NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson is used to giving his autograph. But, lately, it’s not just footballs or Saints jerseys he’s signing.
It’s books.
Watson’s new book Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race—and Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us is keeping him busy at various book-signing events and interviews. It touches topics that sports figures usually stay away from. That’s why it’s so popular.
“The whole purpose of the book is really taking each emotion, fleshing it out, unpacking it, with some stories from my life having to do with race,” explains Watson.
A year ago, the football player wrote a post on Facebook that went viral. It was a post expressing his first-take emotions after seeing what went down in Ferguson, Missouri, when a grand jury refused to indict the officer accused of killing Michael Brown.
“You can remember what happened last year with the protests, with the riots. All those things that happened with the images we saw on television,” recalls Watson. “I remember playing a Monday night game against Baltimore. We lost. I get done playing. It’s late at night. I hear about the decision. And, I, like you, like many people, have been following this case over the last, oh, three months. There is such an emotional outburst about the decision, whether you agree with it or not. Everybody has something to say. So, I wrote this Facebook post about my emotions.”
He didn’t stop writing there. More posts came. Then essays. Then, the idea for a book.
If you’re wondering why we should listen to a football player about race, you don’t have to listen to the athlete. But, there are plenty of other reasons to listen to what Ben Watson has to say.
“I simply see my place as an American first, as a Christian, as a father, as a husband, as a friend, as a teammate, all those things come before what I do, which is be an athlete,” Watson points out. “I mean, I pay taxes. I vote. I do all those things. So, I think I have a vested interest in where we stand when it comes to this topic.”
And even if you aren’t listening, Watson sees a reason to keep talking and writing.
“It’s something that keeps on coming up,” says Watson. “It’s something that we’re always talking about in the news every single week. And it’s not seeming to be going anywhere.”
And, if one day race issues do go somewhere, and we aren’t talking about it every single week in the news, maybe we can thank a football player who chose to talk about it when others weren’t.