Eagles defensive tackle Malik Jackson is not accepting Drew Brees’ apology. Not only that, the Philly defender looks forward to getting a chance to play against Brees this season.
Brees made headlines last week when he said that he could never agree with someone who showed “disrespect” for the flag by kneeling during the national anthem.
“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Brees told Yahoo Finance. “Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States.”
Brees also cited the military service of his grandfathers during World War II, as a reason why he feels so emotional about the flag.
However, after a vicious public backlash, Brees and his wife, Brittany, ended up apologizing for the comment at least three times in the next 72 hours.
As Jackson said in an interview with Jeff Skversky of ABC 6 in Philadelphia, he believes Brees only apologized because people are “disagreeing” with him.
“I don’t accept his apology,” Jackson said. “I think he’s only apologizing because of people coming for him, and people are disagreeing with him and he understands that his base in Louisiana, there’s a lot of black people. Whatever happens, it must be nice to make $25 million a year and have that stance.”
Jackson says the incident caused him to lose much respect for the New Orleans signal-caller.
I lost a lot of respect for Drew Brees. A great player, but very insensitive about the times and where he stands.
…
My great granddaddy and dad fought in the war too, and they were getting spit on at the same time. I understand where you’re coming from. But I said ‘F you’ for your mindset. You’re still not understanding where we’re coming from after three years of trying to talk about this and get notoriety. You’re still talking about kneeling for a flag. A flag that has oppressed people.
Moreover, Jackson is looking forward to paying Brees a visit on the field when the Eagles play the Saints on December 13th.
“Definitely excited playing them in the year,” Jackson said. “I’m gonna have a lot to say. Hopefully I don’t get too wild with it.
“I don’t understand how you can say that when you have people blocking for you that are black, when you have people catching the ball from you that are black, when you have people running the ball for you that are black.”
Of course, Brees didn’t say anything about black people or the cause for which Colin Kaepernick was protesting. He only said that he found kneeling during the anthem to be disrespectful.
Nonetheless, Brees will need his blockers, no matter what color they are.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn