Jason McCourty opens up following Jacob Blake shooting: ‘We’re just lost’
Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty doesn’t know why the team decided to practice Thursday morning. But he doesn’t know why the team wouldn’t have practiced, either.
“I feel like right now, myself, and I know a lot of other guys I’ve talked to in the locker room right now, we’re just lost, man,” McCourty said after practice. “It’s almost like a sense of hopelessness.”
Several NFL teams, including the New York Jets and Green Bay Packers, elected to cancel practice Thursday in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wis. Their decisions came the day after the Milwaukee Bucks elected not to play their playoff game against the Orlando Magic, sparking a wave of postponements across the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and MLS.
The Patriots went about business as usual Thursday morning, while the team attempts to determine the best course of action.
“If we cancel practice today on a Thursday, do we cancel practice tomorrow on a Friday?” McCourty said. “What’s going to get us to go out and practice the next day? If we cancel practice today, we sit around, we discuss race, we discuss what happened to Jacob Blake, or we talk about what’s continuing to happen in our country for hundreds of years, but then we go out and practice tomorrow, nobody cares.”
Participating in Thursday’s session wasn’t easy for McCourty, who opened up about feelings of guilt as a Black man able to “escape what’s really going on.” Upon arriving at Gillette Stadium, McCourty said he texted his wife: “I feel guilty. I just don’t feel right.”
As a 12-year NFL veteran, McCourty noted he’s learned how to compartmentalize his thoughts when on the field, but he stressed not everybody has the luxury to do so.
“For Jacob Blake’s three children, who sat in the car and watched their father get shot seven times, where do you go to escape that feeling?” he asked. “Where do you go to erase that sight? Where do you go to deal with that type of trauma?”
During his media availability, which lasted almost 20 minutes, McCourty spoke at great length about what’s been going through his mind lately. He talked about the numbness he felt after watching another incident of police brutality, and expressed sadness over the fact that he is going to have a conversation with his children about what they should do if an officer were to pull them over.
“At what point, at what generation, do we get to stop having those conversations?” he asked. “When do we get to all feel normal and feel safe in a country where we say we all are free and we all are equal? When we look around, we know that’s not the case.”
McCourty, who has long been an advocate for social justice and criminal justice reform, seemed at a loss for what can be done to address a systemic issue that has been ingrained in society for hundreds of years. He admitted there have been moments where he wants to say, “Screw this,” and step away from football. Then he asks himself, “Does that do anything? Is that fair?”
McCourty said he has been in touch with former teammate Duron Harmon, who took on a leading role in the Detroit Lions’ team meeting and public statement on Thursday. But McCourty also questioned the value of such gestures, noting they’ve been done before.
The Patriots have not issued any updates regarding the team’s practice schedule.
“Does it fix anything?” he asked. “When we cancel practice and we sit down and we meet and we talk, does it change anything? When we stay inside for the national anthem and then we go out there and we play in the game for four quarters and we entertain everybody, does it change anything?”
McCourty isn’t the first to say he doesn’t know the answer to any of the questions he’s asking. But he’s hopeful to make use of his platform and continue to search for ways to make a difference. He said he feels a sense of responsibility to continue to speak up for those who don’t have the same ability to spread their voices.
“I need to fight,” McCourty said. “Because this isn’t right and it hasn’t been right.”
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