Super Bowl Champion Wears Stephon Clark's Name On Helmet
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Sports have been at the center of social justice for decades.
The NFL's social justice campaign allows players to wear positive messages or commemorate lives lost on the back of their helmets. This season several players carried Stephon Clark's name on theirs.
Clark was shot and killed by Sacramento police officers in 2018.
"Sports supersedes race, it supersedes religion and it can then form a ground of unity. The players who stand for what's right who use that platform affect the world," Sequette Clark, the mother of Stephon Clark, said.
She says the majority of players who chose Stephon's name were from Sacramento, including 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead and Saints defensive end Carl Granderson. But one player, unfamiliar with the Clark family, heard Stephon's story and chose to carry his name all the way to the Super Bowl.
"[Rakeem] Nunez-Roches chose my son. Stephon's in the game," she said.
Number 56, a Tampa Bay Buccaneer and now a world champion.
"Things like that they prove that his life mattered. I felt honored I can feel it now. I don't want to cry," Mrs. Clark said.
It was a Super Bowl for the ages and the win belongs to the Bucs, but the Clarks say they too feel like champions.
"Stephon was in the Super Bowl. Stephon was in the Super Bowl," Sequette Clark said.
Stephon's brother Stevante said, "Sacramento, the city of Sac, we all won the Super Bowl."
CBS13 tried to reach out to Nunez-Roches but was unable to reach him Monday.