Tuesday’s league meeting between a few players, team owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday produced little clear insight and more general tendencies – but at least one thing remains clear: the NFL will not force its players to stand in front of the game during the anthem, as US President Donald Trump has demanded.
Quite a few had feared that the league and team owners at the meeting in New York would make exactly this decision – instead, the demand of Donald Trump was not even included on the agenda.
Instead the players spoke – Darius Butler (Colts), Russell Okung (Chargers), Kenny Stills, Julius Thomas, Michael Thomas (all Dolphins), Mark Herz (Giants), Kelvin Beachum, Demario Davis (Jets), Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Long (both Eagles), Eric Reid (49ers) and Josh Norman (Redskins) were there, Seattle’s Michael Benn
The aim was also to find out how the teams and the league could better support the work in these areas.Thus, the focus was on the matter itself, not on the protests during the anthem, which Trump criticized repeatedly and sharply.Niners co-owner Jed York summed it up:”We must stand above the attacks from outside, because racist and socio-economic injustices have existed in this country for too long.We need to focus on that and make progress.”
So we must continue to work together,”then we can focus on football and at the same time make our country a better place.And I hope everyone’s for both of these things.”
Team owners – Michael Bidwill (Cardinals), Arthur Blank (Falcons), Terry Pegula (Bills), Robert McNair (Texans), Shad Khan (Jaguars), Stephen Ross (Dolphins), Robert Kraft (Patriots), John Mara (Giants) and Art Rooney (Steelers) – will meet again on Wednesday.