Players can flex muscles off field
This season proved they have large platforms and aren’t afraid to use them
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The NFL players have found their voice.
If the players learned nothing else from this season, in which some were hailed as both great humanitarians and demonized as unpatriotic ingrates, it’s that they have power. Their simple gestures can spark a national debate on race, social justice and who we are as a country. Their simple requests can better the lives of millions of people.
“We’re a lot more powerful than we realize. If there’s one thing I hope everybody realizes, it’s how much you can move the needle when you’re willing to stand up and take a stance,” Eric Winston, president of the NFL Players Association, said Thursday.
“Whether it’s social issues, whether that’s charitable issues in your community, whether it’s anything else that you think that needs fixing, that you are powerful and that, as a whole, we’re even more powerful than that.”
Football is their primary focus, and that’s not going to change. But the players have realized that with their profile comes a platform, and they are increasingly willing to use it.
This is no small thing. The NFL has almost 2,000 players in any given year. If even a tenth of them band together to raise the profile of an issue or highlight a cause, the impact will be tremendous. We’re already seeing it.
J.J. Watt hoped to raise $200,000 for victims of Hurricane Harvey. He wound up with more than $37 million. New Orleans Saints punter Thomas Morstead is dropping off a check for $200,000 this week to the Children’s Hospital here, the result of donations from Vikings fans who were impressed with his sportsmanship.
The leaguewide outrage that fol- lowed President Trump’s scorn-filled criticisms forced NFL owners to join the players in a program that not only raises awareness of social justice but also will try to find solutions.
And last summer, the NFLPA formed a political action committee that will lobby for workplace issues at the state and federal level.
Issues such as worker’s compensation or use of their likenesses without permission.
Winston told USA TODAY that more than 90% of the league is participating, and a report filed this week with the Federal Election Commission showed that almost $700,000 was donated on a single day in the fall.
The most came from the New England Patriots and Houston Texans, each of which gave $32,000. Four players, including Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, gave the maximum $5,000 contribution.
“We made it very clear to the players that we didn’t want this to become a party sort of PAC. This is not about supporting Democrats or Republicans,” Winston said. “This is about supporting the issues that affect us as men, as players, as a union. That’s really where all this comes from.”
For too long, players were content to do their talking on the field and leave the rest up to everyone else. The owners. Their agents. Even union leadership.
But the past two years have shown them that they cannot be bystanders, letting others write the narratives on issues that matter to them.
“We learned the hard way. Talking only goes so far,” Winston said. “We have to be able to move the needle in a lot of different ways sometimes. We can talk until we’re blue in the face about whether this is appropriate or not, but money talks. We’ve got to be able to push the initiatives and support the initiatives that we feel are going to affect our guys.”
The players have always known there is strength in numbers. They see that every time they step on the field.
But they know now that it’s true off the field, too.
“What Colin (Kaepernick) did was really empower a lot of people to be able to join a movement that he started, that maybe they weren’t as comfortable to start themselves, but to join something that if they really felt was right,” New York Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich said.
“It’s not about going against this country or going against this flag or going against other Americans,” he added. “It’s about bonding together and creating equality for every single human in this country.”
The players have found their voices, and they will not be silenced.