Sports
Why DeMar DeRozan wants more athletes to open up on mental health, show their ‘Clark Kent side’
The vulnerability is DeMar DeRozan’s superpower.
It’s there throughout his new autobiography, “Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm,” in which the six-time NBA All-Star and newest member of the Sacramento Kings bares his soul in the kind of way we rarely see from elite athletes.
“(Vulnerability) goes a long way, especially for us as athletes being looked at like we’re superheroes at times,” DeRozan said in a recent phone interview. “You never really get to see the Clark Kent side. Everybody always sees us saving the day (on the court), doing something heroic and not knowing that, at the end of the day when you take off that suit, there’s a lot of things that you carry.”
It’s one thing to pull the cape off just a little bit, though, only to put it back on when the uncomfortableness of sharing one’s truth publicly sets in. But the 35-year-old — whose 3:06 a.m. tweet about his battle with depression on Feb. 7, 2018, inspired a real conversation about mental health and athletes, and who quietly boasts one of the best resumes of any player in today’s game — stays true to those real roots in his 210-page book that was written with co-author Dave Zarum.
From his time growing up in Compton, Calif., where loss and pain became themes that still haunt him and he “never dreamed” of sharing his emotions, to the highs and lows of his NBA career and everything in between, DeRozan reminds us all that money doesn’t, in fact, buy happiness in his three-dimensional look at life as a wildly successful pro athlete. His decision to share deeply personal stories — from his childhood spent surrounded by gang culture to the loss of his father, Frank, in February 2021, to his own journey as the father of five kids and much more — amounts to a public therapy session. And to hear DeRozan tell it, that choice to open all the way up to the world was easy once he learned about the impact that vulnerability could make.
It all goes back to that tweet.
As DeRozan lay awake during those early morning hours, having returned home to his native Los Angeles for that year’s All-Star Weekend in those final few months with the Toronto Raptors, the stress of it all had become too much to bear. He was overwhelmed by the obligations that came with a hometown return, exhausted by the cross-country trips he’d been making to visit his ailing father in Los Angeles, unhappy that he hadn’t seen his two daughters in more than a month and desperate for a break that wasn’t coming anytime soon. On that first night back home, when he was scheduled to attend a Kendrick Lamar concert and the annual All-Star party hosted by TNT’s Kenny Smith, DeRozan decided instead to sit for hours alone in his basement with his thoughts.
“This depression get the best of me…” he eventually tweeted before going to sleep.
This depression get the best of me…
— DeMar DeRozan (@DeMar_DeRozan) February 17, 2018
When he awoke later that morning, DeRozan was confused and stunned by the global reaction to his sentiment. Why would sharing his battle with something so common — depression disorders affect approximately 280 million people worldwide — cause such a stir? The truth, as he knows now, is that the response was much more about the messenger than the message.
Prominent athletes had, by and large, historically steered clear of discussing this once-taboo topic. But DeRozan’s choice to share his struggles sparked change, with Kevin Love opening up about his mental health less than a month later and non-NBA stars such as Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles and so many others following suit in the years to come.
By the summer of 2019, the NBA had expanded its mental-health program by requiring teams to employ mental-health professionals who would be anonymously available to players. The growth has continued from there, with players across the league taking advantage of the kinds of services that weren’t provided when DeRozan entered the league out of USC in 2009.
As DeRozan discussed at length with The Athletic, he takes great pride in this off-court part of his legacy. And the best part, for DeRozan and the Kings team that gave him a three-year, $74 million deal in the trade with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs that brought him to town in early July, is that he’s still going strong on the court too.
(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.)
DeMar, as you know, most athletes are not comfortable sharing like this. Whether it’s your childhood or the loss you’ve been through, your family life now, all these different things. So what was your journey to get to a place where you were comfortable letting the world in, and why did you ultimately decide that you were willing to?
I wasn’t always completely comfortable. It was one of those courageous things where you kind of take a step back and look at something being bigger than you, in a sense, especially when I realized the impact you can have on helping others. It is a journey. I’m still far from perfect, but you see how much you inspire the next person who you probably never even came across, never even met, by showing any sort of vulnerability.
In that vein, I’ll follow your lead and share the fact that I suffered from depression pretty severely in high school, so I definitely appreciate the value in you sharing your story. But when you talk about making an impact on people you didn’t know, I wondered if there were stories that you didn’t share that played a part in your choice.
Yeah, I remember when I was playing with San Antonio (after the Raptors traded him to the Spurs in the summer of 2018), I was walking off the court, warming up before the game in Denver, and a guy pulled me off to the side. He was sitting courtside. I didn’t know if he worked for the organization or what, but he just stopped me. I could tell through his conversation and through his greeting with me that whatever he was going to say was very heartfelt. And I just remember him telling me (how) his son was very suicidal. I was one of his favorite players. And when I came out telling my story, it changed his whole perspective, and he opened up and spoke about a lot of things he was dealing with. Something like that hit extremely hard. I didn’t know the dude, and I’ve never seen him again. It’s crazy because every time I go to Denver, I always see if I’m gonna see the same guy again. But I just remember him pulling me to the side telling me that my story helped save this son from being extremely suicidal. So that was definitely touching.
DeMar DeRozan, who played for the Bulls last season, is a six-time All-Star with over 23,500 career points. (Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
The book made me think about the NBA and where the league is now on the mental-health front. But how are you feeling about that ecosystem now and the infrastructure for players?
You’ve seen it grow ever since guys like myself, Kevin Love and countless others came out and started to share. The infrastructure that they started to build of making it accessible for us to have therapy, having therapists on-site to travel with us on a daily basis. It becomes 100 percent confidential for the players. It’s not someone who’s connected to the front office, where the therapist will go back and say (what was shared). They really (built) something that made guys feel comfortable to have access on a daily basis to have help. I had teammates recently, playing in Chicago, where before practice, after practice or even on the road, they’ll go to dinner with the therapist, and it really helped them through a lot of things. I never asked the specifics of things that they talked about, but it was used frequently. You see the connection that players have with the therapist, whether it was at breakfast before practice, laughing and joking about certain things, (interactions) that give a comfort for guys to be able to go and handle whatever business they need to handle within.
It wasn’t even a thing when I first came into the league. You had all your other necessities when it came to sports as far as weight training, nutritionists, film guys, workout guys. But that’s kind of where it stopped. You didn’t really have the personal infrastructure that was needed for certain players, especially young players.
I thought it was pretty neat that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich wrote the foreword. You talk in the book about how he was really there for you when your father died, and then I heard over the summer that — because of the relationship you have there — the Spurs made it clear to you in free agency that they were willing to help you get where you wanted to go if a scenario like that emerged.
(Per league sources, the Spurs showed interest in bringing DeRozan back to San Antonio to aid in the Victor Wembanyama era. But the Spurs also made it clear they would be willing to help him get to the team of his choice by helping facilitate a three-team trade. DeRozan, who played for the Spurs from 2018 to 2021 before signing with the Bulls, was sent to Sacramento in a deal that moved Harrison Barnes to the Spurs and Chris Duarte, along with two second-round picks, to the Bulls.)
Yeah, (that gesture) just shows the character of not just Pop, but the whole Spurs organization. Everything about that place — it’s hard to even find words to put it into detail. They treated me like I was Tim Duncan. And that’s just the amount of respect, love and admiration I’m gonna forever have toward Pop and that whole organization. There’s a lot of things they didn’t have to do for me, and there’s a lot of things I didn’t even ask for. You’ve got to give them all the credit, because they’re definitely special people.
I mean, I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with him (after the Raptors trade). It was “I didn’t trade you. I traded for you.” That kind of stuck, and from there on out, he just challenged me to be an even better player than what I was in ways that I never could have expected. And it was such a necessity for me for my career, for longevity, understanding and the knowledge that he really gave to me. It meant a lot, on and off the court. That’s what makes it so special, and that’s why I had to have him do the foreword for the book.
You’re pretty open in the book about wanting to play in your hometown. But this summer, it sounds like that interest wasn’t reciprocated by the Lakers or the Clippers. There’s a pretty strong argument to be made that both teams could use you, so how did that hit you?
Yeah, you just learn how to deal with it from a business standpoint. Obviously I have my selfish reasons of wanting to be able to play at home, (but) sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. And sometimes it probably isn’t the best decision for me either. So after that didn’t happen, I didn’t dwell on it. I wasn’t mad. They made their choice, and I just left it at that.
GO DEEPER
Hollinger: Don’t expect rings, but Kings’ floor-raising DeMar DeRozan trade adds up
On the Lakers’ side, it sounded like LeBron James and Anthony Davis were pretty big on the idea. But just like three years ago (before the Lakers did the Russell Westbrook deal), it didn’t go anywhere. Did it seem like it was going to happen this time?
Yeah. Yeah, it did. But after the last time, the last situation, you really don’t get your hopes all the way up. I think the first time before I went to Chicago (in 2021), that was the closest it had been. And even for me, I thought it was going to be that. But when that didn’t happen, I didn’t have high hopes because you already see how it could play out.
This Kings move has been received pretty well across the league, but I still feel like folks aren’t truly gripping how good you still are at this age. To that point, I looked at a stat the other day that blew me away: If you score at a similar rate for the Kings in the next three seasons that you did the past three seasons with the Bulls, you’d be pushing for top 10 all-time in NBA scoring (DeRozan is 31st, just 86 points behind Stephen Curry).
That sort of history doesn’t really reconcile with the way you’re talked about, though. So with that in mind, how do you feel about the discussion that surrounds you in terms of your career?
To be honest, I think I just look at it like I want to give it everything I’ve got while I’m doing it. And when it’s all said and done, I’ll let everything speak for itself, you know what I mean? I don’t try to overdo it. I just try to stay consistent. Whenever I choose to hang it up, I want to be able to say I gave it everything I had on the court, off the court and be able to just really sit back and soak it all in.
How do you see the Kings’ situation and what it can become? We all know they’re not typically on players’ short lists in free agency, and you already go down as the highest-profile free agent pickup in their history.
No, it definitely took me a minute (to consider them). To tell you that they were on my radar beforehand — no, they definitely weren’t. But sometimes you’ve gotta let the fog clear to make a decision, and that’s kind of what I did. You try to look at the landscape to make everything make sense, and where you feel you’re going somewhere where you’re getting what you deserve and you have an opportunity to compete at the highest level. Both ends of that were met. And looking at it, it just felt like it was the perfect opportunity.
I am extremely excited, just for the opportunity of feeling like I could be the missing piece that they needed. Me just being a fan of the game, I pay attention to everything that comes about in our league. And you see the excitement that they had two years ago (when they made the playoffs for the first time since 2006). You see the fan base. You see the winning culture that they were fighting towards. And anything (related to) winning — when you see it from the outside, it lets you know as a competitor and as a winner, that it’s something you want to be a part of. Even when they had the theme of lighting the beam, it just shows you how connected they were to the fans. The organization was connected with the players in a sense of doing everything we possibly can to compete at the highest level to win. And it’s just something I see myself being a part of and feel like I can take it over the top.
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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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