Roger Goodell: ‘We Believe Everyone Should Stand for the National Anthem’
NFL Commissioner says that the ”controversy over the Anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues“
In a memo sent to NFL Chief Executives and Club Presidents Tuesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said “we believe that everyone should stand for the National Anthem,” addressing the protests over the past several weeks. Many players have been taking a knee during the anthem to protest racial inequality in the U.S. Goodell previously stood in solidarity with players protesting.
“We live in a country that can feel very divided,” Goodell’s statement, which was sent to all 32 teams and acquired by ESPN‘s Adam Schefter and NBC Sports, said. “Sports, and especially the NFL, brings people together and lets them set aside those divisions, at least for a few hours.”
“Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the National Anthem,” he continued. “It is an important moment in our game. We want to honor our flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us.”
The commissioner said that the “controversy over the Anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues,” he added that the NFL must “move past this controversy,” and to “do that together with our players.”
Goodell continued in the memo to say that he plans to implement an “in-season platform to promote the work of our players on these core issues,” and that the League will continue an “unprecedented dialogue with our players.”
He concluded that the NFL is “best when we are ourselves are unified.”
Goodell had previously stood by his players in the wake of President Trump tweeting that anyone who protests the anthem should be fired. “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,” the commissioner said on Sept.23.
Sports and Politics Don't Mix? History Says Otherwise (Photos)
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos -- who'd taken the gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter dash -- took to the winners podium and raised their fists above their heads in a silent protest against discrimination against African-Americans in the United States. "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say 'a Negro.' We are black and we are proud of being black," Smith said of the protest.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali famously refused to serve in the U.S. military during the Vietnam war, noting, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him "a fierce fighter and a man of peace."
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The boycott would grow to 65 nations who refused to participate in the games.
Four years later, the USSR would return the favor, boycotting the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. "Chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in this country," the Soviet government said of the boycott, which 13 other communist countries would also join.
At the beginning of the 1995-1996 NBA season, Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf decided that he wouldn't salute the American flag during the playing of the national anthem prior to games. The decision went unnoticed for some time; when NBA commissioner David Stern handed down a one-game suspension to the player. The NBA later reached a compromise, mandating that Abdul-Rauf stand for the anthem, but allowing him to close his eyes and face downward.
In 2014, following the death of Eric Garner after a confrontation with police in New York, Cleveland Cavaliers stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving wore shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Can't Breathe" -- Garner's reported last words -- while warming up for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. Nets players Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett also donned the shirts.
In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted not to stand during the national anthem, saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color ... To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
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From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, a timeline of protesting athletes
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
