Though deep in playoff prep, Seahawks notice what’s happening in D.C. They are disgusted
They were in a walk-through, then meetings, then a full practice, preparing for their first home playoff game in four years.
Yet the Seahawks are citizens, too. They were like the rest of civilized America: disgusted at the images they were seeing from Washington, D.C.
Domestic terrorists incited by President Donald Trump and his refusal to accept the outcome of the presidential election stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, sullying democracy. One person was fatally shot during the incident.
“Hell, yeah, I’ve seen it,” 35-year-old left tackle Duane Brown said.
That was the appropriate word and sense on another day that put sports in its proper, secondary place in real life.
“I just got caught up on more of it after our walk-through. Disgusting,” Brown said.
“This is who we are, you know what I mean? This is what’s going on. And it’s been incited. People can’t be surprised about what’s happening, because it’s been kind of provoked, for a long time.”
The Seahawks have been pushing at the forefront among athletes demanding social and racial justice and change in the country throughout the past year.
The team has canceled practice to have a voter-registration drive, to ensure all players voted in November’s General Election.
The Seahawks have marched with coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider across the Interstate 90 floating bridge and Lake Washington to support Black Lives Matter.
They’ve stated their outrage at the killings of Black Americans by white police officers across the country.
“People are fed up,” All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner said in September.
Wagner, Brown, quarterback Russell Wilson and All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, the team’s leaders and prominent players, have been among those who have spoken out most pointedly.
Stick to sports? The Seahawks weren’t sticking to football in the middle of their most important game week of the season.
“It’s disgusting,” Adams said, as tear gas was still lingering inside the Capitol 2,700 miles away in Washington on Wednesday.
“It’s really just exposing what’s been out there.”
These Seahawks star players see a double standard, a difference between how authorities have handled Black Lives Matter protesters and how they dealt with those who broke through barriers, windows and doors to enter the cradle of U.S. democracy.
“It’s not being met with the same outrage and the same anger as other things, as other protests and things that have happened over the last recent months,” Brown said.
“I’m praying for everyone involved, you know (their) safety. I believe they said some people were trapped, injured. So praying for the best outcome possible in those situations.
“It’s been provoked for a while. I’m just hoping we can get peace at some point.”
That’s what Wilson called for. Yet again.
“All I know is that what we do need to do is come together as a nation. And it has to start with love,” Wilson said.
“It has to start with people coming together, our leaders and everything else, our country. And we need safety. We need protection for our children and people.
“That’s really all I’ve seen. It just kind of seems like a madhouse in D.C. I don’t know much more than that. But what I do know is, I do know that’s a critical part to the change that we need to make in America.
“Like I’ve always said to you guys, it think it starts with love at the center of it all.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 4:35 PM.
