By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Marcellus Wiley, a retired all-pro NFL defensive end, a former co-host of ESPN’s Sports Nation, and now a sports analyst with Fox Sports 1, has rebuked the NBA’s plan to paint “Black Lives Matter” on its courts, calling the proposal “not a good idea.”
In a June 30 discussion on Speak for Yourself, Wiley said the league was giving in to identity politics and that “it divides and it polarizes.”
He specifically objected to the Marxist nature of the Black Lives Matter mission statement, which he quoted as stating its goals as to “dismantle the patriarchy practice” and “disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.”
Wiley said this attack on the traditional family structure was important to him because of the family he grew up in and “the one I’m trying to create right now.”
Wiley said this attack on the traditional family structure was important to him because of the family he grew up in and “the one I’m trying to create right now.”
“Being a father and husband – that’s my mission in life,” he explained. “How do I reconcile that with what I just told you with this [BLM] mission statement that says, “We dismantle the patriarchal practice … We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.”
Several days later, Wiley tweeted that the BLM mission statement also spoke about “extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable,” pointing out that the sentence “seems to be missing one word … FATHER!”
