Dave Ross

Ross: Does Kam Chancellor need to wear his Seahawks uniform at all times?

By MyNorthwest.com, Staff report | March 3, 2016 @ 11:47 am

Seahawks Kam Chancellor was shopping for a gym when he says the police were called on him. (AP)

What happened to Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor is beyond a misunderstanding, 710 ESPN’s Danny O’Neil says.

When Chancellor tried to get the attention of employees inside a Redmond gym, the reaction he received was that of people holding stereotypes, O’Neil told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.

“[Chancellor] tried to contact the [employees], instead they called the police, which is really unfortunate,” he added.

After the incident on Wednesday, Chancellor tweeted that he was at the Redmond Athletic Club, which went out of business near the end of February. Chancellor was trying to get information about the building; he runs boot camps for women. But the people inside believed he was trying to rob the place.

Dave wonders how Chancellor should avoid a similar confrontation in the future. He asked if the Seahawk should just walk around with a sign on him that says “I’m Kam Chancellor.” Or, perhaps he should wear his uniform wherever he goes.

“Well [he] certainly shouldn’t have to wear a uniform,” O’Neil said. “The conclusion everyone is going to come to is if he was a 6-foot-4, 230-pound white man, would the police have been called? I don’t know the answer, but it’s unfortunate …”

Chancellor’s case isn’t the first in recent memory where a well-known athlete has had a less than hospitable interaction with a business. Milwaukee Bucks center John Henson alleged that he was the victim of racial discrimination in 2015. He was in Wisconsin trying to shop for a new Rolex but the store locked its doors and called police rather than let him in.

“The reactions we have are, sometimes, based on stereotypes that reflect poorly on ourselves,” O’Neil said.