Indianapolis Colts Make Unified Statement Denouncing Racism, Reassuring Commitment to Create Positive Change

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts stood as one on the practice field on Friday morning and offered their insights on why it was necessary to take Thursday off to discuss how the organization can make a positive difference in the community.

The Sunday shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, with seven shots fired into his back by a white police officer, Rusten Sheskey, in Kenosha, Wis., triggered a national outcry that prompted NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NHL games to be postponed. The Colts were among a few teams to cancel practice.

Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett, a leading voice in team meetings, was first to step to the microphone in front of the entire team, coaches, and front-office personnel. He was wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. As a result of team meetings, Colts players and coaches signed up to vote on Thursday.

After Brissett came linebacker Zaire Franklin, head coach Frank Reich, and general manager Chris Ballard.

Here’s the complete transcript, with the video above.

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett

Statement:

“On behalf of the players, teams, coaches, the staff, and 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 used it as a day to reflect on those Zoom calls we had this offseason, to reflect on the emotion we endured and those conversations we all pledged to help not only to 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 the surface level, but use the relationships and the communication that we have with others that can help deep-rooted change. As an organization, leadership, we plan to take full advantage of those resources. We also used yesterday to strategically plan and map out how this Colts 2020 team will impact our community. Within this map, there are not wants, needs, and requests. There are demands and commands that we plan to stand by.”

Linebacker Zaire Franklin

Statement:

“Like Jacoby (Brissett) just said, we didn’t use yesterday just as a day off, we used it as a day of action. We understand our role in our country as professional athletes and understand that it’s our responsibility and our duty to inspire and encourage change not only in our own community, but also throughout our country. By mapping out our plan for 2020 yesterday, we want to focus on five key areas – first being voting. We want to focus on not only getting as many people registered as possible, getting it to the point where they’re able to get to places where they can vote and voting centers – encouraging and awareness for voting centers throughout Indianapolis. We also want to make sure that it’s accessible for everybody. The second area we want to focus on is community-police engagement. We want to help try to mend that relationship in our community, Indianapolis, between minorities in Indianapolis as well as the police force. The third area we are going to focus on deals with food for low income and less fortunate areas in Indianapolis by trying to help have food drives and support them in any way possible. Lastly, we want to have a major impact and double our efforts in supporting IPS, the Indianapolis Public School system, by trying to work closely with the commissioner, Aleesia Johnson, and trying to help and support her in any way possible. Like Jacoby said, these are actions, these are demands, these are things that we know we are going to accomplish and we look forward to our journey this year. Thank you.”

Head Coach Frank Reich

Statement:

“Back in the spring when we came out of our three days of meetings, one message was really clear – that talk is not going to be enough. Discussions are important, conversations need to be had, but more than anything we need action, and it needs to be systemic in our organization through everybody from start to finish. We said we were not going to be passive. We weren’t going to be neutral. I think what you’ve seen demonstrated by our players and what you’ll see demonstrated by our organization is a focused fight against injustice – particularly systemic racism, but also as our players are saying, to help those less fortunate in these areas with food drives and with education. You’ll see a sustained and focused fight from head to toe of our organization.”

General Manager Chris Ballard

Statement:

“We talked a lot about it in the spring, but we will not remain silent on the issues at hand. The social injustice that is still in today’s society will not be tolerated. I can’t tell you enough how proud I am of these young men. They understand that it has got to be more than words and it’s about action. It’s about making a real difference in our communities and doing it one person at a time. This organization will stand behind them in support as we move going forward, and they’re going to make a difference each and every day.”

It has to be more than words. It’s about action. pic.twitter.com/Tog6JjmQn0
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) August 28, 2020

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)

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