The Raiders’ refusal to delete their awful Derek Chauvin tweet is making it so much worse

Really?

You would think that after all the backlash and repeated criticism from all over the sports world — and beyond — that the Las Vegas Raiders and their ownership would, at the very least, delete the tone-deaf tweet about the Derek Chauvin verdict.

But no. As of Wednesday morning, it is still active on the Raiders’ Twitter feed.

Owner Mark Davis took responsibility for the statement and told The Athletic’s Tashan Reed that “if [he] offended the family [of George Floyd], then I’m deeply, deeply disappointed.”

Then, he added the tweet won’t be deleted.

“I will not delete it,” Davis told Reed. “I could unpin it and let it run its course. It’s already out there. That’s the risk you take any time you put anything on Twitter: It’s out there for life. Because people are retweeting it and keeping it and doing all that stuff with it. … I rarely, rarely post stuff, but I’m not into erasing something. It’s not an apology. I’m not embarrassed by what I said, but I did learn something now. So, I learned something. I learned that cops were wearing T-shirts saying that. And that’s a negative.”

That doubling-down makes this so much worse.

The statement of “I CAN BREATHE” used by the franchise was one adopted by supporters of the New York Police Department seven years ago, when the focus was on another entirely different police killing — that of Michael Brown. A group of NBA players — including LeBron James — had worn “I CAN’T BREATHE” t-shirts after Garner was heard saying that phrase 11 times on video during an arrest that would leave him dead.

So this phrase is already deeply tainted, with its own trauma rooted in other death. Either Davis forgot about that, never realized it in the first place or doesn’t care — and none of those answers is satisfactory.

By the way, it just so happens that James weighed in early Wednesday morning:

When you listen to why that statement turned out to be offensive and realize that maybe it’s not making the impact you thought it would, the playbook is right there. Delete the tweet, send out a statement of apology that’s hopefully much better worded and move on.

The defiant stance — even one that’s meant to bizarrely prove that a mistake was made and it’s out there for the whole world to see — only brings more attention to it, even if those on Twitter would still share the screenshot if it was deleted.

It won’t make everyone suddenly forget that Davis didn’t educate himself about what “I CAN BREATHE” might mean, or perhaps consult with members of the organization who might point out why that’s deeply offensive.

But it would be a step in the right direction.

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