The recent shooting of Jacob Blake, one of multiple such incidents in 2020, has really shaken the nation. On Saturday, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll spoke out about how Black Americans have done everything they can to make their voices heard and that action must be taken sooner rather than later.
The following day, safety Jamal Adams admitted to feeling vulnerable outside the team’s headquarters as he discussed his fears about racial violence potentially affecting him and those close to him.
“You know, I’d be lying to you if I said I’m all right,” Adams said during his press conference on Sunday. “This building is my escape place. When I take my sweatshirt off, my sweatpants off that say Seattle Seahawks, I’m back to normal life as a black man. We don’t know what’s going to happen. If it doesn’t affect you as a person outside of the race of being black, you won’t care, it doesn’t bother you, you live your everyday life.”
Adams is not the first Seahawk to publicly proclaim that he fears for his life simply because of his race, as his teammate and fellow safety Quandre Diggs spoke at length about his feelings concerning the situation as well. In fact, Adams stated that he confessed his fear to his new teammates in Seattle.
“I’m afraid,” he told them. “I fear for my life as a black man, and I shouldn’t fear for my life. It’s tough to continue to do what I do. When I take off my Seahawks gear, I’m just another black guy in the community, another black guy in the street. It’s a tough concept to swallow. I’m afraid every time I walk by a cop. I’m afraid every time a cop pulls me over. I’m afraid when I walk into a restaurant or a bar, and they tell me that I can’t have those pants on or I can’t have those shoes on. I’m afraid.”
Adams lamented that not enough caucasians are caring or even paying attention to the racial issues at hand, and stated he hopes that it will not take athletes getting shot for them to change their views.
“I fear for my niece’s life, I fear for my nephew’s life, I fear for my brother’s life, I fear for my parents’ life. I fear for my brothers, because I don’t know when my time is up, I don’t know if I’m next. I don’t know if—is enough enough? Will I be the one that has to be the guy for people to understand that they’re killing unarmed black people? Does a top athlete have to go down for people to really listen and understand why? There’s no justifying anything. There’s no justifying, ‘he had a knife,’ there’s no justifying, ‘Oh, he was on drugs,’ there’s no justifying. Murder is murder. Wrong is wrong and right is right, it’s as simple as that.”
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