Stand up for NFL players
23rd July 2018 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
Some of us never thought we’d see the day when NFL players would take a stand for any principle or for us as a people. Now that it has happened and continues to inspire others to raise their voices in support of racial justice and equity, some of us still can’t believe it.
But all is not well with NFL football players. Many elected officials, including the president of the United States and members of the Republican Party, are questioning their patriotism and suggesting that they don’t deserve to be treated by NFL team owners and the American public like people with constitutional rights.
They also still face an uphill battle to be compensated fairly by NFL team owners and are also dealing with the harmful effects associated with playing a physical sport that often leads to debilitating and life-threatening brain trauma.
Among those who have spoken out against the perils associated with playing tackle football is former NFL great Brett Favre, who knows firsthand how violent a sport football is. Favre has questioned the wisdom of allowing boys and young men to play tackle football knowing the toll repeated concussions have already taken on NFL players.
Brain trauma is believed to have played a significant role in the suicide of former San Diego Chargers standout Junior Seau and is widely viewed by health professionals and others as a major issue in sports.
Yet NFL team owners pay minimal attention to studies that prove how deadly brain trauma can be and treat the current brand of football as the necessary evil required for them to continue to rake in massive profits from the sale of tickets, merchandise and television rights.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that NFL team owners have refused to offer guaranteed contracts to most of the league’s athletes. That adds a different spin to the idea of NFL athletes being presented as modern-day gladiators who are playing football one day and out of commission the next, with very little in the way of economic security to show for it.
Athletes in Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Assn. enjoy better job security and stability for their families, thanks to guaranteed contracts from team owners.
NFL players, for the most part, have not been so lucky, so far.
While there are now some rumblings among current NFL players about educating themselves about guaranteed contracts and harnessing their collective power, NFL team owners do not appear to be motivated to take steps to accommodate them yet.
They may be banking on players not mounting a serious challenge to the current status quo or being able to hold out long enough to accomplish their goals and some athletes being willing to cross the picket line should NFL players decide to strike.
They may believe that NFL players lack the will, discipline and principles to stick to their guns and may succumb to tremendous pressure from family members and others who depend on these athletes for money to pay for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc.
A major hurdle for NFL athletes is getting team owners to take them and their demands seriously. It’s obvious from these team owners’ handling of players’ health concerns, the toll Thursday Night Football games take on these athletes’ bodies, owners’ refusal to provide them with guaranteed contracts and their latest proposal that athletes remain in their respective team locker rooms if they do not wish to stand for the playing of the national anthem that they clearly don’t respect these athletes.
Add to that NFL team owners’ insistence on making examples of outspoken NFL athletes like former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose decision to kneel during the anthem sparked the entire movement, and 49ers safety and LSU alum Eric Reid, who has also been blackballed by NFL team owners and, like his former teammate, filed a lawsuit against the league.
For as long as anyone can remember, the NFL’s modus operandi has been to chew athletes up and spit them out with little or no regard for their health or personal welfare.
What these NFL team owners don’t know is that these athletes have a secret weapon that they have yet to fully understand or utilize: us.
It was apparently lost on these team owners that not everybody who boycotted NFL football games last season was white. There were quite a few Black sports fans who were and are also fed up with the NFL and its shody handling of the anthem issue as well as its overall treatment of Black athletes. Seeking to appease white NFL sports fans by attempting to get Black athletes to hide out in locker rooms rather than exercise their First Amendment rights on the football field will do very little to make Black sports fans happy.
These athletes who boldly stood up for justice inspired many of us and sparked a movement that includes high school and college players, NBA players, college cheerleaders and soccer athletes around the world. Now they need our help to continue the fight for justice and equity.
We can do that by “mancotting” NFL football games, refusing to tune in to NFL programming of any kind, “mancotting” NFL corporate sponsors and letting advertisers and television networks know that we will not support them in any shape, form or fashion as long as they support NFL team owners and their refusal to treat Black athletes fairly.
After everything these athletes have done to inspire and uplift us, we owe that to them and to ourselves.
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the July 23, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
