Drew Brees could learn a few things from Jackie Robinson about patriotism

Saints quarterback Drew Brees doesn’t seem to understand certain protests. He could learn from the 20th century’s most important athlete.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, and protests across America stemming from all kinds of feelings about civil rights and social justice, people in and around the NFL have endeavored to speak their minds on these subjects. One of those people is Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, who spoke with Yahoo! Finance recently, and was asked how he’d feel if players continued to kneel during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America,” Brees said. “Let me just tell you what I feel when the National Anthem is played, and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II. One in the Army, and one in the Marine Corps. Both risking their lives to protect our country, and to try and make our country and this world a better place.

“So, every time I stand with my hand over my heart, looking at that flag and singing the National Anthem, that’s what I think about. And in many cases, it brings me to tears. I think about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, all those throughout the civil rights movements of the 1960s. And all that has been endured by so many people to this point.

“And is everything right with our country right now? No, it’s not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect for the flag with your hand over your heart is that it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, that we can all do better, and that we are all part of the solution.”

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Brees has the right to feel the way he feels, to say what he wants to say, and to demonstrate his own concepts of patriotism however he sees fit, as long as it’s legal and he’s not hurting anybody else. But his insistence that standing and saluting the flag shows that “we’re all in this together” is particularly tone-deaf at a time when the country is as divided as it’s ever been — at least since the Civil War — and when there are millions of people who do not believe America works in their best interests. Quite the opposite.

Brees’ thoughts about his grandfathers are worthy of reverence and respect. As is this story.

There was another patriotic American who served his country in World War II —  who applied to Officers Candidate School after he was drafted in 1942. His application was delayed for several months. Boxer Joe Louis protested on his behalf, and eventually, this soldier was granted entry into OCS. He was promoted to second lieutenant in 1943, and was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st “Black Panthers” Tank Battalion.

An incident on April 6, 1944 changed his military career. Though the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, this officer was told by the driver of the bus to sit in the back. The officer refused, and at the end of the bus ride, was taken into custody by military police. He was transferred to a different battalion, whose commanding officer tried to trump up all kinds of charges against him, including public drunkenness — though this officer did not drink. Eventually, the charges were reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning, and he was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers.

After his release from the military, this man went on to integrate Major League Baseball on April 15, 1947. Yes, this man was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, who had seen his own versions of institutional racism and had fought tooth and nail against them his entire life. One of the most significant people of the 20th century was told to get on the back of the bus. Thought of as nothing. As less than human. Just as he was when opposing managers ordered their pitchers to throw at his head when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Just as it was when Robinson knew he had no chance at an NFL career despite his status as a great tailback at UCLA — because from 1934 through 1945, the NFL did not allow black players to play under any circumstances.

In his 1972 autobiography, I Never Had it Made, Robinson wrote this:

There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first World Series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.

That’s why Jackie Robinson had conflicting feelings about the flag and what it represented. Colin Kaepernick has had his own reasons for refusing to salute the flag in the traditional sense, and he has made them abundantly clear. It is easy to look back now and emptily revere Jackie Robinson for what he did, because he is no longer with us. We only have his words and deeds in retrospect.

It is harder to understand Colin Kaepernick’s reasons for doing what he has done, fully understanding the professional risks involved, if you don’t want to understand. It is far easier to take a boilerplate approach to patriotism and say that your way is the only way. Never mind that, at its apex as the world’s ultimate place of true freedom, America is not about that. America should be about asking the tough questions, discussing them openly, and looking for change.

It’s not about sticking to sports anymore. It’s not about “America, love it or leave it.” It’s not about the flag as a symbol of a perfect society that doesn’t exist. It’s about every person in America, who should be equally respected, represented, and regarded as free citizens.

Drew Brees has every right to refuse to respect different types of protest. But as a leader in a league where over 70% of the roster population is black, to say that he will never agree with anybody protesting their own realities in that fashion is to invalidate the experiences of the men he suits up with. And that is unfortunate.

As Michael Thomas, Brees’ primary receiver, seemed to intimate.