Cleveland Browns' Isaiah Crowell To Give Police His First Game Check After Controversial Post

He posted and deleted an illustration of a man slashing a police officer's throat.

UPDATE: Wednesday, 11:49 a.m. — The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association has accepted Isaiah Crowell’s most recent apology, with CPPA president Stephen Loomis even suggesting that he and Crowell team up for advocacy work in the future.

How cool would it be if Isaiah and I attended community events together to really make a difference in the city?” Loomis asked, per TMZ. “We are missing opportunities that we should be seizing as law enforcement and athletes in the city.”

“I’m glad we didn’t have to go the route of boycotting Browns games,” he added. “We would not have enjoyed that. We wanted to give Isaiah the opportunity to make things right, and he did.”

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The Cleveland Browns’ Isaiah Crowell has apologized for the “disgusting, bad picture” he posted on Instagram last week, vowing to donate his first game check of the 2016 season to the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation.

The illustration in question depicted a hooded man slashing the throat of a police officer ― and was posted shortly after the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and prior to the Dallas sniper attack that killed five officers last Thursday. The image was quickly deleted.

“I wanted you to hear my voice and see my face and understand that I’m sorry,” Crowell said in Wednesday morning’s prerecorded Facebook apology. “Last week, like so many others, I was frustrated and upset about what’s going on in our country. I’ve had friends and family members that [are] dealing with violence. I’ve seen violence throughout the country, and I’m really just emotional about it. And during that emotion, I did something I wish I could take back.”

While Crowell “immediately” took the image off his Instagram, it was up long enough to cause outrage from those in blue and beyond. In the aftermath, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association deemed Crowell’s initial mea culpa ― which was blasted out via Twitter ― a “store-bought apology,” threatening to “pull Cleveland officers, sheriffs, state troopers out of First Energy Stadium this season if he doesn’t make it right.”

In Wednesday’s video, Crowell emphasized that he would never endorse violence and that he personally made the choice to take down the image, without being made to do so by his team or agent.

“I would never wish violence on anyone, especially a police officer,” he said. “I’m sorry to all the Browns fans, all the people who support my career and all the kids out there who look up to me. And most of all, the good police officers who are out there protecting us every day.”

“By posting that picture, I became part of the problem,” he added. “I don’t want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of that solution.”

Before You Go

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