The Las Vegas Raiders responded to the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict with an incredibly tone-deaf tweet
On Tuesday afternoon, a Minneapolis jury convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on all three counts — second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — for the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
The video of the murder — which showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds — sparked global protests of police brutality and racial injustice against the Black community last year. And Tuesday’s verdict represented an important step towards a semblance of justice for the Floyd family, but it didn’t change the fact that George Floyd should still be alive today.
Predictably, many social media accounts with communications teams wanted to make a public statement about the verdict. And in the sports world, specifically, it would be tough to find a worse response than the Las Vegas Raiders’ effort.
This was just so bad.
The Raiders tweeted, “I can breathe 4-20-21,” in a Twitter graphic. This morbid play off of Floyd’s final words as he was being murdered did not sit well with anyone — even as the Raiders kept the tweet live and pinned for 30-plus minutes.
Again, the verdict doesn’t bring Floyd back to life. He still can’t breathe. Who are the Raiders talking about then? The Raiders’ tweet essentially celebrated a tragedy with the kind of tone-deafness you can expect from the NFL.
UPDATE: Apparently Raiders owner Mark Davis came up with this tweet:
#Raiders owner Mark Davis said the "I Can Breathe" wording came from George Floyd's brother Philonise, who said "Today, we are able to breathe again."
Davis added: "If I offended the family, then I'm deeply, deeply disappointed."
He also said the post won't be deleted.
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) April 21, 2021
Just spoke with Raiders owner Mark Davis: "That's my tweet. That was me. I don't want anyone in the organization taking heat. I take full responsibility for that."
Story coming soon on the reason for the tweet and Davis' thoughts on today's verdict at https://t.co/bxwBcPsbQs— Ed Graney (@edgraney) April 21, 2021
Davis said he wasn't aware that NYPD supporters wore "I Can Breathe" shirts following the 2014 killing of Eric Garner. After I brought that up to him he said, "I learned something… I have to do a little bit more research into that just so I can speak coherently on that aspect."
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) April 21, 2021
Fans were not pleased.
You know what. This is the worst tweet I’ve ever seen. https://t.co/P8tK8blgFv
— The Big Chillin' (@Kofie) April 20, 2021
I've seen a lot of bad tweets on this app but this might be first-ballot Hall of Fame worthy https://t.co/ejyfrxZynf
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) April 20, 2021
Massive yikes. They even pinned it. https://t.co/ofZCiyTg4P
— Jack McGuire (@JackMacCFB) April 20, 2021
Hire more black people https://t.co/4JRI1Q8MNV
— Carrington Harrison (@cdotharrison) April 20, 2021
It’s crazy how little companies invest in their social media communication and marketing departments when it can really make or break your brand https://t.co/BgylnadOoF
— Këv (@KJS407) April 20, 2021
25 minutes & still not deleted?? https://t.co/xoPrFDtu3t
— Carter
(@_BloodSyn) April 20, 2021
Bruh…. https://t.co/u43FnkMZ0h pic.twitter.com/eVtM2F5WEL
— Damien Woody (@damienwoody) April 20, 2021
Not only did you tweet it, which is offensive enough. But you pinned it. You’re proud of it. Who is the “I” here? It’s certainly not Mr. Floyd. https://t.co/OCs7TnLdLV
— April (@ReignOfApril) April 20, 2021
I keep double checking to see if the @Raiders verified account actually tweeted this. https://t.co/xeXVwKSAER
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) April 20, 2021
there is absolutely a social media team that sat and deliberated about what to post, then settled on this, rather than, say, anything else or nothing at all. https://t.co/Vk7R1DqSsr
— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) April 20, 2021
Never tweet, Raiders.