Tampa Bay Lightning F J.T. Brown receiving death threats over silent protest
Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown has been receiving death threats following his silent protest on Saturday night at the BB&T Center in Sunrise.
Whether people want to see it or not, the world is in a very turbulent place right now. There are conflicts going on all around the world and political differences seem to be polarizing people, causing rifts between even the closest of friends. Needless to say, things have definitely taken a turn for the worse somewhere along the way.
It is because of the issues plaguing society right now that people have been searching far and wide for new ways to bring attention to their particular causes. Unfortunately, not all of these attempts have been met with respect and understanding. One gleaming example of this is the issue going on in the sports world right now.
The issue truly started in the NFL when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to take a knee during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality. Now, many players have chosen to follow suit and use their platform as athletes to spread their message to the masses.
Tampa Bay Lightning
While the NHL has not usually been the kind of place one would expect to see such protests, to think the National Hockey League would be immune from the same kind of protests is kind of silly. In fact, the subject hits a little close to home for Tampa Bay Lightning fans.
Prior to the start of the season, Lightning forward J.T. Brown was asked about whether or not he intended to follow suit and take a knee during the season. Brown said he hadn’t ruled out the possibility, but at the moment he was “focusing on our [the Lightning’s] season.”
Considering the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Home Opener was just around the corner, this seemed like the perfect answer to what some would consider a baited topic. The real question here is whether or not J.T. Brown would turn his thoughts into actions when the moment arose?
As most Lightning fans are well aware, the Bolts opened up the 2017-18 season on Friday, October 6, 2017 at the Amalie Arena in the heart of Downtown Tampa as they battled their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. While the Lightning emerged victoriously on Opening Night, those looking for J.T. Brown’s next move would have to wait at least one more night.
You see, J.T. Brown served as what is known as the team’s Healthy Scratch on Friday night, so Brown was not on the ice or the bench with his teammates as they prepared to take on the Panthers. However, things would take a decided turn the following night.
The Lightning traveled to the BB&T Center in Sunrise to finish off their season-opening back-to-back series with yet another battle against the Panthers. This time, things would be slightly different on more than one front.
As the National Anthem rang out throughout the stands at the BB&T Center, J.T. Brown raised his right hand in protest. Needless to say, a simple raise of the hand nearly broke Twitter and many other forms of social media. Suddenly, instead of talking about the game going on in front of them, many people had turned to discussing Brown’s silent protest.
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Following the game, Brown spoke to the media regarding his decision to show his support for the cause at hand. He was very upfront when it came to his intentions and his decision to mount his silent protest.
“I wanted to do something to show my support and there are some issues that we have to talk about,” Brown said. “So, I’m just trying to bring a little more awareness and any type of conversation that we can get started would be great.”
Unfortunately, Brown’s protest didn’t start the kind of dialogue he was hoping for. Instead of discussing the issue in which he was protesting, people were discussing his protest, whether or not he had the right to protest, and how individuals felt about his actions.
While he has had some positive feedback on his decision to mount a silent protest, there has been more than a little negative backlash as well. There are always going to be people on both sides of an argument and there are going to be people who negatively react to things; however, sometime people take things way too far.
In a tweet regarding the reactions he’s received since his protest, J.T. Brown said he has been receiving death threats from people. While everyone has the right to disagree with his actions, this may be taking things a little (or a lot) past the realm of acceptable.
As we have said many times before, there are plenty of issues in the world of which could definitely use some productive dialog. Unfortunately, this outcome has been far from the intended result. People, not just those of us here in the Bolts Nation, are more divided than ever and unless a change is on the horizon, these issues are not going anywhere any time soon.
At the end of the day, the most important thing here is we continue to discuss these issues; however, we enter into said discussions with the understanding that not everyone is going to agree with our side of the story and it is imperative we listen to one another’s opinions and give others the same respect we would expect ourselves.
It is when we lack the ability to move forward together we are forever doomed to remain in the past.
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We don’t know about you, but when it comes to the game of hockey, we here at Bolts By The Bay would much rather look to the future. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a rather disappointing end to the 2016-17 season; however, the Bolts have a tremendous opportunity to emerge from the ashes anew and regain their place at the top of the NHL. If we continue to dwell on the past, the opportunity will inevitably pass us by.