Would FIFA pre-game ritual work for NFL?
A solution to the issue of players protesting racial inequality and police brutality in the U.S. during the national anthem continues to evade both the National Football League and the NFL Players Association.
I might have stumbled onto a framework for a potential solution thanks to FIFA.
The practice instituted for years now by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, is for each player of each team at international (even pro) games to walk onto the pitch while holding the hand of a child soccer player, then remain partnered with that child at midfield as teams line up for the pre-game anthem or other brief rituals.
At the same moment, FIFA has permitted socially beneficial messages to be unfurled on huge banners on the field, such as, “Say no to racism.”
Why don’t the NFL and NFLPA agree to something like that? Expand the idea, but amend it. Keep the rousing, rock concert-style starter introductions, complete with flame-shooting pyrotechnics. But when the announcers ask fans to stand and remove their hats, how about this:
Some weeks, assign a child from a disadvantaged background to each player as they all stand together for the pre-game anthem.
Other weeks, say in October during Breast Cancer Awareness month, allow women survivors of the disease to hold hands with players.
Would it feel forced? Maybe. Would some players feel patronized and resent it? Perhaps.
But really, which teams would object to that? Which players would choose to kneel while holding the hand of such a person?
Furthermore, the league and union could agree on the simple, imperative, societal improvement messages they’d want to promote.
Finally, why don’t the NFL and NFLPA commit to writing it into their next collective bargaining agreement to together allocate a small percentage of league revenues to help rectify these societal problems in perpetuity?
In the process, the NFL and players might even shut up Donald Trump. Now who on any side would protest that?