Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson did not want to talk about football during a video conference call with reporters Wednesday, saying “none of that matters” compared to “life and what the black community is going through right now.”
Wilson’s voice at times seemed to quiver as he spoke for more than 30 minutes in his first comments to reporters since George Floyd’s death while in police custody and the protests against police brutality that it sparked throughout the country.
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Floyd, a black man, was killed May 25 in Minneapolis after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Wilson said his great-great-grandparents were slaves, and he has always understood “that racism is real.” He recalled how, while growing up in Richmond, Virginia, his father would warn him to not put his hands in his pockets when he stepped out of his car at gas stations.
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