“It’s very disturbing for everybody,” coach Matt Nagy said. “And it has to stop.”
Perhaps it’s damning of current events that a football coach has had the occasion to, in the span of three months, measure the reaction of his players to two different police attacks on unarmed Black men. But Bears coach Matt Nagy noticed when talking to his team Tuesday about the Jacob Blake shooting by Kenosha, Wisconsin., police, that he had a different view than he did during their Zoom meeting in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. “You can see the second-by-second head shakes, understanding and agreeing,” said Nagy, who huddled his players after practice to discuss the shooting. “And if somebody wants to talk, they don’t have to hit the spacebar.” Blake was shot multiple times in the back with his children nearby Sunday night. Halas Hall is only 31 miles south of Kenosha. Blake attended Evanston Township High School, another 22 miles south. “Being so close to where we are at right now,” Nagy said, “we’re thinking about him and his family and want nothing but the best for him.” Blake represents another high-profile case, less three months after Floyd was asphyxiated by Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police officer who knelt on his neck for eight minutes.
