Roger Goodell, a collection of NFL owners, and several prominent players held a closed-door meeting in October in New York to discuss how the league and its players would approach player protests during the season. The New York Times obtained a recording of that meeting, and it illuminates how the league’s power brokers operate behind closed doors.
Here’s what was said in the NFL’s private players-owners meeting about national anthem protests
“The damage Trump’s going to do is done.”
Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
The meeting was prompted by President Donald Trump’s vocal criticism of players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and inequality in the United States. Eagles defensive end Chris Long didn’t mince his words during the discussion when he made a statement about Colin Kaepernick.
“If he was on a roster right now, all this negativeness and divisiveness could be turned into a positive,” Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Chris Long said at the meeting.
According to the Times, the owners’ responses to Long were “noncommittal,” with Jeffrey Lurie of the Eagles reportedly saying that social justice wasn’t “about one person.”
The conversation also directly acknowledged that Trump’s comments and prompts to boycott the league were having a negative effect on the NFL. Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Jaguars owner Shad Khan, both noted Trump supporters, had seemingly cooled on the president. Discussing whether players should be allowed to kneel during the national anthem Kraft said:
“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,”
Similar concerns were echoed by Lurie, and Bills owner Terry Pegula, but Khan suggested Trump could do no more harm.
“All the damage Trump’s going to do is done,”
The only owner who overtly called for players to stop protesting, according to the Times, was Bob McNair of the Houston Texans, who infamously likened players protesting to “inmates running the prison,” a comment he apologized for earlier this month. In the closed-door meeting, he implored the players present to try and change the minds of their compatriots.
“You fellas need to ask your compadres, fellas, stop that other business, let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you.”
Former 49ers safety Eric Reid, who has advocated for social justice himself and has remained unsigned this offseason, brought the conversation back to Kaepernick’s situation.
“I feel like he was hung out to dry,” Reid said of Kaepernick. “Everyone in here is talking about how much they support us.” The room fell quiet. “Nobody stepped up and said we support Colin’s right to do this. We all let him become Public Enemy No. 1 in this country, and he still doesn’t have a job.”
After more discussion the meeting closed with sides penning a joint statement, which was released to the public in October.
Today owners and players had a productive meeting focused on how we can work together to promote positive social change and address inequality in our communities. NFL executives and owners joined NFLPA executives and player leaders to review and discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effectuate positive change. We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together.
As we said last week, everyone who is part of our NFL community has a tremendous respect for our country, our flag, our anthem and our military. In the best American tradition, we are coming together to find common ground and commit to the hard work required for positive change.
None of the parties present in that meeting have issued a statement since The New York Times released their story on what happened during the private meeting.
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