The Rams and Chargers grapple with how to respond to the Jacob Blake shooting in ‘Hard Knocks’ episode
The latest episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” chronicles how two Los Angeles football teams grappled with the shooting of Jacob Blake at the hands of police after a summer of protests and demonstrations throughout the country calling for police reform.
In the episode, Rams Coach Sean McVay says he’s disgusted and wonders how the team can go on with practice after watching video of Blake’s shooting. Blake was shot last month by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Man that is awful. It makes me sick,” McVay tells Artis Twyman, the team’s senior director of communications, in the episode.
“It is unbelievable,” Twyman said. “I think more about the people this has happened to, there was no video. … Tons of people who probably were murdered or injured or wrongly accused, wrongly arrested and there’s just no video and the cops got away with it.”
“You just feel helpless because this keeps happening,” Twyman said. “What can you do to change it?”
Teams across professional sports leagues, including the NBA and WNBA, canceled or postponed games in response to Blake’s shooting.
In meetings, both virtual and in person, the Rams coaches urged players to open up about how the shooting has impacted them and what they think the team should do in response.
Chargers Coach Anthony Lynn posed similar questions to his team during a virtual meeting. While he said he understands that some people may not want to come to practice, he added that he didn’t know if canceling practice would change anything.
“Un-friggin- believable,” Lynn said of the shooting during the episode. “I don’t believe canceling a practice is going to make a difference.”
“I think the best way to honor Jacob Blake, that got shot seven times in the freaking back … if we want to honor him then lets talk about it to the media and express how we feel after we do our job. To me that’s the best way to honor him,” Lynn told his players during the online meeting.
During a team meeting, Rams wide receiver Robert Woods said he thought the only way to create change is through action.
“Go somewhere, go to a political office, go to LAPD. Be the change right there in that moment versus just some words. … I feel like it’s deeper than words,” Woods said.
“It’s deeper than words we need to show up somewhere,” he added.
As the episode continues, Lynn calls everyone to the locker room before a scrimmage game to talk about the shooting, the continued racism they face, and how they need to use their platform for good.
He then takes the field, flanked by players and team staff, to announce they will not play the scrimmage and instead will use the day to give spotlight to the issue of police brutality.
“We’re not going to scrimmage today,” Lynn announces. “This football team is committed to fighting for a championship and social justice.”
