But out of respect for what the honor represents and administration for prior recipients subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred in the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.

Wow!

Wow!

Wow!

Wow, Max, what is your reaction to Bill Belichick drawing that line in the sand?

Well, it's very good that he drew that line.

Um, I understand that Trump was supportive of ballistics, uh, of the ballistics, uh, during Belichick's wife's, uh, battle with cancer.

And I understand where that can lead to a sense of personal loyalty that goes outside of just someone's opinion of world events or the way a leader is behaving.

But in this case, even something like that, this is a zero sum game.

Had he accepted the ward, the award, that would have been very, very bad.

The fact that he's not going through that is good.

But again, there was either a right answer or a wrong answer here either good Belichick or really bad Belichick.

And I'll also say that his wording of this was not in my view nearly strong enough.

He kind of couched it in neutral terms.

The fact is, as is obvious, um, Trump, you know, set the date of, ah, mob scene and then directed the mob scene over to the Capitol building.

Um, and and they were insurrectionists.

And it was one of the darkest days in the history of our republic.

I don't think you can accept a medal from that guy right now if you're Belichick.

And while I commend him for ultimately doing the right thing, Stephen A.

I wish he would have been a little more forceful in his phrasing.

Well, listen, he could have been a bit more forceful in this operation, but there are multiple ways to skin a cat per se, and everybody is not the same.

A za black man and a za member of the African American community.

Uh, in this nation, there have been many, many situations, a multitude of times where as black people, we wished that there were others who were a bit more out spoken a bit more specific rece in their language, um, in their speech, um, and and would attack ah, particular issue with the level of vigor that some of us would have a swell.

But everybody is not that way.

Bill Belichick is not that way.

And so we have to respect that and appreciate where he's coming from.

We got the message.

We understand what he was saying in light of what it transpired last week, Um, in the nation's capital at the US Capitol.

It was an absolute disgrace.

We know where I stand on the record.

The president did that.

He instigated that situation because I watched his entire speech.

I'm not talking about all the other things that he did that people like yourself and others may lament at nauseum.

I'm talking strictly about the speech that he gave prior to those folks walking over to the U.

S.

Capitol and conducting themselves in a heinous fashion that they conducted themselves in.

Bill Belichick alluded to that.

He sent that message and remember, this was a friend of his A.

Well, it's a friend of Robert Kraft as well.

You see, a lot of whole whole bunch of folks that were friends with Donald Trump, uh, that really want no part of him right now.

They're not gonna advertise it they're not gonna articulated to the masses.

They're not going to get into the weeds of that particular situation.

Um, a zit pertains to their relationship with him, but make no mistake about it, there's a whole bunch of people, uh, that were once friends with him that once had a strong belief in him, felt that you know his beliefs or whatever the case may be.

We're in the right place and in the right direction, and they're thinking about none of that now.

They're literally putting country first because they recognize how dire things are at this particular moment in time.

And what they're trying to highlight is that we'll leave the political stuff to y'all from a philosophical perspective, from a policy perspective, we'll leave all of that to y'all when we talk about this particular individual.

We're talking about his behavior, how divisive it has been to this country, and we want no part of it.

We don't even want to talk about him.

We don't even want to mention his name.

And I think it's something profound to take away from the fact that that was not mentioned by Bill Belichick, because I think that's how much the president has has been ostracized from an awful lot of people that we don't even know yet people that don't want to be seen with people that don't want to talk with them, people that are utterly shocked at how far they believe he has regressed.

Somebody like Max and others would say would say It's always been there to them, that's not what they saw.

They saw something different last week, and as a result they're thinking about this country, this nation and what we're supposed to be about, and as a result, they don't want anything to do with them.

And when it comes to Bill Belichick, I would remind everybody one of his closest friends for years, to my understanding, has been Jim Brown and say What you want about Jim Brown with Jim Brown was an iconic football player in an iconic figure because he was one of the preeminent faces in the world of sports during the whole civil rights struggle.

That's that Jim Brown.

That's a guy that's been close with Bill Belichick for many, many years, and most people who know Bill Belichick speak to his character and only you know him and with the media and all this has a different ballgame.

Him with his friends and people who know him.

They talk about what he's about.

He's a very principled man in certain respects on certain things.

Rub him the wrong way.

Last week clearly did.

Well, I do want to give Belichick credit for making the right choice here, but there was.

There was no other choice to be made by by anyone with any shred of decency on top of the symbolic stuff that went on, for example, that we showed an image of the Confederate flag being waved around in the Capitol building.

Stephen A.

That never happened in the Civil War, but that happened a couple days ago.

Um, there's that symbolism also.

Ah, cop was beaten to death by that mob.

You know, there was no way any decent moral or ethical person could support a president who has told so many lies, but the latest of which is a Siris of lies about election fraud in order to whip up a mob of insurrectionists and point them toward the Capitol building.

Like if if, um, Belichick would have accepted the award that would have ended his reputation.

Yeah, forever, but so he does deserve credit for making the right, but it's not fair.

But here's what you have.

But here's what's not fair.

He didn't ask for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I mean, the invitation came his way and he said, No thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

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