NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "understands players aren’t protesting the American flag or the country’s military and its veterans" when they take a knee or sit during the national anthem, but he "wants to see them stand and make a change in society in a different way," according to Zach Braziller of the N.Y. POST. Appearing at Bloomberg's The Year Ahead Summit, Goodell said he wants to "get beyond what we call protest to progress, get to the point where we can make that positive change." Goodell: "People come to our stadiums to be entertained, have fun, not be protested to." Goodell said that fans and sponsors have "complained to him" about players taking a knee during the anthem. He said, "That’s one of the things I think when we have a platform the way we do is people seek to find that division, and I think that’s something we try to resist. And in this case I’ve been very clear about this -- the anthem, the respect for our flag is very important. So I want to see our players stand" (NYPOST.com, 11/8). USA TODAY's Chris Korman wrote Goodell's "insistence that his goal remains to move past protest and toward progress is worrying ... because it feels precisely like a thing a CEO would say while pretending to care about a controversy he needs only to go away." Korman: "It’s nice to see Goodell essentially say: These players have a point. We need to help them." On the other hand, it is "powerfully discouraging to have Goodell lend credence to those who 'interpret' the protests as disrespectful and therefore invalid." It is also "confounding to hear him continue to uphold the idea that a football stadium should be a sanctuary safe from any discussion of societal issues" (USATODAY.com, 11/8).
NFL DOESN'T WANT ARBITRATOR: USA TODAY's Jones & Reyes reported the NFL has "no plans to request any sort of third-party arbitrator for future meetings with players regarding social justice issues." The next meeting among league officials -- including Goodell, several team owners and members of the players’ coalition -- has "not yet been scheduled." 49ers S Eric Reid wrote on Twitter that Colin Kaepernick "plans to attend the next meeting, and players have requested that the NFL set a date." Lockhart reiterated that Kaepernick "would be welcome at any formal meetings between the league and players, but declined to say whether Goodell would meet privately with the free-agent quarterback" (USA TODAY, 11/8).
WRONG PERSON TO LEAD MOVEMENT? USA TODAY's Tom Schad notes Kaepernick has "remained relatively silent as other players have taken up his protest against racial inequality and police brutality." ESPN's Michael Wilbon on Tuesday during the Shirley Povich Symposium at the Univ. of Maryland said that is just "one of the reasons Kaepernick will never be on the same level as some of sports' past civil rights leaders." Wilbon: "He’s an unfortunate messenger in a lot of ways. You have this platform, and you don’t use it or know how to use it, you’re quiet, you’re not particularly eloquent on the issue." USA Today's Christine Brennan believes Kaepernick "will be studied in history classes 20 or 30 years from now, in the same way that prominent sports figures like Curt Flood and Billie Jean King are studied today." NBC's Bob Costas praised Kaepernick's community involvement, charitable donations and intentions, he said that "does not make him 'the natural heir to Muhammad Ali.'" Costas: "He’s gone radio silent, and when he does speak, he often says things that undermine his position" (USA TODAY, 11/9).
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? SI.com's Charles Pierce wondered whether this "sudden burst of athlete activism will continue, or if it will it peter out over the next decade the way the previous era of the activist athlete did in the 1980’s." He believed it will "go on, for a number of different reasons." President Trump is "not going anywhere any time soon," and it was "easy to turn off the last outburst of activism among high-profile athletes." Throughout the '80’s and '90’s, political statements by athletes were "crushed with cold efficiency." However, silencing athletes "is not that easy to do any more, Kaepernick’s situation notwithstanding." The current generations of athletes are "more aware of the world around them because they are the first generations to come of age in the middle of the great acceleration that has come with the Internet." The phenomenon of "instant communication and virtual community will have one more effect going forward that was not available" to the generation before. There is "another generation of athletes coming up, and another one after that, each more tech-savvy than the previous one." The "deluge of information is going to intensify as the technology accelerates its delivery" (SI.com, 11/8).
