Shaquille O'Neal offered advice to theNew Orleans Saints in a team meeting the day after quarterbackDrew Brees was called out for his comments against NFL player protests.- O'Neal had been scheduled to speak to the team before the controversy began but had some advice from experience to offer the Saints over teleconference.
- As a witness who was in the meeting told Peter King of NBC
Sports , O'Neal's message was simple: "Stay strong. Don't let the media divide you! Don't let social media divide you!"
Shaquille O'Neal offered a simple message to the New Orleans Saints while speaking over a team conference call just a day after Saints quarterback Drew Brees' comments on player protests became a flashpoint in the sports world: "Don't let the media divide you."
On Wednesday, Brees was widely criticized after he said he would "never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country."
Everyone from LeBron James to NFL players, to even some of Brees' teammates offered their takes on why his response was disappointing. They noted that Brees had made the conversation about himself rather than those taking part in the protest, and centered the argument around the flag rather than police brutality, the issue that players were demonstrating against.
Brees had already apologized for his comments on social media, but on Thursday, he had to do the work of mending relationships with his teammates that would make or break the Saints 2020 campaign.
According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the one person in the teleconferenced team meeting who was not a member of the Saints was NBA Hall of Famer-turned-commentator Shaquille O'Neal. The team had hosted guest speakers throughout the year, and O'Neal just happened to be scheduled to join the Saints on what turned out to be an intensely emotional meeting.
A source who was privy to the meeting told King that Shaq offered a message of unity.
Per King:
As one ear-witness said, O'Neal told the coaches and players words approximating these: They're going to try to divide you, just like they divided us with the Lakers! Me and Kobe [Bryant], we had a great thing going, but the media divided our team. We could have won five more championships! Stay strong. Don't let the media divide you! Don't let social media divide you!
O'Neal spoke about the experience sitting in on the Saints team meeting while on TNT's "Inside the NBA" last week. While he was discrete about revealing any major details of the meeting at the request of head coach Sean Payton, O'Neal said that he accepted Brees' apology and urged the team to move forward.
Brees showed a deeper understanding of the issues at the heart of the ongoing protests just a day later, after President Trump called out Brees in a tweet, saying he should not have backed down from his stance.
"I am a big fan of Drew Brees. I think he's truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high," Trump tweeted.
"We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag - NO KNEELING!"
Rather than stay silent, Brees responded to the president, pushing back against the idea that the protests were against the flag or the anthem. "Through my ongoing conversations with friends, teammates, and leaders in the black community, I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It has never been," Brees wrote. "We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities."
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