Dez Bryant, an NFL free agent wide receiver, called out former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick during an appearance on a podcast for not using his platform to create more jobs for the people that Kaepernick claims that he is “standing up for.”
Bryant made the remarks on the “I Am Athlete” podcast, which was uploaded to YouTube on Monday, featuring Brandon Marshall, Chad Ochocinco, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder.
“I want to mention this too, like I respect Colin Kaepernick,” he said. “But there is one thing that I don’t respect and I said when I get the opportunity and to get on the stage and say it, I would say it, and I love him to death. So there ain’t no hate or nothing like that.”
“But brother, you had the biggest opportunity in the world to create jobs, and build jobs, give jobs to people,” he continued. “The people that you was talking about, the people that you so-called ‘standing up for,’ the people who stood beside you, the people who lost their jobs because of you. Where you at? I ain’t heard from you. I reached out to you. Where you at? … He brought the awareness and that’s why I respect him.”
Bryant also called out NFL athletes for promoting social justice messages on social media because the NFL told them to do so and not because they decided to do it themselves.
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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
DEZ BRYANT, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I want to mention this too, like I respect Colin Kaepernick. But there is one thing that I don’t respect and I said when I get the opportunity and to get on the stage and say it, I would say it, and I love him to death. So there ain’t no hate or nothing like that. But brotha, you had the biggest opportunity in the world to create jobs, and build jobs, give jobs to people. The people that you was talking about, the people that you so-called ‘standing up for,’ the people who stood beside you, the people who lost their jobs because of you. Where you at? I ain’t heard from you. I reached out to you. Where you at? … He brought the awareness and that’s why I respect him.
BRANDON MARSHALL, FORMER NFL PLAYER: But what’s the call to action?
BRYANT: There wasn’t one. There was no call to action. It’s just like, I see all these athletes, I hear them on Twitter, they be writing and writing cool a*s captions, I’d be like, the NFL told you to put out a Black Lives Matter tweet and you did it but I ain’t see you do it. That’s the difference. You get what I’m saying?
So, when I communicate with you, you know, whenever, it’s [inaudible] because I’m for real about it. You know what I’m saying? Because that to me is a problem.