Following the incident, Leonard told the person he was playing with he was stepping away for a phone call and then said that he had to go because his wife needed him.Leonard released an apology statement on Tuesday night.“I am deeply sorry for using an antisemitic slur during a livestream yesterday. While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse, and I was just wrong,” he wrote.Meyers Leonard says racial slurs while playing CoD pic.twitter.com/WHwUnbV0pR
— Main Team (@MainTeamSports) March 9, 2021
This led to Edelman writing his letter to Leonard, which explained that he got the sense that he "didn't use that word out of hate, more out of ignorance."
He said, "Hate is like a virus. Even accidentally, it can rapidly spread."
An open letter to @MeyersLeonard pic.twitter.com/bJcoupfbur
— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) March 10, 2021
After writing about the risk of "casual ignorance" on the subject of antisemitism, Edelman invited Leonard over in Miami for "Shabbat dinner" to show him "a fun time."
Last year, in the wake of the George Floyd racial justice protest movement, Leonard was criticized for being one of only two players throughout the league to stand rather than kneel during the playing of the national anthem before games. He told his Black teammates that he supports the Black Lives Matter movement and that he was standing to honor his brother, who served as a Marine.In a sign of solidarity with him, a Black teammate always put an arm around Leonard’s leg during the anthem.Leonard, is 7-foot-1 center and was a former first-round draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers.