name of Sgt. First Class Alwyn Cashe on the back of his helmet. Villanueva honored the fallen soldier because Cashe was a genuine American hero who died while attempting to save fellow troops from a burning vehicle in Iraq in 2005.
