What’s missing from the NFL’s new PSAs on police shootings

The NFL has co-opted Kaepernick’s message while trying to erase him from the conversation

Ahead of Super Bowl 54, the NFL released two PSAs that attempt to address the police shootings of black men.

The ads, which are a part of the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative, focus on the deaths of Botham Jean, who was killed when Dallas police officer Amber Guyger mistakenly entered his apartment, and Corey Jones, the cousin of retired NFL player Anquan Boldin.  Jones was killed by Palm Beach County police officer Nouman Raja as he waited for a tow truck by the side of the road.

It would be tempting to read the ads as a progressive step forward for the league, but the reality is that they stop far short of doing justice to the tragedy of both events.  Instead, the NFL has basically co-opted Colin Kaepernick’s message and watered it down to the point of ineffectiveness.

While both ads are emotionally compelling, what’s most telling is what viewers don’t see in the PSAs.

First, neither ad mentions the names of the officers responsible in the killings. In the PSA on Jean’s death, the word “police” isn’t even used once. Rather, the family refers to Guyger simply as an “officer.”  Both ads end with the vague assertion that things need to change, without firmly placing responsibility in the hands of the system that allowed these murders to happen. Instead, the PSAs lean into emotional territory that is far more insidious and galling, stressing the need for forgiveness over actual justice, accountability, or reform.

The NFL has also promoted the hashtag #EveryonesChild with the campaign, along with the tagline, “We are in this together.” Both are cloyingly vague and promote the false equivalency that police violence is something “both sides” can help eradicate.

Created in tandem with the Players Coalition and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, the entire “Inspire Change” slogan is also a nice but ultimately meaningless sentiment.  Inspiration is one thing, but “change” is not a feel good emotion.  Change doesn’t come through forgiveness and cooperation alone, but rather through anger and accountability.  Change demands the status quo be upended and that existing beliefs be challenged in ways that are uncomfortable.   The NFL is certainly not trying to do that with these ads. Instead, the league merely wants to ceed as little ground as possible while still invoking the illusion of progress.

With these ads, the NFL is mining the pain of grieving black families, but to an end that is far less than what the families deserve. There are no calls for justice, no talk about pushing for reform, merely the faces of families who have been devastated by systemic racism.  Forgiveness is fine and good, but it’s doesn’t do the work of pushing for change.

On the same night that these ads will air,  Fox will also feature an interview with President Trump, who called players who chose to take a knee during the anthem “sons of bitches.” It’s about what we’d expect from a league that has blackballed Colin Kaepernick for his protests, but that had no problem co-opting his message while also trying to erase him from the conversation.

The NFL is trying to have it both ways  walk a fine line over an issue that demands far more courage than the league’s leadership possesses.

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