When Detroit Lions defensive lineman Trey Flowers learned of the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, he wasn’t exactly overjoyed and instead called it “kind of bittersweet.”
“Obviously, you know, you don’t want someone to have to lose their life for everybody to stand (for) justice and this to happen and things like that,” Flowers told reporters Tuesday. “But obviously the jurors made their decision and I felt it was the right decision.”
A jury last week found Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, guilty of murdering George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes. Floyd’s death last year became one of the biggest rallying points of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Flowers was at the forefront of the Lions’ own initiative to support social justice in August when was part of a team decision to cancel practice and protest the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Lions’ protest sparked boycotts throughout American sports leagues.
While he felt justice was served by the Chauvin verdict, Flowers said there’s still a long way to go for the country to achieve social justice for all.
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“I know a lot of people probably was kind of celebrating and things like that,” he said of the verdict. “But for me, just my personal opinion, we’re not as far as we should be or we need to be just as a country as a whole.
“So yeah, that was cool and all but it’s still — the situation shouldn’t have happened. The fact that it happened was what’s wrong with a lot of things. But it happened and then the verdict come and OK, yeah, that’s cool but let’s address the fact that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place and that’s what really needs to be fixed.”
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.