Miami Dolphins general manager met with the South Florida media yesterday to talk about Miami’s upcoming plans for the 2021 NFL Draft. Generally speaking, Grier is all business with his meetings with the press. Not in a hard-nosed, stern kind of way — but rather in a soft-spoken, unassuming manner. Since taking over the uncontested control of the Dolphins in 2019, Grier has only met with the media a handful of times. He seems to prefer staying out of the spotlight. He’d be the first to admit that his opening to Wednesday’s press conference was a bit out of the normal for him.
“You know me, I don’t dive into politics and stuff much on-camera,” said Grier.
But yet the Dolphins general manager entered Wednesday’s call with much weighing on his mind and heart, prompting him to open the press conference with some comments regarding Tuesday’s verdict in the case of Minnesota man George Floyd’s death.
Grier, who is one of five Black general managers across the NFL, was emotional when talking about the justice served on Tuesday, the loss of life in the case of George Floyd and the ongoing challenges for racial equality across all front before pledging that the Miami Dolphins “will continue to do more and ask others to do so as well across the NFL.”
GM Chris Grier began today's pre-draft press conference with a statement regarding yesterday's verdict. pic.twitter.com/3FEqvo76uz
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) April 21, 2021
The Miami Dolphins certainly walk the walk as it pertains to working to better their community on many fronts, including police/community relations, diversity and more. But as Grier concedes in his statement, there’s a great deal much more work to be done before true equality is achieved. His closing comment sets the stage for Miami to continue to push the envelope with their outreach as an organization — hopefully more around the country will follow suit.
“Politics and rhetoric have created a great divide in our country. We as an organization believe in bringing people together and valuing all human life, and I hope our country can move towards that, too.”