(670 The Score) Former Bears receiver Rashied Davis is an activist fighting against racial injustice in places like Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake last Sunday has led to protests as well as unrest.
Davis is dealing with the matter from personal experience, telling the Dan Bernstein Show on Friday morning that his family has been affected by acts of police brutality. That includes a family member nearly dying as a result of violence by a police officer, Davis said.
So Davis was deeply hurt when he saw that former Bears teammate Brian Urlacher liked posts on Instagram supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois who's facing five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, following the fatal shooting of two protesters in Kenosha on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
Urlacher liked a post on Instagram that read “FREE KYLE RITTENHOUSE!!!! Patriot Live Matter!!!” Urlacher also made his own post that mocked NBA players' decision to sit out playoff games as a form of protest. The meme he posted compared the NBA's postponement of games in protest to former Packers quarterback Brett Favre played after the death of his father in 2003.
Davis reached out to Urlacher on Thursday, and they agreed to sit down have a conversation, Davis said.
"Hopefully we can do that," Davis said. "His statement, it was just tone deaf. It lacked any empathy. It lacked all wisdom. There's no equivalent between Brett Favre's dad dying -- which, I sympathize with him; I lost my father when I was 8 years old. I understand that -- but that's not the same as to stand up and protest against racism, racial inequality and police brutality.
"I personally have family members who have been brutalized by police. One who almost died, had to have emergency surgery. He had no idea that it had happened until he was allowed to make a phone call, call my mom and say what was happening.
"To hear it, it hurt. It hurt my deeply to hear someone that I care about, someone that I call a friend, someone that I went to work with for seven years playing pro football, to read those words and have to have conversations with people -- my phone was blowing up yesterday.
"It was painful."
Davis is hopeful he and Urlacher can come to an understanding on issues involving social injustice and police brutality.
"I don't want to sit here and beat up Brian, because I still care about him," Davis said. "But I do feel betrayed by all of that."