JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG MARRONE
Thursday, August 27, 2020
(Opening Statement) “Yeah I appreciate everyone today and their understanding of the situation that we’re in and just to try and give you some insight of what took place. We met as a team together; coaches, players, myself. We addressed a lot of issues where we find ourselves back to where we were a couple of months ago discussing these things. It’s always interesting that a lot of individuals get up there, including myself, and we share personal stories of how things affected us in our lives, we share what we think is needed for change. And I think we have, as a matter of fact, I know we have a good understanding of what’s not acceptable in our country today. Today, decisions to go out and practice, I’m sure there [were] players that didn’t want to practice, maybe there [were] coaches, maybe it was everyone? I don’t know. But what I do know is that we’re able to express a lot of opinions, a lot of emotions. At the end of the day, somehow, [we] come together and go out there. And I think that somewhere along the line we’ve got to figure that out, because obviously we want to do something that’s actionable, something that could create a change. I can’t even explain or really put into words the emotion of the sadness, frustration, confusion. And when I talk about confusion, please don’t ever think that I’m not committed to the support and making this change. Where I beat myself up is like when you’re in a position of leadership or you have a voice within a team, you want to be able to show a path, show a way. You listen and you just … Right now, I don’t know what that path is. But we are committed as team to finding it and committing to taking the time to get it done. I think that people have a lot of questions, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to answer them, I don’t know whether we’re ready to answer them. I think there’s a lot more discussions to go on. Like I said before, as a white guy, a white man in this country, I can’t even imagine what it’s like. And I’ll never say I know what it’s like. But I do know this, the fire and intensity to make a difference, grows. Every time I hear the stories from our players, what they’ve gone [through]. I think the same thing, continue to support them and explore that avenue where we can understand what we’ve got to get done. And I know I’m rambling. I told players that a lot of times, we’re so competitive … [I ask myself] Did I help anyone? Did I make something better? Did I stand for something? Did I actually participate in trying to get change? So, it’s a very emotional time, I don’t know. I mean, I was just continuing to ramble. So, there’s a lot of emotion that I’m going through right now and a lot of emotion that we’re all going through right now.”
(On an indication that the day would be different) “I think when I was first made aware of Jacob Blake and got that information just on my own, in other words, no one saying it to me. I think like first, just went through a lot of emotion. I don’t know the facts or know what really went on and I think the only thing I’ve been able to know is from the media. I think at any time these things go on, I think I do realize that there’s going to be a reaction and I’d be naïve not to think so. Today, coming in, I knew it wasn’t going to be an ordinary day. As a head coach, I wanted to make sure that—I knew that silence is wrong, I knew that listening is important and I knew that creating an opportunity for us to speak is [important]—get up there and talk about your feelings when you’re on a team. I mean, to answer your question, did I think something was going to happen? Was I prepared for it? Not prepared in a way of knowing what I was going to say or anything of that nature. I’m not that type of guy. I’m more of just talking from my heart and talking about how I feel and that’s what I did with the team.”
(On being aware of the platform the players have and their messages not being heard) “I do, from the conversations that we’ve had. I can’t speak for any of the players on anything that’s going on. But I think that we do understand that. We have people that have been in the NFL for a long period of time—and again, I’m not speaking for anyone in the organization, I’m speaking for myself—the coaches and players that—I mean, when is enough enough? How long is this going to keep going on? I mean, we draw attention to it, here we are again. I think that I’ve learned a lot from these players, like I’ve said before, I’ve learned a lot. There was talk when George Floyd happened, there were some people that spoke about, ‘Hey listen, we’re going to find ourselves back in this situation again.’ It’s hard to really, really comprehend that. You would think that there’s enough emotion, enough support, enough people to understand what the right thing is, whatever is decided upon and goes, that there would be attention to it. So, I think that what you mentioned is the greatest challenge. What is actionable? I started thinking about things, writing things down. I kind of told the players, kind of to remind myself, I’ve got to educate myself on how to understand. What are the avenues to go on? And we touched on some, whether it be voting, whether it be meeting with politicians, and meeting with [others]. But for change, what has to be done? What are the laws that are either being put forth that we feel are working for us or aren’t working for us? And if it is there, why isn’t it working for us? I think that I just have so many things and I think, I want to say this again, that’s where that confusion—when I use the word confusion, that’s what it is for me. I’m just not as educated as I’d like to be or able to articulate things as well as I’d like to. But I’m trying to find that path and I think that’s what we’re all trying to do.”
(On what he learned about the team today to still go out there and get work done) “Yeah, when you get a question like that, the first thing that goes through my mind is [that] I don’t want to take away from the two-hour conversation that we had. I don’t want to misrepresent anything we’re about, as a team, together. But I would like to point out something I talked about before, I think that for those two hours, there were people that felt like—maybe we shouldn’t practice or should. I don’t know what the numbers are, I don’t know any of that stuff, the team knows that. But at the end of the day, I know they’re 100 percent, as far as what they were feeling prior to these meetings. But to be able to get in there and be able to voice what our opinion is and voice what we think we should do. And at the end of the day, it showed the unity of being out there. It’s powerful and I think that it’s a characteristic that—a hope that we can use to get us going forward. Because like I said, this affects everyone. And what I’ve learned in so many different ways emotionally, it takes you in different paths and different emotions. And to be able to work together and try to be able to do something. Because maybe no one is thinking about it, I know when we speak as a team—and I’m sure players won’t mind this—we know what we want as the end result. We know we want equality. We know we want justice. We know those things. The path I’m going and what steps to take, those are the answers that we do not have now, but I can promise you that we will work together and find them.”
(On describing the atmosphere and the emotions of the morning meeting) “Yeah, I think, again, I can’t. You’re going to be able to have players that can give you at least what they feel or maybe talk about their teammates. But for me, I can only talk about me, I guess when we’ve had these conversations earlier, there’s a level of where you’re upset. For me, there’s a higher level of frustration this time around. A higher level of—here we are again. Why did this—why are we here again? Knowing that whatever we’ve done between then and now—it’s kind of like what John said in his first question. What are we doing? Why haven’t we gotten anywhere? So, I think, for me, it comes down to … Like I said before, these stories that you hear individually, it’s not a battle of whose story is worse, where that is. What those stories do, if you listen, it just, it gives you more maybe more empathy, but it gives you more emotion, or more—[shoot] what am I looking for—where you want to do more. It just gets to that level, you know, gosh, I mean, when are we just going to say, ‘Hey enough is enough, we’ve protested, we’ve done this, we’ve done that.’ What are the actionable steps that we can really make change that’s not going to keep putting us back on square one, on square one, on square one? But again, when I say this, these are the things that I’m feeling, I’m not speaking for anyone else on the team or anyone else.”
JAGUARS WIDE RECEIVER CHRIS CONLEY
Thursday, August 27, 2020
(Opening Statement) “Man what a day. Today, the building and the locker room was somewhat of a microcosm of what’s been going on in this country for weeks and months. But the outcome could be taken in multiple ways. You could take it in a way to say, ‘Oh they weren’t united, they were split.’ The vote on whether to practice or not, or really just to continue the conversation, came down to one vote: 36-37. And you can look at that as a negative, or you can look at the fact that the discourse was happening and the disagreement was happening, but people decided to band together and stick together. And see the positives in that, you could look at the people who don’t have the same experience or background as other people in the locker room, and you say, ‘Hey, I want to sit down with you and talk and come to a better understanding of what it is that makes you feel so strongly.’ That’s a positive. Quite frankly, if I’m honest, I don’t know exactly how I feel right now. There’s a sense of sadness but at the same time, when something happens a lot, you can grow numb to it. And that’s not a place that I, or anyone else in this building want to be in. And quite frankly, we’ve had conversations time and time again of what can we do that’s actionable. And we’ve come up with ideas. But ultimately, the thing that we have all agreed on is that we can’t stop pressing until things happen. It’s not something that will happen overnight, but we can’t allow ourselves to let life happen and us to forget. So, I’ll answer the questions that you have, but that being said, everyone doesn’t have all the answers right now but we’re doing our best to grapple with the events of the past week and really the past months, years, and experiences of our lives.”
(On the frustration of not seeing results and the platform to continue that message) “I think there’s always frustration and always sadness when something like this happens. But at the end of the day, we have to know that this is going to continue to happen until there is true reform, until there is defunding, and by defunding I don’t say just getting rid of all accountability and law enforcement, but I mean putting funds into communities that can be a first response to things instead of police. People who can be there for family disputes, people who can be there for mental health crises, people who are trained in de-escalation, before violence and these things are followed. Until concrete things are made, a plan, so that these things have levels of interactions before police, this is going to continue to happen in some of these neighborhoods and these communities. So, I would say that it’s more sadness than frustration because we knew that this wouldn’t change overnight. Obviously, we always mourn the loss of life and that’s the thing that I really want people to get to a point of realizing that this is about life. This isn’t about priors, this isn’t about, ‘Did he do this? Did he do that? Was he armed? Or did he not do this? Or that?’ This is about a life. And who are you to put a value on a life? Who am I to put a value on a life? And if we can—we need to get to that baseline of saying that a life matters. And that it has value beyond what his warrant was, beyond what his circumstances were, what he looked like, what was going on, whether he listened or not. And that’s the baseline that I want to get to people, that frustrates me more. The people arguing that he deserved it, the people arguing that he should’ve done this, he should’ve done that. He shouldn’t have died. He shouldn’t have died.”
(On whether those were the same words and emotions that he shared with his teammates) “Partly. You have to have a certain level of just control over your emotions if you want to convey a message sometimes. And it can’t come from a place of anger, as angry as you can be and as frustrated as you can be. If you want people to receive what you’re saying, it can’t come from a place of anger. And so, that’s one of the things that I told them this morning. You have every right to be upset, you have every right to be angry, but when we come together and we say a message as a team, it can’t come from that place if we want to be received. And part of our talk this morning was about what we can do right now. We’ve talked a lot as a team, and we’ve put some things into motion of long-term goals and plans that we have here in the city of Jacksonville. But quite frankly, those are long-term goals and plans. But this morning, we talked about some actionable things that we as a locker room can do now, conversations that we can have now. And that’s really where our meeting this morning took a turn, was let’s look at what we can do here right now. We might not be able to affect the whole world, but we can do something here, where we’re at.”
(On expectations from the players if another incident occurs during the season) “The difference between the NFL and other major league sports machines throughout the country is that they’re looking for your replacement here at all times and they will replace you and the show will go on without you. And until the people in the NFL who are irreplaceable decide that they’re going to step back and they’re going to hang it up for a week, two weeks, whatever it may be, I don’t foresee that happening. I think you have great leaders in this league, you have guys who have a voice and who want to be heard and who are willing to make that sacrifice. I believe I’m one of them. But until those figures who are the face of the league decide that and people rally behind them, I don’t think you see that, I don’t think you see that from us. And I hate to say that, I hate to say that, I wish I could say with confidence that people in this league would band together for the least of these. Even the people that, they might not have the same experiences as them and say, ‘Hey, I didn’t grow up like you, I don’t feel the same things you do, but because we’re at this point right now, I will stand with you, or I will sit with you. I don’t necessarily have that confidence in those people in that position. And that’s unfortunate, that’s unfortunate. You see the leaders and people in other leagues who stand up and say that they’re sitting down. And those are the guys, those are the Lebron [James],, those are the [Stephen] Curry’s, those are the guys that are at the top of their game and the face of their league. The same thing would need to happen in the NFL for that to happen. And until then, I’m not sure.”
(On whether he’s talking about the faces of this league, quarterbacks. And whether the NFL should coordinate with other major league sports during this time) “I think that anything’s possible. I think that it’s going to take a lot of volition out of those guys and a lot of—you know, that is a bold statement and a bold step to take. And I understand some of the reasons why people are not apt to make those decisions. My first two years in the NFL, I probably had the same exact outlook that a majority of these young guys in this building have. I was afraid for my job. I was afraid for my shot. I had made it to this stage, and I wasn’t letting it go. I wasn’t going to let anything distract me. And it wasn’t until my third year in this league, where I had the game taken away from me, that I realized this is who I am without the game. I’m okay if this doesn’t happen, these are more important things beyond this. And so, I think that it’s possible. I understand how painstakingly hard it’s going to be for those guys, because of the position that they’re in. But if a statement is going to be made by this league, in solidarity, and everyone is standing up, it’s got to start with them. If we’re going to put pressure on the people in this country who make change for accountability, it’s got to start with them.”
(On what it will take to get those guys to take action) “A hell of a lot of courage. The problem with the league is the NFL is a very large league. You have a lot of guys on a lot of different teams, a lot of different backgrounds, not everyone knows everyone, even people who are of that significant status—not all of them know each other. It’s a little bit different in the NBA. A lot of those guys do know each other and if they don’t know each other directly, they know someone who knows someone that they’ve played with. These conversations would be good conversations to be had by a lot of those guys. But at the same time, you want people who will be most affected by these decisions and the conversation, too. You know, some of these guys have the money that if they decided to sit out, they wouldn’t really be hurt. Whereas a lot of people would be strongly affected by that decision. And they need to know that, as a whole, how that’s going to affect people. You would hope that it wouldn’t negatively affect people and they wouldn’t just turn a blind eye to it and move on. But given the history of this league, when people decide to strike or sit out, it’s next man up. They fill that spot and they just move on. So, what would it take? It would take someone of notoriety standing up and calling on other people of notoriety and saying ‘Hey we want to get something done. Let’s talk. Let’s find this message. Let’s find the actionable things that people can do to change and let’s put pressure on them right now. Let’s put pressure on them right now in any way that we can. Let’s use the platform while we have it, because this isn’t forever. The platform—we won’t have this platform forever. Not everyone will care forever, so they’ve got to use it. Because his voice isn’t quite the same as mine, it’s not the same. They say in this league things are fair but not equal. And that’s just how it is. With the quarterbacks, it’s fair, but it’s not equal. They have that power and we can challenge them to use it, to champion other peoples’ voices.”
JAGUARS WIDE RECEIVER DJ CHARK JR.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
(On emotions over the last 24 hours) “So, I wasn’t really too much aware of all the situations because I haven’t been on Twitter and that’s kind of like young peoples’ news outlet. So, I hadn’t really seen too much until this morning. It was brought to my attention as well as the rest of the team. Today is the first day that I saw the video. And for me personally, I can’t speak for everyone, but it gets to the point to where I feel like I’ve—you see one, you’ve seen them all, because it’s always the same situation. And we stand up and it happens again and again. And today, I commend Coach [Marrone] for bringing this to our attention this morning. And he gave us the whole morning, we all talked about it, we got a lot of frustration off of our chests, we looked for answers we—and we still have more. We still have more talking to do, it’s definitely not close to being over. Ultimately, he gave us the decision as players that if we wanted to practice, it’s on us, if not he understands. And we went to the locker room, players only, and we talked about it, we all had our differences. And whether you were on the side of practicing or whether you were on the side of not practicing, we came to an agreement that we would make a vote and whatever side is the side then we [were] all going to respect that and we were going to respect that decision as a team, we were going to do it. It was a really, really, really close vote, I’m not going to say who was on what side, but we decided that as a team, we’re not going to let 5 or 10 people go out there and practice. We’re going to practice together and that’s what we did. And I think as a team, we took a big step today. And by practicing, by no means are we not being aware of the situation, we are deeply saddened by the situation and we’re going to take the rest of this day to continue to talk about it.”
(On the concern of games being cancelled moving forward with the chance of another incident happening) “I’m not concerned, honestly speaking, if that’s the situation, I respect it. If that’s what’s going to get us answers, I respect it, I just want answers. Obviously, this is the way I live, [the way] I earn my livelihood. But if this is the way to come to a conclusion and the answer to stop all of this police brutality, I’d do it in a heartbeat. This personally affects me because I’ve been seeing this since I was a kid. I’ve seen instances where a man in Winnfield, Louisiana –where my mom is from, I forgot how old I was— got tased while he was in handcuffs, tased multiple times, died. It made CNN, we had celebrities come march, and they pushed the dates back of the trial. Eventually the [police officer] got off and we never heard of it again. So, if now a situation like this happens and the NFL [were to] say we’ll stop, or the leaders were to interfere and say, ‘We’re going to stop football until we get answers.’ 100 percent we’re getting answers.”
(On the answers he’s looking for and results of progress) “From talking to my teammates today, one of the big things is a lot of people talk about these cameras being on and off. I think that’s something that we need to get a universal for everyone. Today, I was made aware of that the police departments don’t all follow the same structure. And I feel like if you’re going to be a policeman, you should follow police—the same structure in the United States, whatever that structure may be. I think everyone should be held accountable under the same umbrella, kind of like in the NFL, every player on every team is held under the same umbrella. Personally, I would like—answers to me, would be arrest. I just can’t get behind the idea that you can commit a crime—that since growing up I’ve been told that’s the ultimate crime, taking someone else’s life—and you can commit that crime and face no repercussions. So, a big thing is if we can get arrest for these cops and have them, even if they have to go to court and if they beat the case, or whatever, let the court decide that, but they deserve—I feel like everyone deserves to be arrested. I don’t think that we should allow people, because of their occupation, to get away with things that just [aren’t] moral.”
(On response to someone saying athletes should stick to sports) “I mean, I say, take away sports, at the end of the day, we’re all Americans. So, that’s like me telling someone who has a 9-5, whatever the job may be, to stick to that and not venture out and try to make your community better. If you’re not trying to make your community better, what are you doing? If you’re not trying to lead this world, lead this earth with making a positive impact, what are you here for? Whether it’s sports that gives you the platform, whether it’s music, entertainment, whatever it is. If you have a voice, I think if you’re contributing to something that is going to help, something that is positive, I think you should use it. They say, if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all. I think that applies to everyone. But if you have something good, it should be heard. And if you don’t know how to say it, you should still put it out there and find someone that you trust to help you word it the way you want it to be worded. But I think everyone should have a voice.”
