Safety Eric Reid shared his opinion of the $1 million donation over the weekend by the San Francisco 49ers to local and national organizations that are working to create change against discrimination. He didn't think much of the initial comments by the team's CEO, Jed York, surrounding the pledge, and said that his opinion is based on past experience.
You can read more about that here.
On Tuesday, many on social media are taking part in a #BlackoutTuesday campaign with the intention of spreading awareness surrounding social injustice and showing support for those who have to deal with it on a daily basis, and those who desire change. The 49ers were among those on social media who took part.
Reid, once again, criticized his former team.
I think you meant Blackball Tuesday...I digress https://t.co/S0r7IHd7DZ
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) June 2, 2020
To be fair, the 49ers were not Reid's only target. He also criticized the Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, and Houston Texans, all of which posted similar tweets as the Niners. Reid, however, added the following to his comment directed at the 49ers.
Hypocrisy: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) June 2, 2020
Reid claims that despite York's public support toward fighting social injustice, the 49ers CEO had "begged" him to stop kneeling when he did so during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The safety wrote the following via Twitter when his former 49ers and Carolina Panthers teammate, wide receiver Torrey Smith, praised York for his past and present efforts.
You speak based on your experience and I understand that. However, I can tell you that you never heard him say "don't kneel" because you never knelt. He begged me not to kneel. https://t.co/UrNPW3YzOG
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) May 31, 2020
Smith responded with the following.
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) May 31, 2020
"Any time you see heinous acts, you have to be able to call them out," York told Jim Trotter of NFL Network over the weekend. "But in terms of the pledge, I think it's very important that actions and words need to go together if you're going to facilitate change in America, and that's what we wanted to do."