BERLIN (AP) — Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris has put together a video to make sure his players are up to speed on Jesse Owens’ accomplishments at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Owens, who was Black, won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler to thwart Nazi claims of Aryan racial supremacy at the same stadium where the Falcons will face the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
“I put together a little video for them tonight to show them,” Morris said Friday at a press conference before practice at the training center of Bundesliga soccer club Union Berlin.
“We just put something together just so they get a little bit of history, so they can get a really good feel, and a really good prideful feeling of Jesse Owens and what he was able to accomplish, and how dominant he was. A lot of people forget those eras.”
Owens led a group of 18 Black athletes from the U.S. who combined for 14 medals at Olympiastadion, which Hitler had helped design.
He plans to show the video to the team Friday evening.
“I was actually a young guy and learned it pretty early,” Morris said of Owens’ accomplishments, “ and … gathered things from it, a lot of references from it. A lot of our guys will take advantage if they don’t (know).”
Preparing for Sauce
The Colts acquired Sauce Gardner in a trade with the New York Jets this week, and Morris expects the two-time All-Pro cornerback to have an immediate impact.
“It’s definitely going to affect some of the things we’re going to do, but it’s probably going to affect them more in how they’re going to pay attention to Drake (London),” Morris said.
Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. connected with London for three touchdowns last week in Atlanta’s 24-23 loss to the New England Patriots.
Danke
Don’t look for Morris to try out German phrases while the team is in town.
“He tried to get me to come up here and say ‘good morning’ (guten morgen) and I’m not going to do that to you guys,” the Falcons coach said as he motioned to a team spokesman.
Morris did say “danke” when he entered the building but his daughter, Amaya, “told me I did that wrong.”
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