Seahawks WR Doug Baldwin last night said some NFL team owners have "taken a stand and told their players" to act a certain way as protests continue to take place across the league. Baldwin appeared on HBO’s “Any Given Wednesday” to discuss how some players have protested during the National Anthem and said, “There have been owners that have told their players to do specific things, or to not do specific things. … Specifically regarding the National Anthem, the protests, the one quote that I was informed of was, ‘You’re going to stand on the line with your hand on your heart and you’re going to sing the National Anthem because this is my stage.’” He said there is a "chilling ripple effect across the league" as more players demonstrate prior to games. Baldwin: "There are a number of guys who have reached out to me and said they want to take a knee, they’re pushing for us to take a knee across the league, do it together, to be a little bit more agitating to the people who don’t want to hear the message. It's just hard to get across to everybody across the league because … they're scared.” HBO's Bill Simmons said, “I don’t think the NFL really knows what to do. They haven’t really said that much.” Baldwin: “It’s such a sensitive topic that they don’t really want to get their hands on it. It addresses and it touches so many lives, particularly in the NFL, because there are a lot of guys who come from those backgrounds who’ve experienced these certain things that you see on social media and in the news. It's very hard for somebody in a completely different world to tell you, ‘No, you can’t stand up for what you believe in’” ("Any Given Wednesday," HBO, 10/5). Baldwin earlier in the week told Showtime the NFL being mostly hands-off mostly with the protests “doesn’t surprise” him, as this is a “very touchy subject.” Baldwin: “The NFL itself is worried about the consequences and repercussions of supporting something that may get confused with a different message” (“60 Minutes Sports,” Showtime, 10/4).
MOVING TOWARD A BOYCOTT? Simmons wondered if players could eventually boycott a game to get their message across, asking Baldwin, "Is that the final frontier?” Baldwin: “Ultimately that's what I would like to see, that's what it should come to. But we have a hard time getting together on the same issues with our union, sticking together and unifying in that way.” He added, “This is something greater than that, I believe, so maybe that conversation could continue to go in that way, but it's a difficult conversation to have because … you have athletes that are scared of the repercussions and the consequences. You had a guy lose his endorsement for thousands of dollars because he wanted to take a knee, because he decided to protest in the manner in which he protested” (“Any Given Wednesday,” HBO, 10/5).
OWNER SHOULD BE IDENTIFIED: PFT’s Mike Florio said the identity of the owner Baldwin referred to needs to be known "because people are going to want to blame that owner, people are going to want to applaud that owner." More than that, there is "no rule or labor agreement provision that allows the NFL to tell players to stand up during the Anthem." If an owner is doing that, he is "breaking the rules and it could be an issue." Florio: "They're used to having a lot of money and power, and they're used to using that power." He notes Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones is the only owner "who has spoken publicly in any way that could be construed as a negative about the National Anthem protests." Florio: "There's going to be a clear motivation for reporters covering every team to pull a player to the side and say, ‘Has the owner ever come into the locker room or been on the sidelines or at practice and said anything remotely like this?’ It's going to become a thing, that's the next branch of this river that's been kind of working its way through the NFL over the last month and a half” (“PFT,” NBCSN, 10/6). FS1's Shannon Sharpe said, "I am so disappointed that an owner with so much power would use that power to suppress someone else's ability to take a stand.” FS1’s Skip Bayless: "The flash point operative word is 'stage' -- 'This is my stage.' I will paraphrase the rest of the quote from the owner through his head: ‘I bought this stage, I run this stage, I pay you to play on this stage, I operate the business upon which this stage rests, and if I tell you to stand at attention and put your right hand over your heart, that's what you will do as my employee.’ That comes off pretty harsh” (“Undisputed,” FS1, 10/6).
REASON FOR RATINGS DROP? A recent Rasmussen Reports survey noted 32% of respondents are less likely to watch the NFL due to the anthem protests. but NFL Network's Rich Eisen said he would be "surprised if a third of the NFL fandom decides to put down their remotes because they're so upset by something like that." Eisen said, "I have met a couple of people who said they were so upset by it that they say they’re voting with their remotes. But I can’t imagine that that is a large number of people, because I’ve met more people who think that it’s (49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's) right do what he’s doing in the same way it’s their right to be upset about it” ("The Dan Patrick Show," 10/5).
GETTING INVOLVED: Baldwin in a Q&A with SI's Jon Wertheim said Kaepernick "was the leader in stepping up" and he "took the brunt of the hits for it." He added, "I'm thankful for that because he got the conversation started." Below are additional excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for brevity.
Q: For your involvement, why you? Why now?
Baldwin: As a human being, when I see things going on in my community, I feel compelled to do something, to say something. And this is a situation that I was passionate about.
Q: Protest can be powerful, but this activism that you’ve undertaken is very different. This is very practical. These are meetings. This is a fairly granular discussion. Why did you choose this approach?
Baldwin: Because I didn’t know all the information. I think that sometimes it’s very difficult for anybody to come to conclusion outside of their emotional response, and for me, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to eliminate my emotional response and make an informed decision.
Q: What have you learned?
Baldwin: Lots. That training for law enforcement is not universal across the country. There are a lot of different definitions of de-escalation, and I think that’s where the root of the problem is. It’s not providing our law enforcement with the training or the resources for them to protect themselves (SI, 10/10 issue).
