And by the way, it’s not all black people. It’s older black folks. They have been so disaffected by politics and have such a strong feeling about Obama that whatever he says, or whoever he’s associated with, will be viewed in a good light. But if you look at younger black folks, we know better than to just see a politician that looks like us and believe every word he says or support him no matter what. We want to see that bear out in policies, which Obama and Biden had eight years to do—two with a supermajority. They could’ve enacted those policies, which would’ve disproportionately helped black folks, but they instead went for means-tested, corporate giveaways like Obamacare.

What do you think of President Trump’s response to the pandemic thus far?

It’s been inadequate, obviously. He’s tied in a lot of unnecessary racist language, calling it the China Virus or whatever. How about we just focus on what we need to do now? He spent a lot of time—crucial time—calling COVID-19 a hoax. And that’s why it’s gotten so bad here.

But I always like to say the reason I don’t criticize Republicans as much is because as a football player, and how I was raised, I believe you control what you can control. You can control what’s in your sphere of influence, and the Republican Party is honestly not in my sphere of influence. I don’t vote for Republican candidates; I vote for Democrats and Independents. I need to get the right people in office to actually hold the president to account, instead of just ripping up a piece of paper on national television. The Democrats in Congress are still letting Trump get away with his agenda—re-upping the Patriot Act, his military budget, the court appointments, the list goes on and on.

There are certainly athletes who are openly liberal, or identify as Democrats, but it doesn’t feel like there are lots of leftists. Are there more leftists behind the scenes than people may think?

NFL locker rooms are very representative. There are a lot of Republicans, very conservative people, fiscal conservatives, all of that stuff. There are also a good amount of people who come from diverse, working-class backgrounds. A lot of us come from the communities where you’ve seen what happens when there’s a broken system without any type of government assistance. It puts people in a depressed, destitute place where you have to be a great athlete or an incredible mind or a big musician to get out.

I think a lot of people get that the system is broken, but they don’t do tons of research, and they hear from the mainstream media that being part of the Democratic Party and being against Trump is the way to fight back. What they don’t understand is the Democratic Party is making a pass at that, but in practice, they aren’t really fighting for those communities. The next leap is to unmask the progressive inside of a lot of people who know something needs to change.

When you say “the media,” who specifically are you referring to?

One-hundred percent broadcast news, first and foremost. I know GQ had Keith Olbermann on after he went absolutely insane. That’s not great. I think The New York Times and Washington Post are pretty awful, but then you have occasional reporters who are really good. There are good people in these places. Most of the publications that are huge are probably not conservative, but somewhere between neoliberal and liberal. Then you have publications like The Intercept and Jacobin that are generally good, but with reporters there who are on the vote blue-no-matter-what train or super into RussiaGate stuff.

Have you considered going into politics after your NFL career?

The closest I’ve gotten to considering it is after watching that AOC documentary [Knock Down the House] and hearing her talk on The Breakfast Club. I’m a big AOC fan, but that does not mean I won’t criticize her if I think she’s doing the wrong thing, which I did recently.

But I’ve thought about it more, and I don’t know, maybe I don’t have enough of the willpower to be in those congressional halls. I’m generally just a nice person when I’m around others, and I think it’s very difficult for me to be the proper amount of angry at the congress people screwing over Americans. I’m sure those people are nice and polite in person. But inside, they’re evil in the sense that they’re willingly putting stuff into legislation that will, at most, slightly help Americans only if it doesn’t hurt their donors. So we’ll see, but probably not.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.