NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed his immense regret for not listening to Colin Kaepernick in 2016 when the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback peacefully protested during the national anthem. Roger thought it was one of the biggest mistakes for them.
On June 5, Goodell released a video proclaiming that “Black lives matter” and that the NFL was wrong in shunning peaceful player protests of social injustice and police brutality back in the previous times.
Following the NFL player Emmanuel Acho’s social media video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” Roger Goodell was asked by Acho to publicly expressed his remorse and apologized wholeheartedly to Kaepernick, who hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2016 season.
He said, “I wish we had listened earlier, Kaep, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to. We had invited him 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.”
His message gave this protest a new direction suddenly. His recent announcement was, “We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country. Without black players, there would be no National Football League. And the protests around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality, and oppression of black players, coaches, fans, and staff.”
This year, the protest began to rise more after the murder of George Floyd, Goodell says that message the players have been trying to share has become clearer to him now, and he’s really hopeful that the public reaction to players kneeling during the anthem in the future can become more favorable for the situation.
The 32-year-old Kaepernick has not played since the 2016 season when as a member of the 49ers, he kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality, back when no one did bother too much about this. But now it seems like everyone’s looking forward to the last discharge of the protest!
