Drew Brees is coming around. Roger Goodell is, too. After years of missing the point, intentionally or not, this week they’ve learned something about the world, or at the very least they’ve learned to read the room.
And as a star NFL quarterback and an all-powerful NFL commissioner finally start listening like they seldom have before, it’s enough to make one lament and marvel at how we got here.
The real question is not, “Why did Brees and Goodell change their minds on a controversial issue?”
The real question is, “Why was the issue ever controversial at all?”
In journalism school, we’re taught to present both sides of a dispute, and to be skeptical of every unverified claim. If a man sues his neighbor over fence damage, talk to the neighbor. If your mother says she loves you, check it out.
But when a professional athlete looks into a camera and states, simply, “Black lives matter,” how much verification do we need? What is the “other side” we should be presenting?
That black lives don’t matter? Is that the counterargument that should be given a voice? Is that the kind of sensibility Goodell didn’t want to offend four years ago?
Now, I already can hear some of you muttering about how I’ve missed the bigger picture. “All lives matter!” you shout, but that’s as absurdly disingenuous today as it’s ever been.
When an environmentalist implores the world to “save the rain forests,” nobody responds by yelling, “All trees matter!”
When social workers beg the public to “end child abuse,” nobody cuts them off by screaming, “All abuse is bad!”
When a defensive coordinator instructs his football players to “stop the run,” the free safety does not counter by insisting, “All yards matter!”
Calling attention to the most dire problem at hand does not require anyone to pretend that all of the others don’t exist. Standing up for a friend in need does not mean another is less loved. Saying, “I believe my country should strive for better” is not even remotely the same thing as saying, “I don’t respect those who fought and died for my freedom.”
Colin Kaepernick certainly never even hinted at that connection, and in fact went out of his way to refute it. When he set his mind on protesting police brutality and racial injustice in 2016, it was a former U.S. Army Green Beret who suggested that taking a knee during the national anthem would be appropriately solemn.
But then Kaepernick’s message, as messages often do, became perverted into a debate that had nothing to do with his point. In a league that for years had employed and enabled violent criminals and domestic abusers, and had made room for at least one lineman accused of using racial slurs, the guy who started a movement of silent peaceful protests was the one considered irredeemable.
With statistics and a track record that placed him well above half of the quarterbacks on league rosters, Kaepernick was blackballed, leading to a collusion lawsuit that the NFL settled in 2019. It’s been an ugly story for years, and one that has left a stain on the league.
And for what?
Ever since George Floyd died with his neck under the knee of a Minnesota police officer, setting off protests that have continued across the country for almost two weeks, we have heard people — including prominent elected officials — decry looting and rioting and suggest protesters should opt for peaceful demonstrations instead.
Like Kaepernick did?
In 2016, when he took his knee, Goodell went on the record to say he didn’t agree with what the then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback was doing. Brees, the New Orleans Saints quarterback, declared himself against it, too.
This week, when asked by Yahoo Finance about what he’d think if players took a knee during the anthem this season, Brees cited grandfathers who fought in World War II and said he “never will agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America.”
That was Wednesday. Over the next hours and days, Brees heard from teammates who said he’d betrayed them. He heard from black players who also had grandfathers who’d fought for our country, and who knew better than to equate taking a knee with tarnishing their legacy. He heard protesters chanting his name, and not in a good way, and took some time to think about how a white guy from Austin Westlake experiences a routine traffic stop a bit differently than a black man from Louisiana.
And after President Donald Trump sent a tweet Friday declaring Brees should not have apologized for his statements? Brees responded by letting the president know he’d changed his mind.
“Through my ongoing conversations with friends, teammates, and leaders in the black community, I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It has never been,” Brees wrote on Instagram. “We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities.”
Later on Friday, the NFL released a video in which Goodell — prompted by a compilation of clips from players including Michael Thomas, Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliott — made an admission.
“We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest,” Goodell said. “We, the NFL, believe black lives matter.”
It shouldn’t have taken this long. It shouldn’t have been this hard to switch sides, but that’s not even the worst part.
There never should have been another side to take.
mfinger@express-news.net
Twitter: @mikefinger
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