The Saints aren’t saying much about what went on in their team meeting this morning, wanting to keep things in-house. A handful of players, including Alvin Kamara, Terron Armstead, Michael Thomas and Demario Davis, indicated they accepted their quarterback’s apology.
Little else has been said about the meeting.
But at least one non-Saints player was on the call, and he is saying more than anyone inside the organization has said about the meeting.
Former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, who now works as an NBA analyst, said on TNT on Thursday night that he spoke to the Saints during the call.
“About two weeks ago, I was contacted to speak to the Saints players today,” O’Neal said. “Then, this happened. I’m not going to get into because coach (Sean) Payton doesn’t really want us to get into it, but I was on the call today when Drew apologized to his teammates, and most of his teammates accepted his apology. They said, ‘Drew, we know your character. We know you stepped into some stuff that you can’t get out of, but guess what? We want you to do more, more positive things and less talking.’ And they all said, ‘We accept your apology.’ . . . He made a mistake.”
Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins has not spoken publicly since issuing a strong rebuke of Brees on Wednesday. But O’Neal said Jenkins was the first to accept Brees’ apology.
Brees since has apologized publicly a second time.
Brees, though, has yet to indicate if he’s changed his view on players kneeling for the national anthem.