Sports
'One of the worst things': How Grigor Dimitrov shook off 'Baby Fed' label to find himself
A decade has passed since Grigor Dimitrov announced himself to the wider tennis world. It was the summer of 2014, and in the space of a few weeks, Dimitrov won the title at Queen’s and beat defending champion Andy Murray at Wimbledon, to reach the semifinals. He was 23 — gregarious, glamorous and the boyfriend of tennis royalty in Maria Sharapova.
Such was Dimitrov’s talent and magnetism that he was quickly hailed as the future of the sport. With his silky-smooth technique and single-handed backhand, he was even given the nickname “Baby Fed” — no small name to live up to, at a time when Roger Federer had already won seven of his eight Wimbledon titles.
It’s a comparison that Dimitrov came to strongly dislike.
“Honestly, I found it funny at the beginning, and then I started… not hating it but I didn’t like it because there was no point to it,” he tells The Athletic 10 years on from that spectacular summer. “We’re so different and we have some resemblances but we’re really not the same people and I think it was so unnecessary. One wish I would have for a young kid is not to be compared to someone. I think it was probably one of the worst things I had to deal with in my career.
“I never liked it and it never brought me any good. Of course I’m flattered but I always wanted to be my own person.”
Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 Wimbledon semifinal that he lost to Novak Djokovic. (Al Bello / Getty Images)
A decade on from his first Grand Slam semifinal, still the furthest he has ever gone at a major, Dimitrov’s story arc has an enticingly simple shape that is not representative of everything that constitutes it. From a distance, it appears to trace a classic case of someone being overhyped, unable to fulfil their rich potential: a player who made three Grand Slam semifinals and four further quarterfinals, but never kept the promise of winning one.
In reality, it’s more complicated, illustrated by the fact that Dimitrov will arrive at Wimbledon next week looking rejuvenated and, despite a disappointingly early exit at Queen’s last week, playing possibly the best and most consistent tennis of his career since the dog days of summer 2014. There have been notable highs as well as the crushing lows in the Bulgarian’s last decade: Dimitrov reached those other Grand Slam semifinals, at the Australian Open in 2017 and the US Open in 2019, and after that January 2017 run in Melbourne, he ended the year by winning the ATP Finals and securing a career-high ranking of No 3.
Now, he is back in the world’s top 10 for the first time in six years; 2024 has brought his first title since 2017 and a final in Miami that he reached by dismantling Carlos Alcaraz along the way.
He has been one of the tour’s most reliable performers all year, reaching the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in May to make it a last-eight appearance at all four Grand Slam tournaments, even if the nature of his ultimate exit, a heavy straight-sets defeat to Jannik Sinner, felt disappointingly reminiscent of many of his defeats in the latter stages of Grand Slams: a loss to a higher-ranked and ultimately better player.
Back in 2014, that was also the story of his Wimbledon semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic, and even if a decade on he is not the Grand Slam champion that everyone assumed he would become, at 33 that door is not yet closed. At Wimbledon, he will be among a select few top players who feels comfortable on grass.
“It’s been great so far,” he says. “I’ve done a lot of things right, and I feel in a good place.”
A strong end to 2023 foreshadowed Dimitrov’s positive 2024, including a semifinal and a final at the Shanghai and Paris Masters respectively. Those results brought him a year-end ranking of No 14, comfortably his best since 2017; in the intervening seven years, his year-end ranking has bobbed frustratingly between No 19 and No 28.
Dimitrov puts his upturn down to a combination of factors: a new coaching team; a change in mentality; and learning to best deploy the fitness and experience he has accumulated over his 16-year professional career.
Dimitrov has been working with Andy Murray’s former coach Jamie Delgado since the end of 2022, when he also brought back former charge Dani Vallverdu. Vallverdu is another of Murray’s previous coaches, and a man with whom Dimitrov has tended to enjoy his best results.
“Jamie’s been amazing,” Dimitrov says.
“He has so much experience, that he really helps me to look at myself from a different perspective. That automatically gives me a good mentality to look forward and experience the game a bit differently.”
Dimitrov adds that he’s always been self-critical, ever since he was a kid being put through his paces by his dad. “I get very hard on myself and he (Delgado) is the one who always keeps me on a good level, to navigate myself a bit more.”
A typically silky volley during his Miami Open run this year. (Michele Eve Sandberg / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The highlight of 2024 so far was a 6-2, 6-4 thumping of then Wimbledon, and now French Open, champion Alcaraz in the Miami quarter-finals in March. The shellshocked Spaniard said afterwards that: “He made me feel like I’m 13 years old. It was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don’t know what I have to do. I don’t know his weakness.”
Dimitrov laughs when reminded of the “13 years old” quote, and says it was one of those rare matches when every single thing you try comes off. Coming from as skilled a shotmaker as Dimitrov, that rarity makes for one hell of a spectacle — including drop volleys on the stretch, screaming passing shots and return winners from both wings.
“I played an amazing match, it happens — when whatever you touch turns to gold,” Dimitrov says. “They’re very rare but when they come, take them, and that was one of those matches.
“I know that when I’m playing tennis like that it’s extremely difficult to beat me. There was a reason I got to the final of that tournament.”
What’s it like being in that kind of zone? “It’s the flow, a state of mind,” Dimitrov says.
“It’s very difficult to achieve. It’s happened to me more than a few times in a career, but it’s very difficult to tap into on a daily basis. One of those things that once you’ve experienced it, it sucks when it doesn’t come again. You get so frustrated with it.
“I’ve heard so many athletes from different sports saying they’ve had it, and then they’ve never been able to have it again. I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones, that I’ve been able to do it a few times in my career.
“When you activate that mode you know nothing can go wrong.”
To get to his current state of contentment, Dimitrov has had to endure some hardships.
The match that torments him the most is a five-set loss to Nadal in the Australian Open semi-final seven years ago. Even now Dimitrov can’t understand how he didn’t win, to the point that he misremembers what actually happened. In Dimitrov’s telling, “I was 4-2 up in the fifth,” but he wasn’t — the closest he got was two break points at 4-3 which would have left him serving for the match. Both of which were saved not by Dimitrov mistakes, but by Nadal playing out of his mind.
“The match with Rafa took me seven or eight months to get over,” Dimitrov says.
“I often felt like there were invisible powers that tipped it over. I was 4-2 up in the fifth and played an amazing… there was no way I could lose the match, and yet I lost the match.”
How did he finally get over it?
“Mental strength, overall,” Dimitrov says.
Dimitrov and Nadal after that match that the Bulgarian still can’t comprehend. (Greg Wood / AFP via Getty Images)
“You try to build on your own experiences, ask yourself questions. I’ve always been a believer that you have to speak to someone — whether it’s professionals, family or friends — I think it’s a vital thing for us to do and that should come from within yourself. Talking doesn’t mean anything unless you make the first step.”
He ultimately rebounded in style, winning the 2017 ATP Finals that November — the biggest title of his career and his last until triumphing in Brisbane in January this year. Casting his mind further back, Dimitrov says that he is “a completely different person and player” from his original breakout in 2014.
The perception of him at that time was one of pure showbusiness. He was already rumoured to have dated Serena Williams when his relationship with Sharapova helped to make him one of the most talked-about players on the tour. Now, Dimitrov is philosophical about the direction his career has taken and what he’s learned from the last 10 years.
“A lot has changed,” he says. “There comes a point where I had to make some tough decisions on and off the court.
“Sometimes with my coaching team, sometimes there were things I had to focus on outside of tennis. It’s life. For me, part of growing as a human is you have basic experiences, which I didn’t really have, being a tennis player.
“I always wanted to make sure that I did have those things and maybe that’s why at times they were taking me away from the game. But I definitely don’t regret it.”
Is that something away from the court?
“Things that don’t have much to do with the sport itself, which of course takes your mind away. Once your mind is going in a different direction, inevitably you get to a different place.”
Having spent so long navigating fulfilment on and off the court, does Dimitrov feel he has the right balance now?
“I think so, but I don’t like to say balance because what does that really mean?” he asks.
“To be the best in the sport you have to be obsessed, that’s how it is. To a point where you don’t have much margin for error. So when you look from that perspective, it’s pretty difficult.
“But I think I’m navigating myself better with things, and I also know that at the moment I’m way closer to the end than the beginning, and that also gives you a very different perspective.”
Because of Dimitrov’s geniality off the court — he’s a very popular locker-room presence — and his lack of killer instinct in some of his biggest matches, it’s been tempting to characterise him as someone lacking ruthlessness. He doesn’t feel that way.
“If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be here right now. And I think to have it something must have happened with you — like a bad experience that pushes you over the edge, that after you’re like, ‘OK, we’re on now.’
“I had that, of course. Both on and off the court. I had many of those experiences and I’m very grateful for them. Some of them have been extremely hard but it’s part of the game and part of life. I always link the game, our sport, to our life. I think they go hand-in-hand — it teaches you life as well.”
Sharapova and Dimitrov at Wimbledon in 2018. (TPN / Getty Images)
Part of that hand-in-hand relationship has led him to consider his views on what it means to be selfish and ruthless as a tennis player, whether in pursuit of wider goals or individual points, while still knowing how to behave. “Selfishness (for an athlete) goes without saying but it’s a fine line between it being a bad kind and a good kind,” he says. “I could have been more selfish with some decisions I had to make, but I’m contradicting myself a little bit because I always wanted to grow as a person, and now I’m kind of bitching on it.
“Ruthlessness, of course, that’s how it is. You want to win. You can be the nicest guy off the court but on it you can be a total… That’s the bit I find, I don’t know if it’s difficult with some players but I make sure I say something because I think it’s also vital for our sport to have a good etiquette in that way.”
Dimitrov takes his role as one of the more experienced heads on the tour seriously. He is part of the ATP Player Advisory Council for the second year running and outside of Djokovic is the oldest player in the world’s top 20. Dimitrov believes that tapping into all the experience he has accumulated means that “of late I’ve been able to win some matches maybe I shouldn’t”.
He also says he’s learned not to bother competing unless he’s ready to give everything. “The place where I’m at in my career, I have the luxury that I can pick and choose,” he says. That also allows him to be always looking for an edge, with more time to put any benefits into practice. He’s recently started working with a sleep consultant to help with one of the most important, and often overlooked, areas of a player’s wellbeing.
Outside of tennis, Dimitrov enjoys pursuing his passion for art collection. “I have developed a very good relationship with some galleries — in England, in LA, so it’s been a really interesting time for me,” he says. Living in Monte Carlo, Dimitrov also enjoys driving cars and motorbikes; the relentlessness of the tennis circuit means he can only get back to his native Bulgaria two or three times a year.
For the moment, Dimitrov’s focus is on maintaining the good start he’s made to 2024 at Wimbledon. “This period is always a bit more tricky, with a few tough tournaments,” he says. “It’s the time of the year when you have to give everything you have.”
(Top photos: Shi Tang; Paul Gillam / Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)
Sports
Eileen Gu reflects on decision to leave Team USA for China: ‘A lot of people just don’t understand’
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Eileen Gu released a statement on social media Monday, reflecting on her controversial decision to compete for Team China despite being born and raised in the U.S.
Gu’s statement tied the decision back to her passion for promoting women’s sports, and encouraging young girls to pursue sports.
“I gave my first speech on women in sports and title IX when I was 11 years old. I talked about being the only girl on my ski team, and, despite attending an all-girls’ school from Monday through Friday, becoming best friends with my teammates on the weekends through the common language of sport,” Gu wrote on Instagram.
Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photos after the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“At the same time, I was made painfully aware of the lack of representation – at age 9, I felt that I was somehow representing all women every time I stepped in the terrain park. Landing tricks was about more than progression … it was about disproving the derisive implication of what it meant to ‘ski like a girl.’”
Gu went on to express gratitude for the one season in which she did compete for the U.S.
“When I was 15, I announced my decision to compete for China. At the time, I had spent one season on the US team, and had been lucky enough to meet my heroes in person. I am forever grateful for that season, and continue to maintain a close relationship with the team. I had spent every summer in China since I was 8 setting up summer camps on trampoline and dry slope for kids and adults, ranging from 7 to 47 years old, so I knew the industry was tiny. I felt like I knew everyone,” she added.
“Skiing for Team China meant the opportunity to uplift others through the universal culture of sport, and to introduce freeskiing to hundreds of millions of people who had never heard of it, especially with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics around the corner.”
Gu’s statement concluded by acknowledging that certain people “don’t understand” her decision to compete for China over the U.S., while insisting the choice maximized the impact she would have.
“I can look back now, at 22, and tell 12 year old Eileen that there are now terrain parks full of little girls, who will never doubt their place in the sport. I can tell 15 year old me that there are now millions of girls who have started skiing since then, in China and worldwide,” Gu wrote.
“A lot of people won’t understand or believe that I made a decision to create the greatest amount of positive impact on the world stage that I could, at this age, given my interests and passions. Three golds and six medals later, I can confidently say was once a dream is now a reality.”
Gu has become a target for global criticism this Olympics for her decision to represent China while remaining silent on the country’s alleged human rights abuses.
In an interview with Time magazine, Gu was asked her thoughts on China’s alleged persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
“I haven’t done the research. I don’t think it’s my business. I’m not going to make big claims on my social media,” Gu answered.
“I’m just more of a skeptic when it comes to data in general. … So, it’s not like I can read an article and be like, ‘Oh, well, this must be the truth.’ I need to have a ton of evidence. I need to maybe go to the place, maybe talk to 10 primary source people who are in a location and have experienced life there.
“Then I need to go see images. I need to listen to recordings. I need to think about how history affects it. Then I need to read books on how politics affects it. This is a lifelong search. It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece for any agenda.”
More controversy surrounding Gu erupted after The Wall Street Journal reported that Gu and another American-born athlete who now competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025.
Gu is the highest-paid Winter Olympics athlete in the world, making an estimated $23 million in 2025 alone due to partnerships with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China and western companies.
Her alignment with China prompted criticism from many Americans this Olympics, including Vice President J.D. Vance.
“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”
Later, when Gu was asked if she feels “like a bit of a punching bag for a certain strand of American politics at the moment,” she said she does.
“I do,” she said. “So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So, it’s not really about what they think it’s about.
“And, also, because I win. Like, if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Gu has claimed she was “physically assaulted” for the decision.
“The police were called. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had my dorm robbed,” Gu told The Athletic.
“I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever.”
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From Hollywood actors to Olympic athletes and politicians, California’s newest Hall of Fame class runs the gamut in talent and achievements.
Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former governor/action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic champions Janet Evans and Carl Lewis, authors Riane Eisler and Terry McMillan, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, groundbreaking ensemble Mariachi Reyne de Los Ángeles and former state Democratic leader John L. Burton all earned a spot into the assembly of distinct Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
This class, the 19th in state history, will be formally enshrined during a ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento on March 19 as a “celebration of their contributions to civic life, creativity, and social progress,” according to Newsom’s office.
The inductees “have reshaped our culture and our communities. Resilient and innovative, these leaders and luminaries represent the best of the California spirit,” Newsom said in a statement.
To be inducted, candidates must have lived in California for at least five years and “have made achievements benefiting the state, nation and world,” according to the California Hall of Fame website. To date, 166 Californians have been selected by three governors since 2006.
Schwarzenegger, 78, served as the state’s 38th governor and last Republican head of state from 2003 to 2011. His renaissance man biography includes a career as a body builder, highlighted by his Mr. Universe titles, action film success, political stardom and even tabloid-fodder infidelity.
Curtis, 67, a Santa Monica native, is among Hollywood’s elite and teamed with Schwarzenegger in the action blockbuster “True Lies” in 1994. Her acting career dates to 1977, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Evans, 54, is a four-time Olympic gold medal swimmer and Fullerton native who attended Placentia El Dorado High School, Stanford University and USC. She serves as chief athletic officer for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Lewis, 64, is considered by many one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. The track star won 10 medals, nine of them gold, in four Olympics.
Eisler, 88, and McMillan, 74, added multiple bestsellers to this Hall of Fame class.
Eisler’s critically acclaimed “The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future” examines roughly 20,000 years of partnership between men and women and male domination over the last 5,000 years. The futurist, cultural historian and Holocaust survivor who has degrees in sociology and law from UCLA said she was informed of the honor last year by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and recently was honored by the Austrian government with its Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.
“I am very honored at this time in my life to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame,” Eisler wrote in an email. “I have worked tirelessly to help create a better world, and firmly believe that a new paradigm, a new way of looking at our world and our place in it, is crucial.”
McMillan has written a series of smash hits, including a couple that became major studio films in the ‘90s, “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got her Groove Back,” centered on Black women’s voices.
Matsuhisa, 76, know for his iconic Japanese restaurant Nobu, which has six locations in California, owns businesses across five continents.
Mariachi Reyna de Los Ángeles, founded in South El Monte, rewrote the rules of music, becoming the first all-woman mariachi ensemble that has entertained for more than three decades.
Burton, the former chair of the California Democratic Party who died last year at 92, boasted a political career that included time in the California State Assembly and Senate and the U.S. House.
“This year’s class embodies the very best of California — creativity, resilience and a spirit of community,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “These honorees remind us that innovation and courage flourish when people are lifted up by those around them.”
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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.
They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.
Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)
Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians
Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.
Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.
And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.
“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.
Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.
Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting
Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.
“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.
“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”
Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.
“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”
Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel
Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.
Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.
“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.
“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”
This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’
“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”
Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.
And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.
One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.
Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.
(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025).
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence
And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.
“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?
“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”
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