Dear Drew Brees — What in the hell does “I’ll Do Better” mean?

Over the past week, New Orleans Saints quarterback and low-key racist Drew Brees has received widespread critique for his comments from a June 3rd interview with Yahoo. In this interview, Brees reminisced about his grandfathers who both served in WWII. He said “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States… Is everything right with our country right now? No, it is not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity.”

Following the release of this interview, Brees received widespread backlash for his comments, which not only equated Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the national anthem as “disrespect for the flag” but also took a White-supremacist perspective of what ‘‘unity’’ looks like. Brees’ watered-down comments are dog-whistling, plain and simple. He conflated protest with anti-patriotism. Further, he ignored the history of dissent in this country, which is baked into the fabric of American democracy. Last, an abbreviated history lesson: thousands and thousands of Black soldiers also served in the military during World War II, and upon their return, faced the same threats of violence and murder, racism, and disenfranchisement that they’d be fighting against overseas… except it was from their own countrymen. Google “GI Bill” and “racist”. I’ll wait.

So after being excoriated by the press and on social media following his interview, Brees did what White people across the country are doing right now. He released a navel-gazing, shamefaced statement that said… nothing. In the video, Brees is sitting in his backyard (I guess?) and he starts by saying “I just want you to see in my eyes how sorry I am.” This video goes on for several minutes, during which Brees asserts “I am sorry” “I will do better” and “I am your ally”, among other milquetoast platitudes.

I think Instagram user @joseline said it best when, instead of words, she just posted a dozen clown emojis in the comments sections.

Listen, I’m coming down hard on Brees. It must be super tough to wake up one day and the whole country hates you because you’re racist and you never bothered to listen to your Black teammates or anyone else, for that matter. That’s the wildest thing! There are Karens in the middle of South Dakota who have zero proximity to people of color and they’re still doing more work. Brees, YOU LITERALLY WORK WITH BLACK PEOPLE EVERY DAY.

@joseline is right. Drew Brees is a clown. He’s afraid of alienating millions of football supporters around the country who happen to align politically with another racist clown (who’s currently sitting on a toilet somewhere in the White House). Brees is ignoring the fact that dissent is patriotic. It’s holding this country accountable for the promises that it made when it was founded as a democracy. Brees lives in New Orleans, a city that is 60% Black, a city that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and then ravaged again by the societal and economic fall-out as a result of the country’s lack of support. The fact that he can put his clown face on social media and say “I didn’t understand” is absolute nonsense. Brees didn’t want to understand. Brees didn’t want to consider the implications of his silence, his complicity, and his statement about ‘disrespecting the flag’.

You know what speaks super loud, Brees? M-O-N-E-Y. For a man that made approximately $27 million in 2019 alone, handing a cool 50% of that paycheck over to Colin Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” camp would be a very good way to start “doing better”.