Colin Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since the end of the 2016 season, and whatever you think may be the reasons for that, Kaepernick’s pointed protests against police brutality have never resonated more than they do today. When George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died Monday in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, protests and riots have exploded all over America ever since.
Now, in a stunning admission, one former NFL executive says that the league mishandled the complexities of Kaepernick’s case, and that the former NFL quarterback should once again become a current NFL quarterback.
In an editorial for CNN.com, Joe Lockhart, who served as the league’s vice president of communications from 2016 through 2018, wrote that the league didn’t go far enough in helping Kaepernick maintain his deserved status as an active player.
“No teams wanted to sign a player — even one as talented as Kaepernick — whom they saw as controversial, and, therefore, bad for business,” Lockhart wrote. “The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, and other league executives tried to persuade the teams to change their minds. The league sent owners and players around the country to try to lead a dialogue on race relations and to move, as the sociologist and human rights activist Harry Edwards said, “from protest to progress.” Though Kaepernick didn’t get his job back, I thought we had all done a righteous job, considering.
“I was wrong,” Lockhart continued. “I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what’s going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were.”
In the end, per Lockhart, it appeared that the concerns about Kaepernick’s continued NFL employment had more to do with how he might be bad for business than any overt disagreement among owners with Kaepernick’s politics — though several NFL owners are arch conservatives and were donors to to the Trump campaign in 2016 and beyond.
Lockhart said that in 2017, Goodell had several conference calls with the Players Coalition in which it was discussed how the NFL should use its platform to address racial and civil rights issues in America. Things were amplified when, in September, 2017, Trump said that the league should fire any player who protested the national anthem.
“Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired!” the President said.
“The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture,” Goodell said in a responsive statement. “Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”
Still, there was no job for Kaepernick. There have been performative workouts to a greater or lesser degree, but no tangible interest.
“I know now it was not enough just to spend money to make progress on the issue of racial disparities,” Lockhart wrote. “That is crucial, but so are symbols that reflect that attempt at progress – and also the failure to reach it. And Colin Kaepernick became the symbol of black men being treated differently than white men in America.
Now, Lockhart says, it’s time for that to change, especially with what’s happened in Minneapolis that has resonated across the country. He suggested that the Wilf family, owner of the Vikings, could sign Kaepernick.
“Bring him into camp, treat him like any of the other players given a chance to play the game they love.
“It will not solve the problem of blacks and police violence. But it will recognize the problem that Kaepernick powerfully raised, and perhaps show that, with courage, real progress can be made.“I know the Vikings owners love their adopted city of Minneapolis (they are from New Jersey originally) and signing Kaepernick would be a concrete step they can take to acknowledge that wrongs can be righted, and here’s one place to start.“I hope they will do it. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s something the city — and all of America — needs right now.”
The likelihood of that actually happening is thin, but it’s interesting to see one former NFL executive actually come out and say that the NFL didn’t do enough for Colin Kaepernick, and given the current state of the country, how badly that reflects on the league.