The 2017-2018 NFL season was awash with with protests that involved unproperly acting during the National Anthem, most notably kneeling in solidarity with victims of police brutality that grew in “popularity” from the actions by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Last October, NFL team owners, league executives, and player leaders held a confidential meeting at the league’s headquarters in New York City to address President Donald Trump’s attacks against the player protests.
After the confidential meeting took place, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement:
“Today owners and players had a productive meeting focused on how we can work together to promote positive social change and address inequality in our communities. NFL executives and owners joined NFLPA [National Football League Players Association] executives and player leaders to review and discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effectuate positive change. We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together.”
However, the meeting was a bit more contentious than what was explained by Goodell in the statement, which is understood now via a secret recording.
The New York Times got a hold of a recording of the meeting that shows the team owners were extremely worried about the impact the protests would have on the NFL’s economic future. Team owners even went as far as pressuring players to put an end to the mass protests immediately in fear of even further backlash from fans.
In a report from Axios, New England Patriots owner and friend of the president Bob Kraft addressed the concerns at the meeting.
“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America. It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”
The main concern of the owners was that President Trump’s criticism was turning fans against the league. Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula said that the NFL is now victim to the larger societal narrative in the U.S.
“All Donald needs to do is to start to do this again…We need some kind of immediate plan because of what’s going on in society. All of us now, we need to put a Band-Aid on what’s going on in the country.”
Though, Houston Texas owner Bob McNair took it one step further, addressing the players in the room directly. He told them to spread the feeling throughout the NFL and get players to cease their protests.
“You fellas need to ask your compadres, fellas, stop that other business, let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you.”
Even though the protests surrounded Kaepernick, nothing was done by the owners to address his future in the league. Moreover, during the meeting the players in attendance even tried to discuss the former quarterback’s standing in the league. However, the calls for reconciliation fell on deaf ears.
As the NFL protests grew in strength, Kaepernick remained unsigned. This led his former teammate, defensive back Eric Reid, to give some seemingly unwanted words to the owners.
“I feel like he was hung out to dry. Everyone in here is talking about how much they support us. Nobody stepped up and said we support Colin’s right to do this. We all let him become Public Enemy No. 1 in this country, and he still doesn’t have a job.”
Eagles defensive lineman Chris Long chimed in too, according to Sporting News. The biggest theme seemed to be the consensus that Kaepernick should, in fact, be on a team.
“If he was on a roster right now, all this negativeness and divisiveness could be turned into a positive…We all agree in this room as players that he should be on a roster.”
Although there was a vast array of concerns and demands from both NFL team owners and players, the recording shows that, “they would all keeping talking,” about the contention between the NFL and fans spurred by Trump’s remarks. Even though Goodell has desired for the number of protesters to become “zero,” he will undoubtedly have to do something about Kaepernick, not Trump.
