'Dodgeball Thunderdrome' co-host Andrew Hawkins protested against police brutality 2 years before Kaepernick
Former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins will be seen co-hosting 'Dodgeball Thunderdrome' with YouTube sensation David Dobrik starting August 19 on Discovery Channel. The show starts airing soon and here's what you should know about Hawkins who demonstrated against police brutality at the games, two years before Colin Kaepernick did.
Hawkins wore a T-shirt on the field that said, "Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford III." Explaining why he felt the need for showing support for Rice and Crawford, he had said, "If I was to run away from what I felt in my soul was the right thing to do, that would make me a coward and I couldn’t live with that.”
Two years before Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee in 2016-2017 NFL seasons, Hawkins had already participated in one of its kind on-field demonstrations to spotlight police brutality at FirstEnergy Stadium. It read “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford” on the front and “The Real Battle for Ohio” on the back. The decision to don the shirt during pregame warmups and player introductions created outrage among Cleveland police and led to several death threats. The decision to sport the shirt during pregame warmups and player introductions created outrage among Cleveland police and led to several death threats, according to Cleveland.com, however, Hawkins was not ready to issue an apology.
“(The police) demanded an apology and I wasn’t going to apologize,” Hawkins had said. “This wasn’t something I did on a whim. This wasn’t something I didn’t think through. This wasn’t something I was going to waver on or back down from," he added.
Hawkins no longer owns that T-shirt with the white lettering and he said that it's now housed by the National Museum for African American History and Culture. Six years post his protests, he is pleased to see the response that George Floyd and other unarmed African-American deaths that resulted due to police brutality managed to garner. Hawkins who retired prior to the 2017 season said that he was happy to hear many voices, especially from NFL, were demanding change.
“It’s created a movement beyond sports and into society,” said Hawkins. “It’s now getting backed up by people and brands and companies. That’s the part that’s pleasantly surprising having gone through it in 2014.
“It’s a great start. It’s taken 400 years to crack, (and) I don’t think it’s going to be a matter of weeks or months. As with any solution, the first step is acknowledging there is a problem. I’m seeing more people than ever do that,” he said.