In light of the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahamaud Arbery that has sparked a nationwide discussion about racism, human rights, police brutality and protesting in America, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made a public statement condemning any and all racial injustice.

“We are united against racism and the hatred which fuels it,” the Bucs said in a statement. “We will not accept racial injustice, which has been responsible for the indefensible murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others.

“Families should not have to worry about the safety of their children because of the color of their skin. Change for the black community must happen now and we must lead by our collective actions. We remain committed to listening and to effecting meaningful change to end systemic injustice.”

The Bucs then held a moment of silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds at 3:45 PM in honor of Floyd.

Bruce Arians spoke about the murders of Floyd, Taylor and Arbery along with the other events that have been going on in America during his press conference on Thursday morning.

“It’s sickening,” Arians said. “We all know when we see something that’s horrific and wrong, and the events, especially the last three events are wrong, they’re murderers. Hopefully justice will be served quickly. There are times when I think we haven’t made any progress since 1968 when the national guard was running down the streets of my hometown and watching what went on then, the murder of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy –  what’s really improved since then, but a lot has. 

“I think right now I love the fact that people are upset and they’re raising their voices, but don’t stop. It’s one thing to march and protest, it’s another thing to take action. When the protesting is over, I would urge everybody to take action, do something positive to help the situation, don’t go back to being silent because then it’s going to happen again.”

Arians continued.

“It’s very disheartening,” Arians said. “Growing up in it and being a part of it, personally, you would hope that we would not be in 2020 still dealing with these issues. We would have hoped as a nation to have grown since 1968, I think we have but not enough, obviously, researching the last couple of days if there’s something I can do more.

“I found a website called joincampaign.org and I joined up and tried to send that message to all that players, it might be something they’re interested in and try to help change more than what we’ve done so far. The other thing that just sickens me is that there were over 20 children at the hands of people looking after them last month and that hasn’t changed enough either. Child abuse is still something that’s rampant, and prejudice and social injustice, there’s so much more to do and that’s not getting done.”