Brissett Emerging as Colts Leader Despite Losing Starting Job

Former NC State quarterback Jacoby Brissett has lost his job as the Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback. But by his actions in the wake of Jacob Blake's shooting, he has shown that he's still a leader on the NFL team

Jacoby Brissett might have been relegated to backup status with the Indianapolis Colts this season, but the former NC State quarterback is still out front when it comes to being a leader for the NFL team.

On Wednesday, Brissett was the driving force in registering the entire Colts' roster to vote while they took the day off from practice in protest of social injustice and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

A day later, he stood in front of his teammates -- including fellow Wolfpack products Nyheim Hines and Philip Rivers -- and delivered a powerful statement on the organization's responsibility to help bring about change in their community.

Here is the text of that statement:

"On behalf of the players, team, coaches, the staff, the organization, we're here to say we're hurt. We're hurt because we feel the pain of not only our black teammates, but our Black community. We understand that we have to use our platform — not only individually, but collectively as an organization. We want it to be known that yesterday wasn't a day off, it wasn't a day for us to go home and say, 'We didn't practice.' For us, yesterday was a full workday. 

"Obviously it got out regarding our efforts to get everyone here registered to vote, in which we had 100-percent participation. But we use it as a day to reflect on those Zoom calls we had this offseason; to reflect on the emotions we endured and those conversations that we all pledged to help, not only uplift our teammates, but our community. 

"We understand that our job rewards us with a platform to pour into our resources, our relationships, to not only make change on a surface level, but to use the relationship and the communication that we have with others that can help change, and deep-rooted the change. 

"As an organization, leadership, we plan to take full advantage of those resources. We also use yesterday to strategically plan and map out how this course 2020 team will impact our community. Within this map, they aren't wants, needs and requests; there're demands and commands that we plan to stand by."

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