The NFL has seen the light finally? Is the unemployable former Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick finally … employable?
We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv
— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020
This won’t make President Trump, Mr. Patriotism himself, all that happy, now will it? The NFL has just repudiated their implicit stand with Trump, and he’s not going to take it lying down. If he hasn’t spat some venom at them yet, he will soon enough.
It’s not been clear to me how the football fans have felt about the entire Kaepernick controversy. Was a majority just irritated super-patriots that’d rather not watch those who squatted when the anthem was sung? Could this cripple NFL finances as fans stay away?
But, on the other hand, many of the NFL’s star employees are black and in solidarity with the community that has been abused for so long. If they walked out, that would cause the NFL a lot of financial pain, once again. So there’s definitely a pincer movement; I’m hoping that it’s true, however, that this wasn’t a financial calculation by the people in charge of the NFL, but a moral decision forced by the clarity that the George Floyd murder and ensuing protests has brought about. They characterize it as a moral decision, but it’s a little hard to know for sure if you weren’t in the boardroom where this decision took place. I can only hope.
And then how does this affect the fans? This is a bit different, because I’m wondering if this will transform the attitudes of some fans. There will be the supporters of those who took a knee who will be pleased, of course, but what about those who were virulently against them? Will they ignore the situation? Call for a boycott?
Or maybe reconsider their position?
The NFL is one of the biggest sports machines in the United States and influences a lot of people a lot more than is probably really healthy. Managed properly, this announcement may be a big rock starting to roll downhill finally. It could even be a big, if subtle, piece of why President Trump doesn’t get reelected – or even resigns early.
But announcing the signing of Kaepernick will be necessary in order to confirm the NFL’s conversion to a morally defensible position.
