I'd just like to know how you expected him to "read" the locker room, when he had already made these statements a couple of years earlier, and no one blinked.

YOU seem oblivious to the fact that it suddenly became "cool" to shame anyone who doesn't believe in the BLM propaganda and all of the bells and whistles that come with it. Brees was asked a question. A question that, again, he had already answered before, with no backlash. He answered again, gave a thoughtful response- one that I personally even thought was a bit TOO polite, as he merely stated that he disagreed with the method of protest, and not the cause- and never called any person out, individually.

If the players have a problem with him saying "look, just not during the anthem, where we pay respects to the people who paid for our freedom", then that's on them. All I ever hear is that we should just "listen" to what these players are saying. What about listening to the other side of the argument, then? The players say "it's not about the flag". Nobody is saying it's about the flag, itself. It's clearly about what it represents to them. We've had this discussion, and heard all the arguments from both sides. But Drew wasn't even taking a side. He was basically saying "if you have a grievance, that's fine, but the flag isn't about any perceived inequalities, it's about us, as Americans. Do your protest at a more appropriate time."

In other words, while the flag might mean one thing to the other players, it means something else to Drew. He wasn't telling them their cause was right or wrong which, again, was a little passive for my taste, but I understood that he was trying to walk a fine line. He was merely saying he didn't think that was the right way to go about pushing their cause. I think that is something that grown men should have been easily able to agree to disagree on, at worst.

He didn't owe it to them to read their minds and respect THEIR opinions, if they couldn't respect his. That's not the way it works.

Is Brees diminished, physically? Of course he is. I was trying to point out his decline years ago, and was almost universally labeled as a hater, as people were telling me he was going to play till he was at least 45, and dominate, because nutrition, and core workouts and some other nonsense that was supposed to make him not age. But his noodle arm isn't exactly a new phenomenon that suddenly appears this year, is it? So why is everyone talking about how the team is playing like crap? What's different from last year?