Drew Brees walks back flag stance … after Rick Scott backs him up
Drew Brees, the First Lady, and the President. Photo via Black Sports Online.

Drew-Brees-Trump
Brees walked back comments Scott endorsed.

New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees has already walked back recent comments about not supporting protests during the National Anthem.

“I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments (Wednesday). In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused. In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country,” Brees wrote on Instagram.

But when the controversy was live Wednesday night, Sen. Rick Scott emerged to back the quarterback’s play off the field, striking a contrast between himself and prominent teammates of Brees, as well as other athletes in football and far beyond.

The first-term Republican from Naples waded into the current controversy embroiling the veteran passer via his “Scott for Florida” Twitter account, used for campaign-style communications.

“Drew Brees is right,” Scott tweeted. “Even with its flaws, America still stands as a beacon of freedom and opportunity. Disrespecting the flag, the anthem, and our troops solves nothing. It simply tears us further apart.”

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America,” Brees said.

His grandfathers were war veterans, he said.

But he also is moved by “all that has been sacrificed, not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movement of the 60s. And all that has been endured by so many people.”

“And is everything right with our country right now? No, it’s 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. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better, and we are all part of the solution,” Bress said.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


24 comments

  • Amy Roberts

    June 4, 2020 at 6:43 am

    Scott and Brees obviously do not have a pulse on the United States right now. As for the Nation, we currently represent the freedom and opportunity to ignore the constitution and rob the taxpayers by a corrupt administration and those in office that enable its actions.

    • gary

      June 5, 2020 at 4:03 pm

      You are a minority! The Bill of Rights and the Constitution breeds a free people by it’s very words! Losers like you will never win!

  • DisplacedCTYankee

    June 4, 2020 at 6:49 am

    Sounds like Drew Breese has the same symptoms that Gerald F. Ford had — played football too many times without a helmet.

    • gary

      June 5, 2020 at 4:05 pm

      More likely the PC police stole his balls!

  • Frankie M.

    June 4, 2020 at 8:56 am

    Who cares what Drew Brees says? Everyone knows that JayZ is our true modern day philosopher-poet.

    • gary

      June 5, 2020 at 4:07 pm

      BAHAHAHAHAHAHA… a drug dealer that can’t form a coherent sentence? He is a poet to the illiterate, that’s as far as it goes!

  • Ocean Joe

    June 4, 2020 at 9:05 am

    Scott should be wearing a size ‘Extra Tone Deaf’ jumpsuit, stamping out license plates. What is less patriotic than massive looting of our Medicare system?

    • LJ

      June 4, 2020 at 3:44 pm

      Exactly, but my fellow Floridians still VOTED this Idiot back in office when he’s NOT EVEN FROM FLORIDA, he’s a transplant and don’t have a Clue what the Black experience would ever be, Kaep protest was NEVER about the Flag, but these Idiots are so insensitive that it ain’t even surprising to me at All…Screw Both of them and I’m a 22 year Air Force Veteran

      • jon

        June 5, 2020 at 4:08 pm

        Thank you for leaving the service, you probably didn’t belong there!

      • Debra

        June 5, 2020 at 5:57 pm

        Thank you for your service. And I am in total agreement with you. These dummies not only gave us Scott, but DeSantis too.

  • DisplacedCTYankee

    June 4, 2020 at 12:19 pm

    Who gives a crap what a professional athlete thinks about anything?

  • jerry

    June 4, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    It takes an idiot, usually racist, to think kneeling is disrespecting the flag. Bet they would be applauding if it was for gun rights, no? Be honest.
    At least Brees after seeing reality instead of his narrow so called patriotism, apologized.
    Scott won’t.
    Toxic patriotism, bordering on Fascism like Scott, Trump, half the repub party is as bad as racism. They forget we fought so they can kneel in protest.
    There is nothing more American than protesting being killed by the government. No? It’s how we get things changed.

    • jon

      June 5, 2020 at 4:12 pm

      Disrespecting the flag is the ultimate in disrespect to our great country, it’s founders, and those that died protecting it! You can believe whatever you want. But the people of America that agree with me, are the backbone of America! We make America great! You folks are a cancer!

  • Ruben A Gutierrez Mesa

    June 5, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    Sorry but America does not need disrespecful people, esther I dont think disrespecting our Anthem and Flag makes anybody stronger

    • Susan weiss

      June 5, 2020 at 3:58 pm

      Today’s Republican party, led by DJS, has a really bad habit of fabricating fictional or ‘alternative’ problems, in order to manipulate valid issues to their advantage. Taking a knee as a silent way of protesting racial inequality and brutality was never about disrespecting the flag of the United States of America. Furthermore, that criminal Ric Scott who stole millions and millions of dollars from Florida’s Medicare and health systems when he was Florida’s governor does not deserve to weigh in on any matters of the people. We can smell his self-righteousness from here.

      • jon

        June 5, 2020 at 4:13 pm

        retard

  • gary

    June 5, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    What a bitch he is! Wimp!

  • Black Lives Matter

    June 5, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    A person can decide to stand or take to their knee. It is their choice not the choice of the racist Trump 😠 followers .

  • martin

    June 6, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    I am so happy to live in a country where athletes and other entertainers, who exist in a make believe world, can tell us how to think.

    • jon

      June 6, 2020 at 5:52 pm

      Well said Martin

  • Frank Rizzo

    June 6, 2020 at 10:04 pm

    The real problem here in America are the Republicans. They all need to get the hell out of the country and go live in Russia, China, or North Korea where it is more to your liking. Republicans are disgusting.

    • jon

      June 7, 2020 at 2:47 am

      Well that is very tolerant of you! What’s disgusting is demoRATS. I am fine with sharing this wonderful country. But the problem is, the demoRAT party has declined into Nazism! My advice, get a copy of the constitution and the bill of rights…. study the founding documents until you no longer want to kill everyone not like you!

  • James R. Miles

    June 8, 2020 at 11:23 am

    They don’t call this place Floridah for nothing. Rick Scott is the perfect example of the average Floridah voter. They are too stupid to realize a crook when the see one. Kneeling is a form of protest permitted by the U.S. Constitution, even the Supreme Court agrred with this. The GOP does NOT read the Constitution muchless understand it. That especially goes for Rick Scott and Marco and don’t forget tRump!

Comments are closed.


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