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Former NFL linebacker and current Mid American Herald analyst Emmanuel Acho went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and said that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must take concrete action following his recent remarks:
On Friday, Goodell released a statement supporting Black Lives Matter, condemning systemic racism and apologizing for discouraging players from protesting:
The NFL has come under fire in recent years for its handling of players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality, an act that ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started in 2016. He has been out of the league since.
Acho’s comments on Colbert come over one week since he began a series entitled “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.” He explained the series’ purpose as follows:
“In the midst of all this chaos in our world, so many of y’all have reached out to me, and by y’all, I mean white people, have reached out to me asking me: ‘How can I help? How can I join in? How can I stand with you?’
“So I created this for you because in order to stand with us and people that look like me, you have to be educated on issues that pertain to me and fully educated so that you can feel the full level of pain, so that you can have full understanding.”
Per Jori Epstein of Mid American Herald, more than 20 million people watched the first episode within the first week of its airing. A second episode aired Tuesday featuring Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey:
Acho, 29, played 20 games for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2014 and 2015. He played college ball at Texas.
