Falcons won't cancel practice, striving for more lasting means of activism
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - For about 15 minutes after Thursday morning's Falcons training camp session, the team's social justice committee and team leaders stood in a circle on the practice field and talked.
The players and coaches talked about what the Falcons' course of action should be. They decided not to cancel football activities or practices, like some NFL teams have done, as athletes used game boycotts Wednesday night as a form of protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
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"That's big to me. And we all talked about as a whole social justice committee, we all had the same reaction: That's monumental right there. That's big," one of the committee's members, Falcons defensive end Steven Means, said. "Protesting, that's monumental. That goes all the way back to Martin Luther King. Protesting is definitely one of the biggest impacts, one of the biggest things you can do. And then right after that, you have to have something that comes right after it to not only continue the awareness aspect but to spark, OK, where do we go? What's the direction after this? Because you've got a lot of people that's sitting around, saying, 'OK, we're aware, now what do we do?'"
Though coaches suggested scratching meetings and practices, cancelling football activities "was not a conversation for us yet," according to Means.
"We're trying to figure out the best ways to go forward," he said. "We're not doing anything that's redundant or doing anything that's like a knee-jerk reaction. We're trying to get real change and figure out the best ways to step forward and create a forum for the team but also make change outside of the team."
Means said he's been touched by the response from the entire organization, from Arthur Blank to Dan Quinn to his fellow teammates.
"Coming from my end of things, how as a white coach can I become a better ally? Because the stories that you heard bothered you so much to say, 'Hey man, I support,' just wasn’t enough," Quinn said before practice Thursday. "Learning about experiences that have taken place and hearing about those, those really bothered me deep down. I just want to get to the space to say, 'Just saying I support you isn’t enough.' That, to me, is saying, 'What does that look like? What does an ally look like in this space?' Because I wanted to have a bigger role."
"Our head coach continues to give us the forum to be able to bring these things to the forefront of the team," Means said. "Coaches hold this time they've got precious, so if you have a coach that's willing to cancel a meeting or tell you don't worry about this... That's big, and I don't know if people realize that, but we have that here, and it's looking like other teams have that, too. And I think that's big for everybody wanting to take this turn."
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Heavy conversations among the committee and the entire team have occurred more and more frequently as a summer of racial reckoning continues across America.
"A lot to discuss," Quinn said. "We’ve always acted collectively, as a group and as a team. We’ll do that again. Whether it’s action items or just some time to vent on some things. A lot going on from race issues, to pandemic, to the hurricane. A lot to discuss and manage with the team."
The Falcons, along with Arthur Blank's Family of Businesses, recently launched the "Rise Up & Vote" initiative to focus on voter registration, education and participation. Means said he sees that as a vital mechanism for change.
"You know, it might not be the most appealing," Means said. "It might not be the most exciting to talk about, but voting is the No. 1 thing that we believe in that we're driving hardcore because we can get the right people in place to make a change."
Means, who said he grew up in an impoverished inner-city Buffalo, New York, said the biggest thing he asks of anyone who doesn't understand this movement to simply listen and have empathy.
"I'm blessed to be in the position I'm in right now as an athlete," he said. "I knew people these same situations happened to that didn't have a voice. Nobody knows their name today. So for me to sit back and go, 'You know what? I'm OK. My life is good,' I don't think that would be fair."