Jevón Holland – September 10, 2024
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Tuesday, September 10, 2024
S Jevón Holland
(What was your reaction to all that body camera video?) – “I mean it was cray, but I’m not surprised. I’m 24, there’s been a bunch of very unsettling and disturbing videos, body cam footage over and over again since Twitter has been a thing, really since Rodney King. I would like to be more shocked and surprised, but I’m not. I just think that’s the society that we live in and the reality of it. So yeah, it’s unfortunate that this type of thing had to happen to Tyreek (Hill) and for it to get this much recognition, but you’ve seen multiple times, over and over again; body cam footage come out, the story was one thing and then you see the vocabulary and the language that’s used and the demeanor and the aggression and then everybody is asking, ‘How do we fix it? How do we fix it?’ And as time goes on, everybody’s memory nowadays is pretty short sided, so it kind of just gets brushed under the rug and then you kind of move on to the next situation until it happens again. It’s unfortunate, it really is. And another thing that’s really unfortunate is that people try to bring up past difficulties, like Tyreek’s past and what not and things that he’s done in his past that are wrong and that he’s fixed and apologized for, and I’d say that the two are exclusively different. Doing something in the past, whether it be wrong or right, does not justify or condemn you to be treated in such a way when the situation has nothing to do with that at all. If you’re an individual that brings up those things to try to justify the wrongdoings or the shortcomings of another person, then I think you’re just moving the goalpost for your own narrative and I think that alone needs to be addressed. You need to look yourself in the mirror and really ask yourself what are you trying to accomplish in bringing those things up. So I think that’s really important and needs to be said because those are the kind of things that go unheard that kind of just get comments on Twitter and things like that, that everybody seems to bring up and wants to say all the time, ‘Oh, he did this in his past so it justifies that he’s treated this way,’ when in reality, that’s not at all what needs to be happening and that’s not how you treat people.”
(How absurd was it to handcuff DT Calais Campbell when he’s clearly trying to deescalate things and help?) – “I mean it was wild, man. You see people trying to help – I mean we’re his teammates, so obviously we love him. We want him to be in good spirits and to be treated with respect, so Calais (Campbell) of all people, I know wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. He was trying to protect Tyreek, and like you said, deescalate the situation. Unfortunately, he was put in handcuffs like I saw, and that’s just kind of the product of the situation and what happens.”
(You talk about change; if we’re here two years from now, five years from now, are we talking about the same thing?) – “I would want to say no, but over and over again things kind of happen over and over again the same way. So it’s unfortunate – you’d think that stuff kind of withers out. I mean I was alive in 2020, George Floyd – and you don’t really want to bring those things up because they were serious, major incidents and lot of people have controversial topics about it and opinions, but it’s unfortunate that we’re still talking about the same thing after so long. I bring up Rodney King because that was kind of the first one caught on tape. I remember my family members just telling me that that was like a thing, it just happened all the time; they just so happened to catch that one on tape. So it’s been a thing for a long time, and unfortunately, it still lingers. But like Tyreek said, there are good police officers out there. I know police officers myself that are good people, but unfortunately, there are some people that just happen to get power drunk or take things to a level that don’t need to be taken there and it’s unfortunate the result. At the end of the day, you just got to treat people with respect – and that goes both ways. And so as long as we’re trying to work together to fix the problem and no one’s just talking about the situation and not doing anything about it to fix it, so as long as we’re taking steps necessary to make change, I think that’s important.”
(Did you guys meet as a team or did Head Coach Mike McDaniel address you guys on all of this today?) – “Yeah, I feel like it’s an elephant in the room if you don’t. At the end of the day, it’s a human interaction. It’s a human situation and I think it needs to be brought up, especially – amongst 90 percent of the league is black. The white people that are in the league all love black people and black people love white people, so I think it’s important that everybody talks about it and Mike (McDaniel) being biracial himself, is definitely caught in the middle of that. So I think it was good that he brought it up and he expressed his views and his emotions behind it, and I think it’s good that everybody has been speaking up about it and been talking about it because it’s important to support your teammates, but also important to support people that were done wrong and change needs to be had.”
(You talk about focus and I’m still trying to process how WR Tyreek Hill was able to do that on Sunday – and now, as a team, you guys are looking at a short week with a very important opponent coming in. In some ways, is it good that Buffalo is your opponent to get your attention that much more?) – “I don’t necessarily think Buffalo themselves; I think it’s really just being a professional. It has nothing to do with who we’re playing next or what players are on the next team. I think it’s specifically just the fact that we’re professionals and we have to handle our job. At the end of the day, this is our career. This is what puts food on our table, so to be able to move on to – crazy situations happen and then you keep on moving with life. They’re on the backburner and once you walk out of the facility you have to deal with them, but at the same time you also have to make sure that you’re continuing to do the things necessary to get the job done and to be successful at your job. So I think it’s just the product of being a professional in the NFL.”
(Is there anything that the team will do on Thursday night to sort of make a statement after what happened?) – “I’m honestly not sure. That’s definitely a question that you kind of want to bring up to higher ups or somebody higher than me, because right now I’m just an employee, I just work here. I’m not necessarily sure, so we’ll see what happens, but yeah, they put out a statement earlier, I think yesterday or something like that. That was really nice to see, so it’s good to know that the team and the organization has your back in a way I’d like to say. I don’t know if ‘has your back,’ is the most correct term, but in a way, they’re backing the team and making sure that the things necessary that need to get done, get done. Apologies need to be had, investigations, whatever it is, but yeah, shoutout to the team for putting that statement out, that was big.”
(How difficult is it to understand that this is a major issue, this happened to your teammate who you’re close with but yet you still have to play football Thursday and nothing else matters?) – “It’s difficult, but honestly, for me, being a black man, it’s just part of the reality. Driving while black is a thing, I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. You get pulled over, my homeboy driving is white, I’m black, they flash the light on me, you know what I mean? So it’s just a thing you kind of live with as a black person, and it’s just a way of life. You’re just always in it. So when it happens, in whatever situation that you’re in, you just kind of maneuver within that situation. But I’m sure there’s thousands of stories of black people all over the country that have gone through the same thing and kind of brush it off as whatever and other ethnicities, nationalities look at it and are taken back by it, but it’s our everyday life kind of thing. And I’m not exclusively saying that just black people go through this type of thing because it is common amongst more than just black people. But yeah, man, it’s just something that you almost have to just roll with the punches – and it’s uncomfortable to say punches because it’s violent, but in reality, that’s really what it is. It’s a difficult conversation and it’s a violent conversation when being spoken to like that and being stereotyped like that. You just kind of got to keep on moving with it and just being positive about it.”
(You saw Tyreek, how was he with you – he seemed upbeat there in the moment, but I don’t know, it’s a tough situation.) – “Yeah, it’s a tough situation. It’s tough situation. You guys kind of keep asking me the same question. You’re trying to get a different perspective but –”
(No, no, no. It’s more of like, I don’t mean to try to look for a certain thing or anything like that, it’s more of a, we’re on this side hoping to hear your voice, like actually seeing Tyreek, understanding what he went through; what is your perspective of all that because we’re just not in your position and I think people are really interested in it.) – “I understand why he’s upbeat about it, because it’s probably something he’s been through. It’s probably something that he’s seen somebody that looks like him, talks like him, he’s probably experienced that or heard stories about that so he understands how he needs to operate. He understands what portion of his mind he needs to push that into so he can handle it on one side but then still come in here, have a positive attitude and still be nice and respectful to the people that he knows and he talks to every day and continue to be a good person that everybody knows and who we know who he is. So yeah, it’s not an easy situation, for sure. There are residuals from that mentally, but you just got to keep on keeping on – L-I-V-I-N, keep on living.”
