Zach Banner Speaks Out

Published

By Charlotte Wilder

There is a good chance you did not know the Pittsburgh Steelers' Zach Banner two weeks ago.

But when Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson shared anti-Semitic comments falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler on Instagram, Banner was one of the first NFL players to speak out, posting an emotional, powerful video on Twitter.

A month earlier, Banner had also spoken up in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, as many NFL players did. Yet a relative lack of silence around Jackson's comments made Banner's vocal support in both instances all the more important.

Last week, I sat down with the Steelers offensive lineman to discuss not tolerating hate in any of its forms, and why fighting both racial injustice and anti-Semitism go hand-in-hand:

"There's these underlying issues that we have to keep fighting for... but the Jewish community should have never been brought into this. I will continue to fight for the Black Lives Matter [movement]. We need to try to uplift each other and equal it out."

You can watch the entire interview, in which Banner also talks about his time in a Jewish fraternity at USC and how it helped him grow as a person and an ally, here:

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Steelers offensive tackle Zach Banner sits down with Charlotte Wilder to talk about fighting anti-semitism, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and the reaction he’s faced across the NFL for speaking out.

The conversation happened before Friday's report by the Washington Post of an alleged culture of harassment and abuse toward women in Washington's NFL franchise.

After initially encouraging those who faced such toxicity to speak out, saying the "good ones" would protect them, Banner reflected on how his own experiences show that's often not the case — and why it's on men such as those in the NFL to be the solution.

He doesn't play the most glamorous position. He might not be a household name. But the NFL and the world in general could use more people like Zach Banner.