Goodell praises Kaepernick for his social activism
Colin Kaepernick, nearly five years since sparking a social equality movement that reverberated well beyond the NFL, drew credit for his actions when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with the media Thursday.
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since his 49ers tenure from 2011-16. He’s since continued to promote civil rights and call against police misconduct. Those outcries were what led Kaepernick to protest during the national anthem before 49ers games in 2016.
“I said very clearly back in June that we wish we had listened to our players earlier, and we had a lot of players that were coming and bringing these issues to us,” Goodell said from Tampa, Fla., in his annual state-ofthe-league speech during Super Bowl week. “It didn’t start last summer. It started over two years ago, and we’ve been working with the Players Coalition over that period of time.
“Colin was one of the individuals who obviously brought a great deal of attention to this, and, for that, he deserves our recognition for that and appreciation.
“But there were a lot of other players. In fact, many of the demonstrations started back in 2014 with Ferguson.”
Goodell, it should be noted, did not mention Kaepernick’s name during a June 2020 video statement regarding social equality and police misconduct.
Unable to latch on with a team or even garner a workout with any club since he opted out of his contract four years ago, Kaepernick sued the NFL for alleged collusion, and they reached an unspecified settlement in February 2019.
“From our standpoint, we now, I think, have a platform and an ability to work with our players to address those issues that they’ve identified in their communities, in our communities, that we can help and address,” Goodell continued Thursday.
“There’s a commitment on behalf of the entire ownership on that, not just financial, but more important, with our resources, and we’ll exceed that. The players deserve a lot of credit for all that and the clubs do for supporting that. We look forward to making a difference in our communities.” Other notes from Goodell:
• The NFL is planning to play international games in London and Mexico City next season if the pandemic allows for it. The league canceled the four planned games in London and one in Mexico City in 2020 because of uncertainty about travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
• He says it’s far too early to talk about whether unvaccinated players will be playing next season or if fans will need to be vaccinated to attend games in 2021. He said he wishes he knew the answer to what the 2021 season will look like. The lessons learned from playing this season through a pandemic means he knows not to project too far in advance.
• He noted it an “extraordinary collective effort” to play through the pandemic without losing any games to COVID-19. Goodell said that “there were doubters” and a lot of unknowns. But he said innovative solutions were found through cooperation between the league and the players association.