Roger Goodell Says He Won’t Discipline NFL Players For Kneeling During Anthem | Launderer report



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FILE - In this file photo from February 3, 2020, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at a press conference in Miami.  The NFL has established protocols for reopening team facilities and has asked all 32 teams to put them in place by May 15.  In a note sent by Goodell and obtained Wednesday, May 6, 2020 by the Associated Press, several phases of the protocols were asked.  outside.  The first phase would involve a limited number of non-player staff, initially 50 percent of non-player staff (up to a total of 75) each day, being approved to be in the facility.  But state or local regulations might require a lower number.  (AP Photo / Brynn Anderson, file)

Brynn Anderson / Associated Press

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will not discipline players who kneel during the national anthem for protesting against police brutality and systemic racism.

Goodell joined Fox Sports’ Emmanuel Acho for the latter Uncomfortable conversations with a black man video series. The host asked him if he would support those protesting peacefully by kneeling during the anthem (around 4:30 p.m.), and Goodell said: “We never disciplined a single player for anything with the national anthem … and I don’t. intend to. And I will support them. “

He also said: “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do” when he talked about disciplining players for kneeling.

The last comment came from the second part of the conversation between Goodell and Acho.

They talked about Colin Kaepernick in the first part, and the commissioner said, “I wish I had heard earlier, Kap, what you were kneeling down and what you were trying to draw attention to.” We had invited him on several occasions to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had taken advantage of it. We never did. “

It was a tone similar to the one Goodell took when discussing issues of systemic racism and police brutality in June following global protests that stemmed from the murder of George Floyd.

He then declared that the NFL was “wrong not to listen to NFL players earlier and to encourage everyone to speak out and protest peacefully”:

Kaepernick made most of the headlines of all the players who knelt during the national anthem when he did so as a member of the San Francisco 49ers. He has remained unsigned since relinquishing his contract after a 2016 season that saw him throw 16 touchdowns in four interceptions.

Goodell’s latest comments are a change of tone for the league.

In 2017, he told reporters, “We want our players to stand up. We will continue to encourage them to stand up. And we will continue to work on these issues within the community.”

Additionally, NFL owners unanimously approved a policy that required all staff to stand up for the anthem in 2018 if they were sidelined. The NFL ultimately overturned that decision.



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