Colts GM Chris Ballard decries racism and calls for change, starting with himself. "I've been ignorant to the real problem." Indianapolis Star
Chris Ballard thought he heard what his players were telling him. The Indianapolis Colts GM thought he understood what his players were fighting for, why they felt compelled to kneel.
He thought he was listening.
But Ballard knows now that he was wrong. His ears were open, but his heart and mind were not.
“Like everyone, we didn’t listen. I didn’t listen in (20)17,†Ballard said Thursday in a 20-minute outpouring of emotion during an unscheduled chat with local media. “I didn’t listen to (former Colts defensive back) Darius Butler. I love Darius Butler. He tried to explain (the protest). I thought I heard it. I didn’t hear it. We didn’t listen.â€
In a 2016 peaceful protest started by ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, black, and some non-black, players across the NFL started taking a knee during the “The Star-Spangled Banner,†played ahead of each game. They knelt, Kaepernick explained over and over again, to protest police brutality, injustice and racism in America.
“To me, this is bigger than football,†he said at the time, "and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street, and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.â€
Unfortunately, the movement quickly became distorted by those who believed kneeling during the national anthem was a sign of disrespect toward the American flag and those who fought for it.
Kapernick, Butler and the hundreds of other players who took part in that movement, tried to explain their fight wasn’t with the flag. It wasn’t with those brave men and women who served the country in the armed forces. It was a stand against racial injustice in their own country. They were using their platforms to speak for those who had been forever silenced by those injustices and for those whose pleas for help were still not being heard.
“Nobody’s protesting the flag or the anthem,†Butler explained to IndyStar’s Gregg Doyel in 2017. “All of us have great respect for the military, great respect for the flag. All of us have family who were military members, some who died, but it’s protesting things that are wrong in this country, that need to be fixed. We need to come together as one and as a whole country. We respect the military, police.â€
Unfortunately, that message became so twisted and contorted, it fell upon many deaf ears.
A pair of them belonged to Ballard, who admitted to the world on Thursday that he has naive to the plight facing an entire race of people -- many of whom he considers his dearest friends.
“I’ve been ignorant. I’ve been ignorant to the real problem, and I’m ashamed of that,†Ballard said. … “This is not a black problem. This is a white problem. This is an issue that we have to talk about, and we can’t sugarcoat it. We can’t sugarcoat our way out of this. We can’t go back into our bubble, because that’s what we’ve always done. We’ve always gone right back in our bubble, and we’ve never really listened. We haven’t listened. I haven’t listened. We haven’t listened as a country. White America refuses to listen. They wanna keep things the same, and it can’t, or we’ll continue down the same paths we’re continuing down, and that has to change, and nothing will change until we do that.â€
Ballard vowed to make amends and to help be an agent for change. He promised that he, his team and his family will take the steps necessary to combat the issues the black community face every day.
What those steps look like is still to be determined. But if the Colts determine -- as a team -- that resurrecting the peaceful protest of kneeling on the field before a football game is the best way to enact change, Ballard promised he’d support it.
“Whatever our team ends up doing, we’re going to support,†Ballard said when asked directly about kneeling in 2020. “But we’re going to do it as a team. We’re going to support them and we’re going to do it together as a team. We’ve said that all along. … I understand why people took a knee. I didn’t completely understand the first time, but damn right I do now.â€
Kneeling in Indianapolis: the backgroundAs most Colts fans know, the franchise has a complicated history when it comes to kneeling. Before Butler and his teammates took knees during the 2017 season -- Ballard’s first season as GM -- Antonio Cromartie became the first Colts player to join Kaepernick in his peaceful protest in 2016.
According to a Bleacher Report interview the veteran cornerback gave last October, then-Colts coach Chuck Pagano discouraged players from taking a knee during the anthem. Cromartie knelt anyway, for the first time in Week 3. The following week, in London, Cromartie knelt again.
After starting that game, Cromartie was benched in the second half. Pagano said he was benched due to his first-half struggles -- in one series, he drew two penalties and was later beaten for a touchdown -- but Cromartie maintains it was a punishment for kneeling. That punishment, he said, would get more severe. Two days later, the Colts cut him.
According to the Pagano, Cromartie was cut because of poor play and because the secondary was returning to health. IndyStar reported at the time that fellow defensive backs Butler and Patrick Robinson re-joined the team about the same time Cromartie was cut.
However, less than three weeks after Cromartie was cut, team owner Jim Irsay was asked about the NFL's dip in TV ratings. He told USA TODAY Sports that he believed the protests hadn’t “been a positive thing.â€
“I think it’s the wrong venue,†he said. “It hasn’t been a positive thing. What we all have to be aware of as players, owners, PR people, equipment managers, is when the lights go on we are entertainment. We are being paid to put on a show. There are other places to express yourself.â€
In a statement released last year following Cromartie’s Bleacher Report interview, the Colts remained adamant Cromartie was not cut for protesting.
“That situation was not the reason for his release. In fact, several other players who expressed themselves at various times remained with the team."
That statement is referring in large part to the 2017 season in which at least 10 Colts players knelt at different times during the season, including Butler -- the team’s 2017 nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year Award -- Al Woods, Kamar Aiken, Tarell Basham, Malik Hooker, Jabaal Sheard, Matt Hazel and Marlon Mack.
Most of those players are no longer with the team, but none have publicly suggested they were not retained because of their decision to peacefully protest.
During the 2017 campaign, Butler and his teammates knelt ahead of the Week 3 game against the Cleveland Browns. The faced a torrent of backlash.
Ahead of Week 4, Colts players released a statement explaining why they were kneeling. Part of it reads:
"To be clear â€" those of us who kneeled did not intend to disrespect our flag, our National Anthem or those who serve our country. We all have family and friends who are servicemen and women. We appreciate and respect the incredible sacrifices they make.
"But as NFL players, we have a platform. And as Americans, we have a responsibility to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Our intention was to raise awareness and continue critical conversations about real equality, the injustices against black and brown people, police brutality, respect, unity and equal opportunity. Our players are hurting, our people are hurting, our neighborhoods are hurting, and kneeling was a direct response to that hurt."
Before the Week 4 game in Seattle, the team -- including Ballard and vice chair/owners Casey Foyt and Carlie Irsay-Gordon, daughters of Colts owner Jim Irsay -- stood arm-in-arm during the playing of the national anthem.
One week later, Vice President and former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence staged a walkout at Lucas Oil Stadium. In a planned demonstration that wound up costing taxpayers $325,000, Pence left the Colts game when multiple San Francisco 49ers players dropped to a knee during "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Pence posted on social media, “I left today’s Colts game because President (Donald) Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.â€
Butler dismissed Pence's walkout as "theater" and he and his teammates turned their attention toward taking strong action to address the issues they were protesting.
Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: @jimayello.
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