NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed regret about how he responded to Colin Kaepernick protesting systemic police misconduct and racism by kneeling for the pregame performances of the national anthem during the 2016 season.
Goodell appeared on Emmanuel Acho’s “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” YouTube series in an interview posted on Sunday, Aug. 23. At around the 5:03 mark, Acho, a former NFL linebacker, asked him how he would apologize to Kaepernick if given the chance.
“Well the first thing I’d say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to,” said Goodell. “We had invited him in several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had the benefit of that. We never did. We would have benefited from that. Absolutely.”
Kaepernick was the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback when he began kneeling for the national anthem in 2016, a move that many in the Black community championed, while others, including Donald Trump, said he was disrespecting the American flag.
The Wisconsin native became a free agent in 2017 but was never signed by a team. So in October of that year, Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid, who knelt with him, filed a collusion suit against the league, which they’ve already settled.
But the NFL Network reported in June that multiple teams are interested in signing Kaepernick, but they couldn’t give him a workout because of COVID-19 health restrictions.
Elsewhere in the interview, Goodell was asked what he knows now about the kneeling protests that he didn’t know before.
“I didn’t know what was going on in the communities, and when I had the chance to sit with our players, I never had the chance to sit with Kap,” he explained. “But I talked with Kenny Stills a lot, Eric Reid, Malcolm Jenkins, Anquan Boldin. So many other players … Some of them sacrificed a great deal.”
The commissioner also said that he’s frustrated by those who believe Kaepernick and others were protesting the American flag with their kneeling and not racism.
“It is not about the flag,” Goodell stated. “The message here is that what our players are doing is being mischaracterized. These are not people who are unpatriotic. They’re not disloyal. They’re not against our military. In fact, many of those guys were in the military and they’re military family. What they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. That misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me.”
I lyrics of Jesus and pledge of allegis to the flag sense I entered a public school never had a problem with it still don’t.
Goodell enabled that Racist Piece of Crap Trump to use the Kaepernick non-violent protest to achieve his political goal.
I DONT WALK IN YOUR SHOES SO I WOULD NEVER EVER SPEW HATEFUL CONTRADICTION AT WHAT PLIGHT LIFE HAS BROUGHT TO YOU OR WHATEVER INJUSTICES YOU’VE ENDURED. SO MAYBE STEP INTO THE SHOES OF A BLACK MAN FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE, LEAVE ALL THE JEALOUSY OF THEIR TALENT ON THE COURT AND FIELD MAKIMG THEM SUPERSTARS AND BIG MONEY, BEING PULLED OVER BY A RADICALLY RACIST COP FOR NO APPARENT REASON WHO DOESNT KNOW THEY ARE SUPERSTARS OR ANGER BOILING JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK SUPERSTARS, HARASSING THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN. HOW ABOUT YOU TAKE A COLOR PILL AND EXPERIENCE WALKING IN THEIR SHOES.
Karl those are not the words Kaep kneeled about. The flag is just a piece of cloth a symbol. Every country in the world has a piece of colored cloth representing their country. ITS THE MEANING BEHIND THE “WORDS” AND THE PROMISE IN THE ANTHEM REPRESENTING AMERICAN ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG! EVERY MAN WOMAN OF COLOR KNOWS IT’S A LIE! WE ARE NOT ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE ARE WE? THERE IS CONTRADICTION IN THOSE WORDS. MY DAD WAS A SERGEANT IN WORLD WAR 2 COULD ONLY HAVE BLACK MEN IN HIS PLATOON OF MEN. SAVED LIVES EARNED PURPLE HEART DIDNT RECEIVE IT TILL IT WAS MAILED TO HIM 21 YEARS LATER. WHEN WE WOULD REACEL AS A FAMILY IN THE SOUTH IN THE 50’S AND 60’S FOR SUMMER VACATION TRIPS BY CAR POLICE WOULD PULL US OVER EVERY-TIME WHEN WE CROSSED VA.STATE LINE AND HARASS MY DAD! CALL HIM “BOY”. WHY? BECAUSE MY MOM, ALTHOUGH A BLACK WOMAN, HER SKIN WAS WHITE, SHE INHERITED THE COLOR-GENES OF HER WHITE SCOTTISH GREAT-GRAND MOTHER. (Inter-racial marriage was against the law in Va). MY MOM
WOULD HACE TO PROVE AHE WAS BLACK. I SAW PERSONALLY AS A 12 YEAR OLD CHILD A BLACK BOY ABOUT MY AGE HANGING BY A ROPE DEAD BURNED TO DEATH AS WE PASSED THRU VA. WE HAD TO TAKE BOXED FOOD WITH US ON THOSE TRIPS BECAUSE WE
COULDNT STOP AND EAT IN Restaurants. MY MOM WOULD VE CALLES “NIGGER LOVER”. YOU CAN BELIEVE IT OR NOT NO MATTER HOW THIS COUNTRY HAS GROWN IT HASNT MATURED IN ALL AREAS ESPECIALLY THE CREEDO ONE NATION UNDER-GOD INDIVISIBLE JUSTICE FOR ALL! CAN YOU WALK IN ANOTHER MANS SHOES OR LIFES STRUGGLES?