LANDOVER, Md. — It was undeniably a monumental Sunday for the National Football League. There were teams that were no-shows for the national anthem, and others that linked arms with owners. Players knelt and sat during the anthem, and some
LANDOVER, Md. — It was undeniably a monumental Sunday for the National Football League. There were teams that were no-shows for the national anthem, and others that linked arms with owners. Players knelt and sat during the anthem, and some raised their fists.
But something was conspicuously missing from Sunday’s stage: a real discussion about the issues Colin Kaepernick wanted to highlight when he started the movement. He knelt during the anthem last season to protest social injustice and police brutality, and since then he has been a pariah no team wants to sign.
President Donald Trump, in picking a fight with the league, reframed the issue as a lack of respect for the country and the flag, which may make it even harder for athletes to extend their one-day revolt into a political dialogue. On Monday, Trump again addressed the NFL on Twitter, asserting a “tremendous backlash” against the league and its players for “disrespect of our country.” It was his 15th tweet in three days about athletes respecting the flag or the anthem.
Many players who might want to speak out further are in a vulnerable position now. Their contracts are not guaranteed, and their NFL fate is in the hands of the same owners and general managers who have deemed Kaepernick unfit to play in the league. Some Miami Dolphins players wore #IMWITHKAP T-shirts Sunday, but they surely weren’t hoping to join him as an NFL castoff.
Consider Oakland Raiders tackle Donald Penn’s plans for moving forward.
Penn said he didn’t really want to protest Sunday, because he loves the American flag and he appreciates the military. But he said he felt Trump had forced him to react when the president called any player who chose to protest a “son of a bitch.” And now Penn has had his say.
“I’m not going to do it again next week,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it this week. This all had to do with President Trump’s comments. That’s the only reason that we did that.”
Kenneth Shropshire, who runs the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, is the author of the book “In Black and White: Race and Sports in America.” He has some interesting thoughts on the effectiveness of protest movements, and he worries that the NFL movement might be fleeting.
To effect real change, Shropshire told me, the demonstrations can’t disappear in a flash. But their staying power depends on the reason the players and owners were spurred to action.
“At the player level, it really was someone saying on the street, ‘Yo mama,’” he said. “And at the basest level, nobody can talk about your mother without some retribution.”
At the owner level, Shropshire said, any continued displays of solidarity will depend how much of the protest stemmed from owners’ anger that the president had told them how to run their businesses.
“Their thinking might be, ‘How dare this person get into my business?’” he said. “So it’ll be interesting if some owner signs Kaepernick now, just to show that Trump can’t engage in their business.”
The real problem with players who focus solely on Trump’s comments is that he will have succeeded in steering attention away from the original issues — racism and police brutality. On Sunday, everyone seemed to be consumed by a different matter: whether it is appropriate to kneel during the anthem.
Vernon Davis, the Washington Redskins tight end, said he had an idea for how to get beyond the bickering and properly engage on the real issues: Gather top players from each of the professional leagues and have them meet with Trump at the White House.
“We have some of the largest platforms there is,” he said. “We’re huge influences when it comes to people.”
He added, “Why not just come together and make it right? Because there is an issue, there is a problem, for sure.”
Davis said he would gladly meet with Trump, but only at “the right time,” which he said would be outside of football season. So Davis, at least, has put everything on hold until February. By then, the opportunity might be gone.
Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, said if a strong core of players would be willing to start — or continue — the conversation about racial equality and justice in their communities, the movement could grow quickly.
“Sunday was the most important sports day since Ali decided not to fight in Vietnam,” Lapchick said. “Yes, I think it was that big. What we don’t do in America is talk about these issues openly, but now we could easily create a forum where athletes and city leaders and front offices and police can discuss racial justice. Right now we don’t have any of that kind of unity in our communities.”
© 2017 The New York Times Company
