The NFL is doing their part, or are they doing the bare minimum? Is Cowboys owner Jerry Jones even doing that?
On Thursday, the league blasted an announcement on social media, putting big, beautiful numbers in the public space about their renewed commitment to social justice. On the surface, a 10-year, $250 million commitment seems like a grand gesture. A quarter of a billion bucks? Sheesh. But wait. There’s math that says this is barely a drop in the bucket. There’s math that says this is the equivalent of a moderately wealthy American paying for someone else’s streaming subscriptions.
First, here’s the statement.
The NFL is growing our social justice efforts through a 10-year total $250 million fund to combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans. The NFL and our clubs will continue to work collaboratively with NFL players to support programs to address criminal justice reform, police reforms, and economic and educational advancement. In addition to the financial commitment, we will continue to leverage the NFL Network and all of our media properties to place an increased emphasis on raising awareness and promoting education of social justice issues to our fans and help foster unity.
Now, here’s the math.
10 years for $250 million averages out to $25 million per year. Easy calculation. Now, there are 32 NFL teams, which means each team is contributing around $781,000 per season. That’s less than the minimum salary of a player in his fourth NFL season.
But the math goes further.
In 2018, the Green Bay Packers – the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL and thus the only one which makes their net revenue public, earned $255.9 million. That total was a 4.9% increase over their 2017 revenue. The 2019 numbers have yet to be released.
Projecting forward a 4.9% increase in 2019, and then again in 2020, that means that the average NFL team (and certainly there are many which will make more than the small-market Packers and a few that make less) should be around $281 million in revenue in 2020.
Granted, if the league doesn’t play in front of fans, or doesn’t play a full schedule that number will come down, but for the sake of easy math let’s assume those elements hold true.
If a team is making $281 million in 2020, then donating $781,000 is giving up a whopping 27.7%!
Oh wait, that decimal point is in the wrong place.
They are only contributing 0.277%?
Yikes.
To put that in even starker terms, say a man makes a sizable salary of $100,000 a year. .28% of that is around $260 per year. That breaks down to $23.11.
In other words, each NFL team is donating the equivalent of a Netflix family plan ($15.99)Â plus a Spotify premium account ($8.25) for a hunnid-band man. Actually, it’s cheaper.
The league has been in scramble mode since their first response to the murder of George Floyd was deemed insufficient by most everyone watching. Never once were the words racism or police brutality used, nor did they mention their silencing of Colin Kaepernick.
After days of silence and a refusal to expand on their initial statement infuriated players and league employees, several banded together to create a powerful and moving video challenging the league to do more. Roger Goodell responded the next day, finally, with a message that the NFL condemns racism and erred in silencing the peaceful protests started by Colin Kaepernick.
The league still refused to say Kaepernick’s name though, a theme that traces all the way back to when EA Sports muted Kaepernick’s name out of a Big Sean verse that was used in that year’s Madden video game. Yes, they went that far to erase him.
Last year, as musical artists near and far were refusing to be a part of the famed halftime show at the Super Bowl, the league was bailed out by hip-hop legend Jay-Z to help guide them through the public relations disaster they were experiencing by pledging money to righteous causes.
This is an extension of that, and it’s a pittance compared to what the league brings in annually.
Everyone knows the place the NFL holds in the deification of the sports world to Americans. The majority of the sports world admits the NFL was wrong for silencing Kaepernick and stealing that man’s livelihood for peacefully asking police to stop beating and killing Black people.
Other companies, and there are plenty who have been a part of systemic racism, don’t share the public burden the way the NFL does after how they responded over the last several seasons.
As far as acts of contrition go, when broken down in basic math, this is the definition of doing the least.
As for Jones, he’s now front and center and in the cross hairs as the Cowboys’ organization and their owner have been busting eardrums with their silence over the last three weeks.
Thursday, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill Jr. took Jones to task over his lack of public statement.
And hereâs an important reality for Jones and everyone else in 2020, silence is no longer proper. Silence is no longer acceptable. Silence is violence is the new mantra. And that canât be the message they want to send.
Yet Jones has made no official comments denouncing racism since the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25 and the racial tension as well as unity that has been at the core of Black Lives Matter protests, not just in cities across the country but around the world.
Hill’s piece articulates a sentiment that has been wondered since last week. The Cowboys organization released a video of players interacting with local Dallas police, searching for a solution to racial injustice. The project was spearheaded by the players, not the front office.
Hill takes the editing of the video to task as well.
The team released a slick, two-minute video showing things players on the Cowboys were doing in the community and conversations they were having with law enforcement personnel to tackle the issue. But it was largely whitewashed with no direct conversations about racism and/or police brutality against people of color.
Individual players like quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and vice president of player personnel Will McClay have spoken out, honestly and with raw emotions on social media. That level of urgency was not seen on the teamâs video.
Other owners are starting to speak up. Tennessee Titans’ owner Amy Adams Strunk released a statement Thursday after Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan made a statement last week. Several coaches, such as Kansas City’s Andy Reid have been very vocal on social media.
The Cowboys have no such track record, and after Jones’ stance during the kneeling protests of 2017, many have come to conclusions about where Jones’ stands.
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