NFL discusses ‘American issues’

Talks focused on how league could support players

Anquan Boldin is as strong a messenger as anyone when it comes to understanding the issues that fuel protests by NFL players that have lit up America’s favorite sport.

Two years ago, Boldin’s cousin, Corey Jones, 31, was slain on the side of a highway by a plainclothes police officer in the wee hours of the morning while waiting for a tow truck.

In August, Boldin, one of the gutsiest wide receivers and most respected locker room leaders you’ll ever meet, abruptly retired after 14 seasons. On the heels of the deadly white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., he pledged to quit football and pick up the cause for social justice.

Tuesday, he joined 12 active players in a meeting at NFL headquarters with Commissioner Roger Goodell, 11 team owners and other top officials from the league and players union. They discussed how the league could support the players in dealing with the social issues — the protest movement was originally ignited last year by Colin Kaepernick — that remain front and center on the grand stage of the NFL. “We don’t think these are just players’ issues,” Boldin told USA TODAY Sports as he strolled down Lexington Avenue after the three-hour meeting. “They are American issues, and we want to see it portrayed that way.”

If you’re thinking that Goodell laid down the law and demanded that players must stand for the national anthem, think again. There’s no new policy, no threats such as the one that came from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who maintains that he won’t play any players who don’t stand during The Star-Spangled Banner. Sure, Goodell stated in a memo last week that he prefers that all players stand for the anthem rather than take a knee, but there’s no new rule or ironclad mandate.

No, Donald Trump, NFL owners didn’t threaten to fire anyone.

In fact, according to players and others in the meeting, the anthem protests did not drive the dialogue. Instead, the conversation revolved around ways the NFL can support players, in a league where more than 70% of them are African American, and their social concerns, which include police brutality, social injustice and racial inequality.

In recent weeks, Goodell has engaged with players in efforts to better connect with police in their communities. Tuesday’s meeting had the same type of collaborative tone even though the protests have seemingly annoyed some of the fan base.

“I think we all have mutual interests,” said Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, another of the key leaders from the player ranks. “The players are part of this league. We want to make sure that it’s a quality product that we put on the field. At the same time, we have a responsibility to the communities that we live in.”

Times have changed as players are becoming increasingly aware of the power they possess to impact change.

“I think guys are understanding just how far their reach is,” Boldin said. “Understanding just how powerful their voice is. Players have a vision of how they want to see this country.”

In another time, NFL owners might have squashed such efforts, fearing hits to the league’s popularity with the fan base and backlash from sponsors.

But something seems different. When someone asked San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York if the engagement with players on these issue forces owners to be above the pure interest of making money, he said, “You have to be. Our country’s more important than economic impact.”

I’m not sure that’s exactly how Jones would put it. Last week, he told USA TODAY Sports that, “We’re in the football business, not social issues.”

But he seems outnumbered. York remembers how he felt when Kaepernick first sat to protest during the anthem.

“I was taken aback,” he recalled. “Then I sat down with Colin and understood.”

That’s a huge statement about the state of affairs in the league, where people with different views of the world are actually listening to each other. That’s a model that needs to extend far beyond football.

There you go, NFL. Maybe that’s your big contribution to uniting a polarized nation.

RICHARD DREW, AP Former NFL player Anquan Boldin, left, the Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins, center, and the 49ers Eric Reid were among 13 former and current players at Tuesday’s meetings.