What Bruce Arians said was not wrong, was it?

The head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a post-workout press conference said he had a meeting with his players regarding the protests against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. In that meeting, Arians challenged his players to not just protest but to take action.

“I think your responsibility is to take action,” Arians told the media. “I don’t know that protest is an action. I think each guy has a personal thing. I would beg them to take action. Find a cause and either support it financially or do something to change the situation, because protesting doesn’t do crap, in my opinion. I’ve been saying that since 1968.”

Some people took offense with what Arians said, because they feel protest is an action and that these types of protests have brought about change in the past. I’m not sure if I totally agree with that, although I do know, one word that seems to change the efficacy of a protest is “peaceful.” Whether a protest is peaceful and shines light on a situation, or whether it is violent and detracts from the message, seems to be the key to all this.

Some tried to correct Arians and add the word “alone;” that protests alone don’t bring about change, but also adding in actions.

One thing is for sure, Arians has a lot of credibility and you can’t accuse him of not practicing what he is preaching.

As a student and quarterback at Virginia Tech in the early 1970s, Arians was the first white player in school history to room with a Black teammate. His roommate was James Barber, father of former NFL players Ronde and Tiki Barber.

Arians has also exemplified diversity in the hiring of his NFL staff. All three of his Tampa Bay coordinators are African-American; offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. His assistant head coach Harold Goodwin is also African-American. Arians was also the first to hire two female assistant coaches; defensive line assistant Lori Locust and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar.

In response to the NHL boycott of games, standing in solidarity with the NBA walkout, one of my friends posted on Facebook posted, “NHL postpones tonight’s playoff games. — them, too. I’m done.”

To which I replied, “We should cancel all sports and make these athletes go get jobs. If they want to make a change, they can become police officers, state troopers, military members, prison guards, etc. Standing in solidarity of a protest accomplishes very little.”

Well, that might have been a trite response by me, in the heat of a Facebook moment, but the more I’ve thought about it, and after listening to Arians comments, the more I think I’ll stand by that comment. I included the words “very little,” because I do believe protests do gain attention for a cause, but I also believe protests alone accomplish very little.

If protests will inspire and cause those with power to reevaluate a law or a position on a topic, and if the protests cause others to find ways to make a change for the better and to enact those changes, then the protests have accomplished something.

However, if the protests have only caused more pain and division, if they’ve caused innocent people to be killed and people’s businesses to be destroyed, then the protests will have an adverse effect, and little change will come from it.

May God bring the proper changes that need to be made, and peace to our country.