NFL aims to end anthem controversy, but it might need a Hail Mary
Those on both sides appear to dig in further in response to league’s new rules
Seeking to end a political controversy that has embarrassed professional football, the NFL’s team owners on Wednesday held that players could no longer kneel during the national anthem without leaving themselves open to punishment or their teams facing possible financial penalties.
But the league also said the new policy would not force athletes to stand on the sideline during the anthem; it would give them the option of staying in the locker room during the pregame ceremony. Almost immediately after passage, questions arose about how it would be enforced.
The policy is an attempt to find a middle ground on a divisive issue that has shaken the country’s most successful sport for nearly two years, beginning when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to protest police violence against minorities and
economic inequality. President Donald Trump escalated the issue a year later as he attacked kneeling players as unpatriotic, a stand that is believed to have contributed to a decline in the league’s television ratings.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the protests, which began in the summer of 2016, created a “false perception among many that thousands of NFL players were unpatriotic.” He added, “The new policy will keep our focus on the game and the extraordinary athletes who play it — and on our fans who enjoy it.”
But if the NFL had hoped to quiet the debate, people on opposite sides appeared to dig in further after Wednesday’s announcement.
In a strongly worded statement issued just minutes after the NFL’s announcement, the NFL Players Association said the league had not consulted the players’ union in creating the new protocol and accused league officials of hypocrisy.
“The vote by NFL club CEOs today contradicts the statements made to our player leadership by Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Chairman of the NFL’s Management Council John Mara about the principles, values and patriotism of our League,” the statement said. George Atallah, the union’s assistant executive director for external affairs, said the new rules were “not a compromise.” The players’ union said it would challenge any aspect of it that is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement.
The White House declined to officially comment Wednesday evening on the NFL’s action. Vice President Mike Pence, however, made the White House reaction clear with a one-word tweet, “#Winning,” which included a picture of a CNN article about the news.
Malcolm Jenkins became a leader of a group of socially active players known as the Players Coalition after having raised his fist in protest during the anthem last season. He said the league had acted to silence the players.
“What NFL owners did today was thwart the players’ constitutional rights to express themselves and use our platform to draw attention to social injustices like racial inequality in our country,” Jenkins said in a statement. “Everyone loses when voices get stifled.”
Chris Long, a defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles, was among the players who disagreed with the new policy, saying the league continued “to fall short on this issue.”
“This is a fear of a diminished bottom line,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s also fear of a president turning his base against a corporation. This is not patriotism. Don’t get it confused. These owners don’t love America more than the players demonstrating and taking real action to improve it.”
Goodell has struggled to handle the controversy over the player protests during the national anthem ever since Kaepernick began his demonstrations. Kaepernick remains unemployed and has filed a grievance accusing team owners of colluding to keep him out of football.
The debate has shaken the league in part because it has affected the metric that is most important to it: television ratings. Audiences for NFL games are off about 20 percent from two seasons ago. While it is impossible to know how much of that is a result of fans being turned off by the protests during the anthem, industry experts, including Sean McManus, chief executive of CBS Sports, one of the league’s media partners, have said data show the NFL’s handling of the issue is at least partly to blame for the drop-off.
The debate has even divided the league geographically, with teams in more progressive regions offering support to players who chose to demonstrate and those in more conservative regions pushing for new rules to punish the on-field protests.
NFL owners, players and executives met in October to discuss the anthem issue. According to an audio recording obtained by the New York Times, players wanted to talk about Kaepernick’s case, while owners were more concerned about how to avoid negative publicity around the issue of kneeling during the anthem.
“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner and a longtime supporter of Trump’s. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”
Houston Texans owner Bob McNair told players they should talk to their teammates who kneel: “You fellas need to ask your compadres, fellas, stop that other business, let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you.”
Whether the new policy further inflames or assuages the controversy remains to be seen.
Players had been required to be on the field for the anthem. Now every player who does take the field will have to “show respect for the flag and the anthem.” The league will fine the teams that have any players it decides have not done so, though it did not specify what would qualify as disrespect. Borrowing from former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography, Steven Jones, son of the Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, said the league would know disrespect when it saw it.
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney said after the vote that raising a fist or linking arms during the anthem, as some players have done, would be considered disrespectful.
Jed York of the 49ers abstained in the vote, according to ESPN, a move that 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman said carried great respect with the players.
Christopher Johnson, the chairman and chief executive of the New York Jets, said the team would not punish players who chose to kneel during the anthem, despite the cost.
“There will be no club fines or suspensions or any sort of repercussions,” Johnson told Newsday. “If the team gets fined, that’s just something I’ll have to bear.”
Any decision not to punish the players may further incur the wrath of the veterans’ groups that have pushed for the NFL to address the issue.
Denise Rohan, leader of the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans’ organization, commended the NFL for trying to end what the groups have portrayed as visible attacks on cherished symbols of the country, even though players have long denied they were doing anything of the sort.
“While the issues that led to the controversy remain and deserve continued national dialogue, we hope that all Americans would stand united as one under our national symbol,” Rohan said. “NFL team owners voted unanimously for the new policy and we believe it is a fair compromise for all involved.”