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| Appearing on CNN, Cornel West threatened to withdraw as keynote speaker from QCurl Sharif's annual integrity dinner if Drew Brees' comments are not addressed. |
By Ariel Mutha-Tafoya
FSN Sports
Last season, when injured QB Drew Brees returned to health, the London Bakers became one of the NFFA’s hottest teams. Now, Brees may be taking his club into the tank without even taking a snap.
Reaction has been swift, international in scope and resoundingly negative to Brees’ recent comments suggesting that it is an insult to the U.S. flag for players to take a knee in protest — so much so that it is spilling over beyond one player to the Bakers entire organization and brand identity.
In Central London, thousands of protesters gathered outside Sir QCurl Sharif’s One-Eyed Pig social club and chanted “Sack Brees Now!” Outside Wembley Stadium, meanwhile, Baker fans supporting Brees’ removal clashed with white nationalist skinheads who displayed American and Nazi flags side by side.
On the BBC News Hour, former prime minister and friend of the team Tony Blair said, “I believe that Mr. Brees’ remarks do not reflect the values of the London Bakers or SirQ.” When asked if he thought Sharif would fire Brees, Blair chose his words carefully: “I am confident that SirQ will address this situation in a manner that is consistent with the integrity that has made the Bakers so respected as a beacon to love and integrity in a world where darkness so often reigns.”
Brees, Blair added, “should bear in mind that, in the UK we display the Union Jack, not the Stars and Stripes, and we would appreciate it if he leaves his American political controversies at home with any other baggage he might be carrying.”
In the US, author and social critic Cornel West told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that, if Brees’ comments “went unaddressed,” he would have to reconsider Sharif’s invitation to deliver the keynote address at the Bakers’ annual integrity dinner. “I don’t know how I could remain true to my own values or QCurl’s, for that matter,” West said. “Remember when [Bakers coach] Snoop Dogg said, ‘On this team, if you’re not taking a knee you better be prepared to take a bullet from me?’ So how can they let their star quarterback represent for them like this? Pure and simple, the Bakers must fire him.”
When Anderson pushed back — asking, “Is there no alternative to termination? Isn’t there another way out?” — West softened his stance slightly. “I think it would be OK if maybe they traded to a team that lacks integrity, like the Dead Cherokees or the Green,” West said. “And there’s a chance that Brees could repent and turn around. Jesus said it wasn’t impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, so we must allow for the remote possibility that a rich white boy from Texas might change his ways, but I’m not going to get any odds on that in Las Vegas.”
Because of Joe Biden’s close ties to Sharif — the former vice president delivered the eulogy at Sharif’s funeral and has been a frequent party guest at his West Nashville Treehouse — the controversy threatened to spill over into the presidential campaign. On Saturday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted, “I texted Sharif, who LOVES me by the way, to stand strong against haters of US flag. We shall overcome!” The Biden campaign, besieged by calls from the media, said through a spokesperson that the presumptive Democratic nominee was attempting to reach Sharif by phone, but that “SirQ has apparently been summoned by the queen to Buckingham Palace and has been unavailable all day.”
Meanwhile, early Saturday trouble for the team arose on another front, as an unconfirmed story appeared on Breitbart, alleging that Trump actually died in 2011 but was secretly re-animated at Sharif’s so-called “Zombieland” complex in Hohenwald, Tennessee.
FSN will have more on this developing story.
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