By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Las Vegas Raiders and owner Mark Davis offered three words in response to Tuesday’s major news that a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd, who died under Chauvin’s knee after being suspected of passing a phony $20 bill at a local store on Memorial Day 2020.
“I CAN BREATHE,” was the message from the NFL franchise, which played its inaugural season in Las Vegas in 2020. “4-20-21” was listed below the words in a Raiders’ tweet that was pinned to the team’s Twitter account.
It triggered strong reactions from Twitter readers. Davis was unavailable for comment as of 6PM, Las Vegas time.
The Raiders also retweeted the NFL response to the verdict, which involved Chauvin, 45, convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Floyd’s death last year triggered a stronger movement by professional sports athletes to speak out against racial injustices.
LVSportsBiz.com contacted the Raiders to see if Davis was available to elaborate on the Raiders’ tweet. In the past, Davis has supported racial justice issues and now owns the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA, which has many players such as Aces player A’ja Wilson taking very vocal and strong actions to try and reform America’s racial injustices.
The response to the Raiders tweet was strong, as we said. Take a look.
Here’s one explanation posted on Twitter via Tashan Reed:
And more on the explanation here from Ed Graney:
It seems that Davis had the right intention and is genuine about addressing racial injustice issues, but the tweet was poorly executed and failed to communicate that it was a take on Floyd’s brother’s comment. Maybe Davis just should have quoted the brother from the start instead of taking a few words from the quote.
On Wednesday, Floyd’s brother released this statement:
The WNBA Las Vegas Aces released this statement on the verdict, and also retweeted the WNBA response.
The Vegas Golden Knights have not issued a statement when this story was published. But the Colorado Avalanche and Pittsburgh Penguins did and so did the new Seattle Kraken NHL team.
And NHL’s statement:
The NHL statement did not offer much. Maybe the NHL should have looked at the NBA statement.
Chauvin was convicted after he knelt on the neck and back of the 46-year-old Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds May 25, 2020. The video of Floyd’s death prompted sports teams and athletes to speak out about racial and social injustices amid a summer of daily protests.