“Because he was black, they felt that they needed five cops to tackle him to the ground and drag him to behind the other cops.”

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Protests over the death of George Floyd have culminated in some of the largest civil rights uprisings in history. And white, wealthy areas like Santa Monica are no longer exempt.

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A Mexican man was found dead from blunt trauma to the head after being detained by the police for not wearing a mask in public.

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Tonight on the WWE Friday Night Smackdown open discussion thread:

Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles took very different paths to the Intercontinental Championship Tournament Finals, but they are the last two competitors remaining in what was an extremely impressive field.

Bryan chose to earn his spot in the championship round by defeating Sheamus in a grueling semifinal matchup. The Phenomenal One embraced the “work smarter, not harder” mantra by accepting a bye into the title match.

Will the two decorated competitors stay civil, or will the allure of championship gold set the stage for a more brutal title showdown? (via WWE.com)

Tonight’s card is about as stacked as Smackdown gets with Bayley and Sasha Banks versus Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a Women’s Tag Team Championship match, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles in the finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament, Jeff Hardy explaining why he opened last week’s show with a weird car accident, and more.

As always, give a thumbs up to any comments from tonight’s open thread you enjoy and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox report. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

The NFL was at the center of America’s culture wars back in 2016, when now-former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and, eventually, knelt for the national anthem in an attempt to raise awareness of police brutality and systematic oppression against Black individuals. Despite the fact that Kaepernick spoke to former Green Beret and NFL long snapper Nate Boyer about how he could protest while still respecting those who served in the military, which led to him choosing to kneel over taking a seat, Kaepernick found himself at the center of a firestorm about how and when someone should protest.

Those efforts worked, and individuals in power who wanted to avoid having the uncomfortable conversation Kaepernick brought into the discourse were able to shift the narrative. Kaepernick opted out of his deal in March of 2017 to become a free agent, and has not appeared in the NFL since.

His efforts have reentered the discourse in recent days, though, following the nationwide protests in response to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was killed by a Minnesota police officer. This is in part because of the firestorm stirred up by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who gave off-base remarks on kneeling for the anthem, and this video by a handful of Black NFL players.

On Friday evening, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell joined the chorus of individuals speaking out, as the league posted a video in which Goodell invoked the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and noted that the league was “wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier, and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”

As you noticed, while the video is an attempt to put the NFL on the right side of history, there is no mention of Kaepernick anywhere, just a vague allusion to the fact that the league failed to listen in the past. While this video is a start, the league still has a way to go to atone for the sin committed against Kaepernick, and a good way for that process to begin would be for the commissioner of the league, along with its 30 owners, to admit this and say his name.

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On Friday, professional athletes from various leagues around North America wore orange in support of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. In a video compilation circulated by Everytown for Gun Safety, WNBA champion Natasha Cloud, MLS winger Alejandro Bedoya, U.S. ice hockey player Hilary Knight and more spoke about the increasing need for gun control in the U.S.

“Gun violence devastates so many families and neighborhoods and disproportionately affects communities of color,” Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said in the video.

One of the NBA’s most politically outspoken coaches, Kerr has repeatedly advocated for stricter gun control laws over the years. When Kerr was an 18-year-old college freshman, his own father, Malcolm Kerr, assassinated by gun violence because he was the president of the American University of Beirut. In 2018, Kerr called gun control a “public health issue.” At a press conference before Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals three days after the Virginia Beach mass shooting, Kerr wore a black t-shirt with the words, “Vote for our lives,” and spoke about the March For Our Lives movement.

In the video, Kerr said he wants tighter regulation around guns “because kids all over this country deserve to go to school and feel safe.”

“I wear orange because domestic abusers shouldn’t have access to guns,” said Cloud, guard for the Washington Mystics.

Cloud has made it her life’s mission to fight against gun violence. As the only child with a black biological father in her family of five children, the 28-year-old grew up in what she calls a “gray-area,” not quite realizing she was black until she was older. Since coming into the WNBA in 2015, Cloud, who is biracial and bisexual, has been a part of a politically vocal Mystics team and she became increasingly comfortable with the idea of using her platform for good.

“This community has become part of me. It was time for me to step and use my platform — my God-given platform — for something greater,” Cloud told ESPN’s The Undefeated in September.

Cloud has met with policymakers, gun violence survivors and activists to home games and and volunteered with her teammates at a local DC elementary school that was shot at twice in two weeks last summer. Following the second shooting, the Mystics guard held a media blackout in which she would only address questions from the media regarding gun violence reform.

Many players in the video also spoke about family members they had lost due to gun violence.

“Today, I wear orange to honor my best friend, Branden, and also to be an example to the youth, to motivate and to inspire,” said Tim Anderson, shortstop for the Chicago White Sox.

“To represent for my late sister Taiesha Watkins,” said NFL running back DeAndre Washington. “She was murdered two years ago due to senseless gun violence.

“In honor of my father, who was killed in 2010 to a senseless act of gun violence in his place of business,” Diontae Spencer, wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, said.

“To honor my cousin Jojo, who was shot and killed seven years ago,” two-time WNBA champion Devereaux Peters said.

Other women’s basketball players, including Mystics forward Tianna Hawkins, Lynx rookie Crystal Dangerfield and ESPN analyst and women’s basketball hall of famer Rebecca Lobo also took to Twitter to post their support using the #WearOrange hashtag.

The NBA’s Board of Governors almost unanimously approved a return to play plan on Thursday, one that would send 22 teams to Orlando for a bubble league that is tentatively slated to tip off on July 31. One day later and the plan made its way to the National Basketball Players Association for another vote, which ended in the players giving their unanimous approval.

According to multiple reports, the 28 players reps who were on the call signed off on the plan.

Next up for both sides is a round of negotiations, something that Wojnarowski mentioned will occur in the next week and will include one of the talking points from Thursday’s vote: the proposed Dec. 1 start date for the 2020-21 campaign that caught the NBPA off guard.

Charania reported out some of the specifics for the bubble league, with details including daily testing for COVID-19, families being able to join teams at their hotels at a certain point, exhibition games, and a limit of 1,600 people on the campus that will be used for the league.

One of the most interesting details is that the league plans on doing daily COVID testing once the season resumes, but Charania noted that it will not be the incredibly invasive testing that you may have seen or experienced in recent months.

We’ll still have to wait for final details to get hammered out in the near-future, and eventually, players will start making their way down to Orlando for the league. For now, perhaps the two biggest hurdles have been cleared, and the NBA’s return after months of no games can be seen on the horizon.

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As another weekend of Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality approaches, Paramount Network and A&E are making bold moves with the airing of two popular, law-enforcement/reality-crime documentary series. Especially in the case of Cops, the move’s a significant one, given that the show was set to launch Season 33 next week on Paramount Network. As for A&E, the four-season original series won’t see airtime again anytime soon. Instead, both programs have been replaced on schedules for the foreseeable future.

Variety first reported the news while noting that Paramount Network appears to have made the decision a week ago with all mentions of the series disappearing from its website. Via Indiewire, ViacomCBS has confirmed that Paramount Network has “no plans” to air Cops anytime soon. Meanwhile, A&E has issued a statement about putting Live PD on hold, at least for the time being:

“Out of respect for the families of George Floyd and others who have lost their lives, in consultation with the departments we follow, and in consideration for the safety of all involved, we have made the decision not to broadcast ‘Live PD’ this weekend.”

There’s no way to tell if viewers will see new Cops episodes on air again, ever, or perhaps it will shift homes again. The long-running series moved from Fox (after a few dozens seasons) to Spike TV (later rebranded as Paramount Network), and it’s entered the cultural conversation on more than one occasion for its sensationalism and at-times controversial portrayal of law enforcement. Earlier this week Paramount Network was one of many channels that participated in Blackout Tuesday by devoting 8:46 of darkened airtime to represent the duration that Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pushed his knee into George Floyd’s neck during a fatal apprehension.

(Via Variety, IndieWire & CNBC)