Harry Edwards: NFL’s failure to learn from history on protests will prove costly
Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2018/05/26/harry-edwards-nfl-protests-national-anthem-roger-goodell/647359002/
It would be a shock if Harry Edwards were not appalled by the revised national anthem policy that NFL owners pushed through this week with hopes of squashing player protests.
Of course, Edwards, with undoubtedly the most powerful voice for more than a half-century linking sports and society, is livid.
“This is the dumbest move possible,” Edwards told USA TODAY Sports of the policy, which mandates players who choose to be on the sideline stand during the anthem. “They put the protest movement on blast. They just created a bigger stage than ever.”
Edwards should know. Fifty years ago, he was in the midst of organizing what was then considered a radical movement, the Olympic Project for Human Rights. That effort fell short of the initial goal of a boycott of the 1968 Olympics by African-American athletes, but it raised consciousness about societal injustices – much like Colin Kaepernick in 2016 when he kneeled during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner – and led to the iconic image from Mexico City when sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised black-gloved fists while on the podium during the anthem.
“It’s almost like ’68 has come back through the mirror, including the same issues, including police killings of African-Americans,” Edwards compared.
As Kaepernick contemplated and carried out his protests nearly two years ago – which led to him remaining unsigned since the end of the 2016 season and his subsequent pursuit of a pending collusion grievance against the NFL – Edwards consulted the quarterback. He has long been engaged with 49ers ownership that is clearly among the most progressive in the NFL (CEO Jed York declared that the team intended to pause concession stand operations and other money making ventures during the anthem). And as the crisis has escalated with the league embroiled in politics, he’s given advice to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The recommendations to Goodell, outlined in a letter that Edwards shared with USA TODAY Sports, involved three key themes that are boiled down as such:
• Work in collaboration with the players in addressing the issues that fuel the protests, rather than focusing on retribution and punishment.
• Take a long-term view, recognizing that the movement could coalesce into another wave of athlete activism.
• Realize that retaliation would turn protesting players into martyrs while positioning the league as an entity opposing the merits of the issues that are of concern to the players.
While the NFL has taken steps to back some of the efforts of players, most notably with a matching funds partnership with the Players Coalition, the anthem policy is anything but supportive. The new policy instead echoes themes espoused by President Trump, who has attacked the league with vitriolic rhetoric. After declaring last fall that the NFL should “get that son of a (expletive) off the field right now” as a means for dealing with players who engage in peaceful protests, Trump maintained to Fox & Friends on Thursday that protesting players maybe “shouldn’t even be in the country.”
It doesn’t surprise Edwards that in response to the NFL’s policy – and Trump’s latest salvo – players have pushed back, setting the stage for the return of the controversy the league wanted to go away.
“They took a movement that was in decline and have resurrected it, pumped it up with adrenaline and made it a front-page story,” Edwards said. “And you’ve got you-know-who talking about players ought to leave the country.”
Edwards is incensed that the narrative has been redirected from the original protest motivations – police brutality and social injustices challenging African-Americans and other people of color – to a debate about honoring the flag and respect for the U.S. Armed Forces.
“I don’t know of a single athlete who is trying to insult the soldiers or the flag,” Edwards said. “But because we’re perceived to not have the credibility to speak to our own motivations and interests, it has come to this.”
He went on to blast NFL owners for allowing Trump to define patriotism as it relates to the anthem.
“But that’s where we are as a country,” Edwards said.
Strikingly, Edwards remains supportive of Goodell. He maintains that the commissioner’s role inherently involves taking the heat for the decisions of his bosses – the owners of the 32 teams.
“I feel for Roger, because I know where his heart it,” Edwards said. “But I guess that’s where the $44 million (estimate for his peak of his annual earnings during his tenure) comes in.”
Edwards said it harms the “tremendous effort” that Goodell demonstrated in striking an ongoing agreement with the Players Coalition to pursue social justice and other initiatives, which he feels is the model for moving from “protests to progress.”
Now Edwards insists that with African-Americans representing the overwhelming majority of protesting players, the racial overtones of the policy positioned the NFL as an institution existing in what he calls a “white space” in America.
“You scratch your head and wonder: ‘Are they really this racist? This stupid? What’s driving this?’ “ Edwards said. “I think that at a very fundamental level, we are still battling the residuals of 400 years of slavery. A lot of the owners think they own the players. They own the franchise.”
And a league at the center of societal debate like never before.
Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.
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