‘A season of protest’ may be on the way for the Saints and the rest of the NFL

The New Orleans Saints returned to the practice field Friday minus the name of shooting victim Jacob Blake taped across the front of their helmets.

Pro basketball, baseball and soccer leagues will resume playing games after several nights of peaceful protest in the form of boycotts, suggesting our way of sporting life is back to normal in the wake of recent violent crime and social unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Whatever normal means these days in 2020 America.

Sadly, we can expect what happened in Kenosha to happen again.

And make no mistake: what happened there will happen somewhere else, maybe in your hometown or in a town near you. It’s not a matter of if, but when people of color or indigenous people will experience excessive violence at the hands of over-zealous police in our country.

Tell me I’m wrong. I wish I were.

And what will the Saints, the NFL and other pro sports leagues do when these injustices happen again, and again? What course of action will owners, players and league officials take in response to yet another act of systemic police violence and racial injustice against people of color?

The NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL and MLS already have boycotted the playing of scheduled games in protest to a Kenosha cop shooting Blake in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed and handcuffed to a hospital bed. Nine NFL teams canceled practice in protest Thursday and the Saints acknowledged the moment by taping Blake’s name to their helmets.

So what’s next?

If other sports leagues boycott games, there is no reason to think NFL teams won’t follow suit.

“Anything is possible,” Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “This is the season of protest… but this is a protest that doesn’t have an end to it until all the problems go away and we solve issues and stuff.”

On Friday, soon after the Saints held a scrimmage at their training facility, news surfaced that 73-year-old team owner Gayle Marie Benson recently tested positive for COVID-19. She did not require hospitalization and continues to conduct NFL/NBA business while recovering at home, according to a team spokesman.

I wish Mrs. Benson a speedy recovery.

I hope she will be able to attend the Saints’ season-opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept 13 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome (3:25 p.m., Fox).

I used to think COVID-19 would be the underlying cause to cancel/postpone games this season. It already has forced some teams to ban all fans at stadiums and other teams to greatly reduce the game-day seating capacity.

I also suspect individual NFL players and/or entire teams might follow the path taken by players and teams in other sports leagues and boycott games in protest of systemic police violence and racial injustice.

At some point, enough is enough.

I’d say our country reached that boiling point a long time ago. After all, Martin Luther King had a dream 57 years ago and here we are still dreaming for racial equality.

This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:54 PM.