NFL announces new campaign for social justice called ‘Let’s Listen Together’

The NFL announced its initiative for a commitment to social justice, “Let’s Listen Together,” on Tuesday.

The group’s focus, according to the NFL’s release, will be “on supporting programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity, with a priority on supporting improvements in education and economic development, community and police relations, and the criminal justice system. It will work directly with league staff to help identify future initiatives that have both broad support and a potential for high impact and make financial recommendations accordingly.”

The NFL will highlight societal issues, individuals, and organizations through players in NFL Network features that will debut on Thursday, Jan. 25 on NFL Total Access, with the first including Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins. It will focus on “racial bias and social and emotional intelligence training for police officers.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, “We are pleased to have developed a new initiative that focuses on creating meaningful solutions to improve our communities.”

He added, “In developing this plan, we have taken the lead from our players and are honored to join them in this work. Their work has deepened our understanding of the unique platform we have to help advance progress in a profound and unifying way.”

Colin Kaepernick was not invited to the meeting between the NFL Players Coalition and the league in October. A group of 11 players that had been working with the NFL on issues of protest, social justice, and criminal justice reform never included the former 49ers quarterback.

“We didn’t even know there was a meeting,” a lawyer on Kaepernick’s legal team said. “The press release was the first time we heard of any invite.”

Malcolm Jenkins, who has had a leading role in the coalition, said that Kaepernick was invited to its Oct. 17 meeting between players and owners. Then-NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart also said that Kaepernick would attend the meeting, saying he expected him to be invited.

But there was no invitation. From SB Nation’s Tyler Tynes:

On the afternoon of Oct. 25, one of Kaepernick’s attorneys, Ben Meiselas, wrote an email to NFLPA representatives and the league for clarity before signing off.

“Please let’s figure this out today or tomorrow so there are no questions about this over the weekend,” Meiselas wrote.

Kaepernick’s lead lawyer, [Mark] Geragos, originally asked Jenkins to correct the public record regarding Kaepernick attending the meetings. On the night of Oct. 26, the legal team asked Jenkins again.

“It remains inconceivable that actual progress can or will be made at these player meetings if discussions regarding certain ideas and platforms which Mr. Kaepernick has led and created are discussed and negotiated without Mr. Kaepernick being present,” Meiselas wrote.

That led to 49ers safety Eric Reid, Chargers tackle Russell Okung, and Dolphins safety Michael Thomas withdrawing from the group, with Reid saying Kaepernick had been kicked out.

“Malcolm kicked Colin out of the coalition following the meeting in New York at the beginning of the season,” Reid said.

Reid discussed his concern over where the funds for the campaign would come from, as well as how the group was being managed.

“In the discussion that we had, Malcolm conveyed to us — based on discussions that he had with the NFL — that the money would come from funds that are already allocated to breast cancer awareness and Salute to Service,” Reid said, via Jeremy Stahl of Slate. “So it would really be no skin off the owners’ backs: They would just move the money from those programs to this one.”

The NFL announced later that the new initiative wouldn’t be funded by the other campaigns.

As far as management, Reid said, “(We’re not) satisfied with the structure of the coalition or the communication that Malcolm has been having with the NFL on his own, speaking on behalf of protesting players. Our concerns haven’t been reflected in the way the organization is being run.”

Jenkins disagreed with Reid’s claims, and he told ESPN the following:

“They understood the entire scope of the plan. The last time we had conversations with (Roger) Goodell and Troy Vincent, Michael Thomas and Eric Reid were on that call. They understood the proposal. What we didn’t have was a conversation with players in the coalition based on some of the responses that we got from the league. We then talked about myself contracting Troy Vincent just to give them some updates on some of our feedback, which I did. That call did not have Mike or Eric on it. Everybody kind of agreed to that.”

Jenkins also denied that he kicked Kaepernick out of the group, saying that the quarterback preferred an informal relationship.

Kaepernick first sat for the national anthem in August of 2016. He would later switch to taking a knee, which he felt was more respectful to the military.

It started a wave of protests in the NFL and around the United States.

“This stand wasn’t for me,” Kaepernick said. “This is because I’m seeing things happen to people that don’t have a voice, people that don’t have a platform to talk and have their voices heard, and effect change. So I’m in the position where I can do that, and I’m going to do that for people that can’t.”

Kaepernick didn’t play in the NFL in 2017. After President Donald Trump called players who knelt “sons of bitches” it led to more player demonstrations, which accelerated the NFL’s attempts to find — what it feels — is a solution.