While cornerback Josh Norman has yet to play for the Buffalo Bills, he’s often suited up during his NFL career as an advocate for social issues.
Currently in the United States, municipalities have seen growing unrest as protests have sprung up all over, from Washington D.C. to New York City to Los Angeles to Buffalo following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. At times, things have turned violent.
As a player known for speaking out and working with communities he’s played in, Norman joined NFL Network on Tuesday, along with quarterback Josh McCown, to discuss the ongoing social situation in the U.S.
Norman’s message was a powerful one.
“For me, personally, it’s a time that we should all be praying. I think this is a time we need to take out and reflect,” Norman said. “It’s definitely one of those times where racism has been at its highest point… since Jim Crow.
“You go all the way back from that time, I mean, there’s been plenty of cases where we’ve been band-aiding what’s going on.”
Norman went on to explain that he’s hoping the country can take the current situation serious and finally acknowledge and put an end to racism and violence, particularly toward African American citizens. The NFL vet explained in the past that issues haven’t fully been put to rest.
“When you look at it, decade after decade after decade, these racist events have occurred, there’s been band-aids that have been pulled over…That band-aid has been pulled off and you see what it really is,” Norman said. “We need to find a way where we come together and sew that band-aid up. No longer let it be a band-aid, no longer let it be a wound.”
In regard to how Norman would hope a solution to problems could come about, he said the answer is almost a pretty simple one.
“Put yourself in their shoes,” Norman said. “People need ask themselves, ‘What can I do, to help out my African American brothers? What can I do, as a white person, as a Native American, and Hispanic? Everybody. We all in this together, what can I do to help out the next race? Because if don’t, if we don’t? Things like this are going to continue.”
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