By now you may have heard that one fewer NFL player used the national anthem as a forum to protest this Sunday. Under the spotlight of Sunday Night Football, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins did not raise a fist in the air during the national anthem for the first time in the last two years.
Jenkins ended his protest in response to the NFL pledging $89 million to aid with social issues, a figure he helped negotiate as one of the leaders of the Players Coalition. But the deal has become its own controversy as it was struck without the consent of nearly 40 members of the original coalition, including Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick.
Reid went as far as to call the donation a “charade” as the San Francisco 49ers safety claims the NFL is using money already allotted to go to breast cancer awareness and “Salute to Service” funds to buy off protesting players.
In response, Jenkins wrote an open letter defending his actions as not selling out.
This all underlines the major issue with the stand-off between NFL owners and protesting players — what is the end goal for the players? Is there a way that both sides can win? And what here would constitute winning?
The problem is both sides are damned if they do make a deal, damned if they don’t.
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While one could see the $89 million put toward good causes as a positive step, many won’t share that view.
The NFL has a history of paying away its problems. Their reaction to the brain-trauma epidemic was to fund a $100-million study that many people have questioned. The league then hired female experts and made PSAs when it was criticized for its handling of domestic-violence cases, but incidents haven’t dissipated or been handled any better (see Josh Brown or Ezekiel Elliott).
Seen in the light of those past efforts, the $89-million payout looks more like a PR move to mitigate the effect on the NFL’s bottom line. For the players involved, it looks like putting a price on their free speech.
In that sense, the payment could be seen as hush money.
And is it even money well spent? The United Negro College Fund, one of the proposed beneficiaries of the donation, is a great cause and can use all the money it gets. But getting a scholarship to college is not going to stop you from being racially profiled by the police. Trust me, I know.
Of course, if the two sides don’t make a deal, the protests continue with no end in sight and nothing tangible to be gained.
The issue for the dissenting players is they were never protesting the NFL or its owners. They were protesting inequality, police brutality, and the relationship of disenfranchised communities and law enforcement.
When Kaepernick started his protest in the summer of 2016, he wasn’t suggesting the 49ers do more to help with the relationship of minorities and police officers. He protested because he felt his country wasn’t living up to its ideals, and didn’t value him as a free and equal person.
Many followed his lead in 2016, but the number of fellow protesters went up exponentially after Donald Trump implored NFL owners to cut players he characterized as “sons of bitches” who didn’t stand for the anthem.
For a good number of those protesting, it was as much a protest of Trump as anything else. And if the protest isn’t the same thing to all involved, then the solution won’t be either.
And $89 million of NFL money doesn’t change that.
So unless the league is going to eliminate the national-anthem ceremony, which wouldn’t be the worst outcome in the world, this issue doesn’t have a neat and comfortable resolution for either side.
Which is why it’s not going away any time soon, no matter who is paid or who decides to sit or stand up.
