© Mark J. Rebilas | 2019 Sep 22
It took the horrific killing of another unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer, and two weeks of subsequent protests, for the NFL to finally say publicly that they support peaceful protests from their players.
That was a portion of Roger Goodell’s message on Friday in a video posted to Twitter, that played as a direct response to NFL players who asked the league to come to their defense on matters of racial equality. Presumably, this would mean that the league would at the very least allow kneeling during the national anthem in 2020, a position that they have waffled on ever since Colin Kaepernick began his protest in 2016.
No matter what the league does, a certain segment of the population will be upset. Allowing and supporting protests during the national anthem will certainly draw the ire of President Trump, who already fired off a warning shot on Twitter Sunday night. It will also anger a portion of the fanbase, something the league feared so much in previous years, that it kept Kaepernick from being signed.
The alternative, punishing players for protesting, would be worse according to Editor-in-Chief of The Athletic Bay Area Tim Kawakami, who said that if the league were to come down on players in light of recent events, the NFL could have a revolt on its hands.
“I don’t think you can go backwards now, I really don’t,” TK told Papa & Lund on Monday. “Trump fires off a tweet and you knew that was coming, or they better have known it was coming, and they better have known they’ll be many more. They’re going to have players protest. That is going to happen. I don’t think any of us doubts that. Probably should happen.
“If it happens in a large way, the owners better be braced for it, better understand it and better accept it, because it’s going to happen. If they start penalizing players for this, if they start reacting in a strong and negative way, players aren’t going to play the games. They’re not going to play. Not every single player is going to feel that way, but if you tell the 10 players on your team who choose to kneel, or do whatever during the national anthem, that they can’t do it, that they’re banned from this, that they’re going to be suspended or fined, they’re not going to play the game. And that is going to be a bigger deal than any of this.
“There’s the 30 percent or 40 percent of the fan base or the electorate that’s going to hate this, but the world also changes. The world moves on. Steve Kerr really believes this. The young generation doesn’t think this way. The young generation doesn’t think about racial prejudices the same way. If you decide you have to listen to the player, and Roger Goodell said those words, and the players are demanding you listen to them, I can’t see how you go back now, I can’t see it.”
A handful of players, including former 49ers safety Eric Reid, kneeled during the national anthem last year, and did not face any public punishment from the league.
