McNair Previously Ensnared in Anti-LGBT Campaign After Large Donation
The owner of the Houston Texans is apologizing after referring to NFL players silently protesting police killings of Black people and racial oppression as “inmates.” Billionaire businessman Robert McNair, who donated $1 million to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, had told his fellow NFL owners earlier this month, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair’s remarks came during a discussion about the financial implications of the players’ protests, according to Newsweek.
After outrage and suggestions his remarks were racist, McNair issued an apology through the Texans’ public relations dept., while denying he had been referring to the players.
“I regret that I used that expression. I never meant to offend anyone and IÂ was not referring to our players. I used a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our players or our league that way and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”
Jemele Hill, the ESPN journalist who was suspended earlier this month and who has called President Donald Trump a white supremacist, weighed in:
McNair’s “private statement to the NFL owners, published in November issue of ESPN The Magazine, revealed how challenging NFL owners and players have found the issue amid a backlash fueled by Trump. The predominantly white and rich owners appear to recognize the optics of curtailing black players’ free speech by demanding that they stand for the anthem,” Newsweek added.
At one point, Buffalo Bills co-owner Terry Pegula suggested former NFL player Anquan Boldin serve as an NFL spokesman for social issues, noting, it couldn’t be a “white owner but needs to be someone who’s black.” The players cringed in response to the tone-deaf remark, ESPN reported.
President Trump began attacking the NFL players last month, calling Colin Kaepernick a “son of a bitch,” and moved his focus to the NFL owners and the NFL itself after players not only continued their protests, but ramped them up as more players and even owners joined in. He even said the NFL would be “going to hell” if they didn’t quash the protests.
Meanwhile, this is not McNair’s first about-face in response to public opinion.
As NCRM reported, in 2015 McNair donated $10,000 to the Campaign for Houston, a viciously anti-LGBT organization that worked to block Houston’s nondiscrimination ordinance from becoming law.
Former NFL star punter Chris Kluwe in October of 2015 penned an open letter to McNair, in his own unique way, asking if the Texas billionaire is a “cowhumping glue-huffer stupid enough to buy in on clearly outdated ideals of bigotry and intolerance?”
McNair issued a statement saying the Campaign for Houston had “made numerous unauthorized statements” about his opposition to HERO, and noted he had requested a refund.
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