As Donovan Edwards’ press conference wrapped up on Friday, the junior running back had spoken on a wide variety of topics pertaining to his role with the Michigan football team. He had spoken to his relationship with senior running back Blake Corum, opined on the necessity of maintaining health and even weighed in on the plight of NFL running backs in contract disputes.
However, there was one topic that reporters in the room had not yet broached, and when the media had run out of their allotted questions, Edwards stayed behind and chose to address it himself.
“I got one more thing to mention too, about the tweet,” Edwards said Friday, referencing an antisemitic tweet that he had reposted in late October of last year.
The tweet, which was not written by Edwards, adorned a video of Kanye West and espoused harmful rhetoric insinuating that Jewish people belittle other communities for their own benefit. Hours after the initial retweet, Edwards deleted his post, wrote an apology on Twitter in which he called the retweet a ‘glitch’ and faced no further repercussions.
But on Friday, in person and on his own accord, Edwards — for the first time — discussed the tweet and its aftermath in person with the media in a nearly four-minute statement.
“I feel like that was a great thing for me because that was a learning and building experience,” Edwards said. “The way I look at that is I don’t have any type of hatred, I don’t disgrace anybody. You know, I have love for everybody, I don’t care who you are. … The thing I learned from that is, I can’t allow a caption to define who I am.
“Because if I can explain for myself in that context, I feel like nobody listened to what Kanye West said (in the video), which is that people who are the higher ups, we all know who higher ups are, like coach Harbaugh to us. He’s the higher up, what he says goes. With that context, for me, I’m a Black male, you know and I looked at that very specifically. And it’s like Black people are getting diminished. … If we’re like depriving ourselves and we all know this … that’s not good.
“That’s why I retweeted what I retweeted. It’s not about ‘I hate Jewish people,’ I don’t hate Jewish people. (Some) Black people are Jewish too. … I love all races because all religions are right, all religions have the same thing and that is to love God, and to treat your neighbor accordingly and to love each other the way you love yourself. I’ve learned a lot from that. … I believe that with my whole heart. I apologize to anybody I may have hurt, I understand my actions and I’m going to grow from it. It has taught me a lot.”
Edwards’ choice to discuss the tweet openly, apologize for it and pledge to grow is a different approach from his initial response in which he pinned the blame on a glitch. He now seems to be owning up to the action and expressing remorse.
His choice to bring up the tweet also prompted a follow-up question regarding what he learned from the Wolverines’ visit to the Zekelman Holocaust Center, a visit that was planned in response to his tweet. Again, in his response, Edwards expressed remorse.
“What I gained from it? Truth be told is that I hurt people and I can live with that because now I can build people up,” Edwards said. “I may have made people’s trust not be there for me, but I don’t care because people don’t know who I really am and they don’t know the context of what I saw and what I retweeted.”
While his long-winded apology meandered into confusing analogies at points, Edwards’ tone on Friday was apologetic. He brought up the issue on his own volition, even as he could’ve easily left the press conference, and for the first time presented his understanding of the debacle.
“I’ve learned a lot to be honest with you,” Edwards said. “I know that if I continue to be who I am, I could gain the love back. I could gain the people’s trust back.”