Spike Lee calls NFL commissioner's apology excluding Colin Kaepernick "piss poor"

Filmmaker Spike Lee‘s new joint Da 5 Bloods premiered today on Netflix and has been getting wide acclaim, with Vulture‘s Bilge Ebiri calling it “one of the greatest films Spike Lee has ever made.” Here’s the synopsis:

The story of four African-American Vets — Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) — who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader (Chadwick Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes, joined by Paul’s concerned son (Jonathan Majors), battle forces of Man and Nature — while confronted by the lasting ravages of The Immorality of The Vietnam War.

You can watch the trailer for Da 5 Bloods below.

Lee has been making the press rounds for the film, too, and with the last two weeks of protests and upheaval following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, unsurprisingly has a lot to say. In an interview on ABC’s The View, Lee criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s apology about not listening to players about racism which didn’t mention Colin Kaepernick by name. “Mr. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the ‘No Freedom League,’ that apology was weak. It was piss poor and plain bogus,” Lee said. “How can you apologize for your misguided acts, spurred on by Agent Orange at the White House, and not mention Colin Kaepernick? It was a point-blank punk move.”

Lee also talked about George Floyd, the “3 Brothers” short film he released last week, and more. You can watch his whole segment on The View here:

Meanwhile, in an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Lee slammed Donald Trump for calling Kaepernick and other protestors “unpatriotic,” while also talking about all the positive aspects of the protests we’ve seen worldwide. “All this energy, all these different people coming together, we’re becoming galvanized, particularly United States of America,” Spike said. “We have to keep this energy. Register to vote, [then] vote, and celebrate when the numbers come in. Like our brother prince said “we’re gonna party like it’s 1999.” I’m telling you, there gonna be some of the biggest parties ever.”

Watch The Daily Show interview and Da 5 Bloods trailer below.