Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Fran Tarkenton says he's glad to see professional football players come out in support of law enforcement after the deaths on Saturday of two police officers in New York and recent public displays against police by professional athletes.
"We're all grieving about the two police officers in New York. They have the toughest job in this country.
"They do such a terrific job, and they've been targeted the last few weeks because of the incidents that were out there," Tarkenton told
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum" on Monday.
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"They're the backbone of America and always have been, and I'm glad to see some of our NFL brothers go out and support them in this time."
New York Jets center Nick Mangold wore an NYPD hat on Sunday in a show of support for the New York Police Department officers killed while sitting in their patrol car. The shooter was Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who wrote hate messages about the police on social media before the killings.
Fellow Jets team member Sheldon Richardson, who has been critical of police activity, also voiced his support for law enforcement on Sunday, saying, "innocent blood was spilled," according to
ABC News.
Tarkenton said the public protests made by professional athletes in response to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner could promote further violence. It was a "dangerous signal," he said, for "this generation of athletes to take to the streets and take to these kind of demonstrations, using their platform that was more questioning of police officers."
Five St. Louis Rams football players staged a protest before a game in November by entering the field with arms raised in a "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" stance that has become symbolic for some of the death of Brown in August. Brown was shot after allegedly assaulting police officer Darren Warren.
NBA players have also worn shirts with the words "I Can't Breathe" to symbolize what Garner said while being arrested last July on Staten Island. Garner died after collapsing following a chokehold that officer Daniel Pantaleo used while trying to arrest him.
Tarkenton maintained that the protests critical of police tactics resulted in putting "police officers in more jeopardy than they're already in," adding that people could have concerns, but it was "not a good thing" to "attack police officers in this country."
Tarkenton said his new website, frantarkenton.com, would send a positive message and engage "entrepreneurs and thought leaders and people who just want to have a better life," adding he wanted to communicate how failures were "the key to success."
"We all fail. It's part of life, and that's how we learn," he said. "But we cannot learn from failure if we don't embrace failure and take ownership of failure."