Broncos head coach Vic Fangio raised quite a few eyebrows around the league on Tuesday when he told reporters that he doesn’t “see racism at all” in the NFL and he heard some responses from inside and outside the organization after making that comment.
The public responses were uniformly negative and it doesn’t sound like the ones inside the Broncos were much more receptive to Fangio’s view about the landscape of the league. Fangio said he spoke to some of the team’s players on Wednesday and later issued a statement revisiting his previous comments and apologizing for not being clearer about the point he wanted to make about life inside of a football team.
The contents of that statement appear in full below:
“After reflecting on my comments yesterday and listening to the players this morning, I realize what I said regarding racism and discrimination in the NFL was wrong. While I have never personally experienced those terrible things first-hand during my 33 years in the NFL, I understand that many players, coaches and staff have different perspectives. I should have been more more clear and I am sorry.”
“I wanted to make the point yesterday that here is no color within the locker room I have been in or on the playing fields I have coached on. Unfortunately, we don’t live or work only within those confines. Outside of those lines -- both in the NFL and society -- there is a lot of work to be done in the areas of diversity and providing opportunities across the board for minorities.”
“As the head coach, I look forward to listening to the players -- both individually and collectively -- to support the and work hand-in-hand to create meaningful change.”