In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd while in police custody, more and more current and former athletes are speaking out and sharing their stories about negative encounters they’ve had with police — and former New York Giants linebacker, Brandon Short, is the latest to do so.
Short recently detailed two different times during his life in which he says police pointed a gun at him without justification. He shared his stories while speaking at a town hall at Penn State.
The first experience Short talked about happened when he was just 14 years old and was mistaken for a robbery suspect, which was transcribed by Josh Moyer of the Centre Daily Times.
So I’m 14 years old and it’s a summer afternoon, and I’m walking home from my friend’s house like I did every day that summer. And two police cars pull up and cut me off. And a cop jumps out and says, “Get the f on the ground!” And pulls his gun. And I’m standing there in shock, and the cop walks over to me — because I don’t know what’s happening — he walks over to me, puts a gun to my head and says, “I said, get on the f’ing ground!”
So I get on the ground and put my face in the mud, and they put their knee in my back and handcuff me and throw me in the back of the car. Mind you, I’m 14 years old. There’s mud on my face, there are tears rolling down my eyes, and I have no idea what’s happening. Some time later, the police officer comes back, and he takes the handcuffs off and lets me out of the car and says, “I’m sorry. You fit the description of somebody that was involved in a robbery. Have a nice day.” Have. A. Nice. Day.
He just put a gun to a 14-year-old kid’s head, threw him in the mud and threw him in the back of the car with no recourse.
While with the Giants in 2006, Short had a run-in with New York police after attending an event on New Year’s Eve with his wife.
The former Giant says he asked an officer for help after his wife, who had previously experienced health issues, was feeling sick. Short says his plea for help resulted in having guns drawn on both he and his wife.
So, after this event, we’re walking home and my wife starts to experience some of the symptoms that she had when she was really sick. And I get scared. And I see a New York City police car and it says on the back, “To Protect and Serve.” Now, mind you, I was a New York Giant and lived through 9/11. And I’ve done a lot of work with police: public service announcements, speaking at police events. I still have an NYPD hat on my shelf here and in my house. So I walk up to the police officer and say, “Can you please help me? My wife is sick; I don’t know whether she needs to see a a paramedic. Please help.”
And the cop says, “I’m not your f’ing taxi driver.” I said, “That’s OK; I know you’re not a taxi driver, but my wife, my girlfriend, needs help.” And the cop says something into his walkie talkie, reaches over, puts on his hat and steps out of the car. No less than 20 seconds later, two cops pull up — two cop cars pull up — and they pull their guns on me and my wife. I’m in a tuxedo; she’s in a gown. I’m sitting there wondering, “What in the world just happened?” All I did was just ask for help.
Through the grace of God, we were in front of a shop and a store owner, an Asian man, saw everything that happened. And … with the cops having their guns on us, he pulled us into his shop and literally protected us from the police. Five minutes later, the cops pull away. And to put this into perspective for you: Five days later, I was the starting outside linebacker for the New York Giants in a playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The moral of the story is it didn’t matter whether I was an inner-city kid in a hoodie walking home, a teenager, or I was a professional football player in a tuxedo. All the cop saw was Black, and all they saw was — their guns were pointed at me.
Short says he has never told these stories before, but decided to speak up as the calls for change around the country continue to grow louder.
“The time for silence has stopped,” Short said. “That time is over.”
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