ATLANTA — Cordarrelle “Flash” Patterson stepped onto the field with a message as the Atlanta Falcons chalked in a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
On Sunday, the football player wore customized cleats honoring Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was shot and killed last year in Brunswick, Georgia.
The team snapped a photo of Patterson’s black cleats which read “R.I.P Ahmaud Arbery” with two doves pictured around the message.
On his right heel was another message: “Stop systemic racism.”
Patterson’s homage to Arbery comes days after a nearly all-white jury found three men guilty in the murder of the 25-year-old.
The trial surrounding Arbery’s death concluded Wednesday.
Arbery was killed while running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. More than a year later, three white men have been convicted in Arbery’s killing.
Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, the men charged in Arbery’s murder, are now awaiting sentencing.