McCourty says he’s received ‘a lot’ of backlash for actions after national anthem

FOXBORO – We spoke to Devin McCourty immediately after Sunday night’s game about his raised fist at the end of the national anthem and the message he wanted to convey. We spoke to him about it again on Monday night’s Quick Slants.

But there was still some ground I wanted to cover in terms of whether McCourty and teammate Martellus Bennett’s demonstration created any backlash and whether McCourty felt white teammates should be more involved in delivering the message of trying to make a push for societal change.

“I got a lot of (backlash),” said McCourty. "You gotta remember, a lot of these people, they don’t know me. They like the way I play football and they like some of the things I do in the community but they don’t know me. I talked to my brother because we have the same Twitter and the Titans got a bunch of calls from people saying they don’t respect (the Titans who made symbolic gestures) and they need to be gone. He said their Community Relations people said, ‘If you just knew them, your opinion would change.’ ”

McCourty said the support shown by teammate Chris Long both in private and then publicly during an ESPN Radio program this week was an example of the support across racial lines.

"One guy I’ve talked to over and over is Chris Long,” said McCourty. “Hearing his perspective and how he felt, his biggest thing was, ‘I wanna support my peers.’ I don’t think he cares about black or white, he cares about right or wrong. That’s what it is, it’s bridging the gap and making things better."

You can hear the entire conversation I had with McCourty and also a very insightful perspective from Omar Kelly, Miami Dolphins beat writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, on the podcast right here.