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NY Times got tape of NFL owner-player anthem meeting

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runthebone

runthebone 8,051

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Searched and didn't see it posted anywhere.  Think it's football and not CR.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/sports/nfl-owners-kaepernick.html

 

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N.F.L. owners, players and league executives, about 30 in all, convened urgently at the league’s headquarters on Park Avenue in October, nearly a month after President Trump began deriding the league and its players over protests during the national anthem.

It was an extraordinary summit; rarely do owners and players meet in this manner. But the president’s remarks about players who were kneeling during the anthem had catalyzed a level of public hostility that the N.F.L. had never experienced. In the spirit of partnership at the meeting, the owners decided that they and the players should sit in alternating seats around the large table, which featured an N.F.L. logo in the middle.

“Let’s make sure that we keep this confidential,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said to begin the session.

The New York Times has obtained an audio recording of the roughly three-hour meeting, and several people in the room corroborated details of the gathering. The unvarnished conversation reveals how the leaders of the most dominant sports league in the country and several of its most outspoken players confronted an unprecedented moment — mostly by talking past one another.

“If he was on a roster right now, all this negativeness and divisiveness could be turned into a positive,” Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Chris Long said at the meeting.

Long said he did not wish to “lecture any team” on what quarterbacks to sign, but “we all agree in this room as players that he should be on a roster.” The owners’ responses were noncommittal. The Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said that fighting for social justice is not “about one person.”

The New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft pointed to another “elephant in the room.”

“This kneeling,” he said.

“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said Kraft, who is a longtime supporter of Mr. Trump’s. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”

The owners were intent on finding a way to avoid Trump’s continued criticism. The president’s persistent jabs on Twitter had turned many fans against the league. Lurie, who called Trump’s presidency “disastrous,” cautioned against players getting drawn into the president’s tactics.

“We’ve got to be careful not to be baited by Trump or whomever else,” Lurie said. “We have to find a way to not be divided and not get baited.”

The Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula sounded anguished over the uncertainty of when Trump would take another shot at the league. “All Donald needs to do is to start to do this again,” Pegula said. “We need some kind of immediate plan because of what’s going on in society. All of us now, we need to put a Band-Aid on what’s going on in the country.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan countered that the worst was behind them. “All the damage Trump’s going to do is done,” he said.

The owners kept returning to one bottom-line issue: Large numbers of fans and sponsors had become angry about the protests. Boycotts had been threatened and jerseys burned and — most worrisome — TV ratings were declining.

Pegula complained that the league was “under assault.” He unloaded a dizzying flurry of nautical metaphors to describe their predicament. “To me, this is like a glacier moving into the ocean,” he said. “We’re getting hit with a tsunami.” He expressed his wish that the league never be “a glacier crawling into the ocean.”

The Houston Texans owner Bob McNair was more direct. He urged the players to tell their colleagues to, essentially, knock off the kneeling. “You fellas need to ask your compadres, fellas, stop that other business, let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you.”

After the Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross raised the idea of a “march on Washington” by N.F.L. players and owners, Eric Reid, Kaepernick’s former teammate and the first player to kneel alongside him, brought the discussion back to Kaepernick.

Reid, who attended the meeting wearing a Kaepernick T-shirt over his dress shirt and tie, said that his former teammate was being blackballed.

“I feel like he was hung out to dry,” Reid said of Kaepernick. “Everyone in here is talking about how much they support us.” The room fell quiet. “Nobody stepped up and said we support Colin’s right to do this. We all let him become Public Enemy No. 1 in this country, and he still doesn’t have a job.”

Pegula offered that he thought the league was battling a perception and “media problem.” He said it would be great for the league to find a compelling spokesman — preferably a player — to promote all of the good things they were doing together. He suggested that the league could learn from the gun lobby in this regard.

“For years we’ve watched the National Rifle Association use Charlton Heston as a figurehead,” Pegula said. “We need a spokesman.”

Anquan Boldin, a former N.F.L. wide receiver who was at the meeting, said that owners needed to be spokesmen, too. “Letting people know it’s not just the players that care about these issues, but the owners, too,” Boldin said.

Pegula didn’t address Boldin’s point except to add that it would be important for the spokesman to be black. (None of the owners in the N.F.L. are black.)

“For us to have a face, as an African-American, at least a face that could be in the media,” Pegula continued, “we could fall in behind that.”

Kaepernick’s name was not mentioned again. He continues to pursue a labor grievance accusing the owners of colluding to keep him out of the league. He remains unsigned.

Before the meeting ended, owners had quoted Thomas Paine (the Falcons owner Arthur Blank), invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s Selma march (Ross of the Dolphins) and expressed great hope for what they all could accomplish together (“We have a chance to do something monumental,” declared the Giants owner John Mara).

The meeting concluded with some participants saying how positive the session had been, and how they would all keep talking. Goodell told the group that another meeting was being scheduled. They planned to issue a “joint statement” to underscore their shared commitment.

Kraft said the statement should reflect how everyone had come together for a good cause. “It would be good if you could work in the word ‘unified’ or ‘unity’ in some fashion,” he said, referring to the joint statement.

“We could say simply, today we had a reset, and the players’ issues are our issues, and we recognize them and will work together,” Ross said.

“I like the language of ‘our issues,’” said DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the players’ union.

About an hour later, the league released its joint statement:

“Today owners and players had a productive meeting focused on how we can work together to promote positive social change and address inequality in our communities. NFL executives and owners joined NFLPA executives and player leaders to review and discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effectuate positive change. We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together.”

 

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Chuychanga

Chuychanga 133

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I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't give a shit who kneels, who's mad about it, who met about it, or what anyone thinks about it.  We are a country who loves to be divided.  If it wasn't this bullshit it would be another meeting about some other bullshit.  

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Herpa Derpa

Herpa Derpa 6,132

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1 hour ago, Chuychanga said:

I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't give a shit who kneels, who's mad about it, who met about it, or what anyone thinks about it.  We are a country who loves to be divided.  If it wasn't this bullshit it would be another meeting about some other bullshit.  

You're not the only one.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54,471

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This is by far the most hysterical part of it:

 

Quote

Pegula offered that he thought the league was battling a perception and “media problem.” He said it would be great for the league to find a compelling spokesman — preferably a player — to promote all of the good things they were doing together. He suggested that the league could learn from the gun lobby in this regard.

“For years we’ve watched the National Rifle Association use Charlton Heston as a figurehead,” Pegula said. “We need a spokesman.”

That's like reading an Onion article.

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cactusflinthead

cactusflinthead 27,608

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4 hours ago, Parliament said:

You got a link that won't make me pay $9.99?

So you read your five for free this month and you can't get there? pay up or wait until somebody else picks up the story. 

which will be all over town by tomorrow

yeah, we pay the gladiators to die for us and not pontificate about their fellow men getting shot for no good reason

hard do see why the Senatorial class would like that protest. Maybe somewhere they see it might hurt the bottom line. Dollars. All about the Benjamins.

ignoring it is their best bet. pretend it didn't happen. sit out in the corridor while they testify because you don't want to be responsible for hearing it. That's cool too. 

the game will still happen. And we will forget. new outrage for tomorrow, some fresh hell we haven't even smelled yet

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Parliament

Parliament 14,348

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6 hours ago, Rick Blaine said:

The streaker problem was solved when they refused to show any footage on television. Apparently, they took the same approach to the kneeling--just don't show it and pretend it isn't happening; maybe most of America will forget about it and it'll all go away. 

And I'm fine with that.

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Hurtlocker

Hurtlocker 2,213

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13 hours ago, Chuychanga said:

I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't give a shit who kneels, who's mad about it, who met about it, or what anyone thinks about it.  We are a country who loves to be divided.  If it wasn't this bullshit it would be another meeting about some other bullshit.  

Nope, not alone.   I'm actually more irritated that this is the shit we choose to be mad about.   People are stupid.

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irishtexan

irishtexan 11,530

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I support the players on this 100% but this whole thing is just fucking stupid. If the owners are this upset, they should just take away the players' platform and have the players stay in the locker room until after the anthem. Or, better yet, just stop playing the anthem at sporting events all together. Sports are not an exercise in civics. They're entertainment. They don't play the national fucking anthem at Alamo Drafthouse before you watch Black Panther. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40,938

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5 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

NASCAR is giant Lee Greenwood song and their ratings are plummeting.  It's easy for the NFL to blame their ratings on the kneeling but they may want to rethink that.

I don't get the appeal of watching a bunch of rednecks hotrodding around in a circle all day. Would rather watch a 3 day cricket match.

Edited by Armybrat
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AeroHorn

AeroHorn 755

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5 hours ago, irishtexan said:

I support the players on this 100% but this whole thing is just fucking stupid. If the owners are this upset, they should just take away the players' platform and have the players stay in the locker room until after the anthem. Or, better yet, just stop playing the anthem at sporting events all together. Sports are not an exercise in civics. They're entertainment. They don't play the national fucking anthem at Alamo Drafthouse before you watch Black Panther. 

Don't give them ideas. Singing of national anthem when there is no relevance, as opposed to during Independence Day ceremony for instance, is akin to a misplaced religious ritual to generate a vacuous sense of pride and belonging.

23 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

I don't get the appeal of watching a bunch of rednecks hotrodding around in a circle all day. Would rather watch a 3 day Crickett match.

5 day cricket is where it's at. You haven't watched sports until you have watched the teams take multiple drinks (10-10:15), lunch (12-1pm) and tea (3-3:15pm), and overnight (5pm-8am) breaks, along with a rest day (3 days, 1 rest day, then 2 days), of course; anything less would be uncivilized. During the drinks and tea breaks, a cart rolls onto the field and players (both teams) gather around to have their biscuits and scones along with tea, of course. The funny thing is that many of these 5-day games end with no decision. (The two teams couldn't finish playing 2 innings each).

Edited by AeroHorn
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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11,053

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On 4/25/2018 at 9:20 PM, UDontKnow said:

So like 95% of meetings, absolutely nothing came out of it.

Sounds like every fucking meeting I've ever been in.

 

On 4/26/2018 at 10:37 AM, irishtexan said:

 They don't play the national fucking anthem at Alamo Drafthouse before you watch Black Panther. 

yet.

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Whitman

Whitman 694

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On 4/26/2018 at 11:37 AM, irishtexan said:

 They don't play the national fucking anthem at Alamo Drafthouse before you watch Black Panther. 

Who the hell keeps a copy of the national anthem of Wakanda laying around to play?

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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8,397

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They should ban all political demonstrations of employees while working. Like most employers do.  

Someone will stand but face away from the flag... owners and commish messed up by not saying no protests of any kind. 

No protesting abortion 
No protesting treatment of Nepal
No protesting peanut ban on airplanes 
No political statements of any kind 

For pete’s sake they regulate uniforms like Goebbels but they didn’t have the sense to quash any political demonstrations day 1.


 

Edited by Johnny Sack
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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8,397

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2 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

Players weren't required to be on the field for the anthem until 2009

Now they aren’t required. Per the new policy. I’ve been to hundreds of pro events starting when I was 4 years old in the early 80s.  Anthem played at everyone. And I remember athletes being present. 

Oilers.  Astros.  Texans.  Rockets.  Maybe they weren’t required. But they were there.  

Edited by Johnny Sack
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irishtexan

irishtexan 11,530

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1 minute ago, Johnny Sack said:

Now they aren’t required. Per the new policy. I’ve been to hundreds of pro events starting when I was 4 years old in the early 80s.  Anthem played at everyone. And I remember athletes being present. 

Oilers.  Astros.  Texans.  Rockets.  Maybe they weren’t required. But they were there.  

Right. They could be on the field if they wanted. Or not. Then the NFL went full-NASCAR in 2009 and started requiring players be on the field for the signing of the national anthem. 

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'stache

'stache 21,892

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I used to tune in to watch football games, not political/social protests. Don't bother to watch it anymore.


So because of a two minute protest, by a few players, during the anthem which is usually not televised, you will forego watching games at all? Just admit you don’t like their underlying political opinion. Do you require all athletes to agree with you politically before you’ll watch? Do you disassociate with people in your personal life who disagree with you?
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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8,397

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10 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

The NFL is such a fucking joke. 

 

Would you be okay if it was pro life players protesting abortion on the field and in uniform and the nfl stopped that?  Or do you think they should be allowed to protest whatever cause they want while in uniform and on the field?

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Patrick Bateman

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4 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Now they aren’t required. Per the new policy. I’ve been to hundreds of pro events starting when I was 4 years old in the early 80s.  Anthem played at everyone. And I remember athletes being present. 

Oilers.  Astros.  Texans.  Rockets.  Maybe they weren’t required. But they were there.  

Some were, some weren't.  It wasn't required until, as pointed out above, 2009 when the DoD started paying the NFL to ensure all players were on the sideline so they could have nationalistic moment on TV for every game.  Before that it was discretionary based on the game.  MLB has no rule in place and while most stand, often some players may not be out of the clubhouse/locker room yet.  NBA has a rule but didn't really enforce it until 1996 with Abdul-Rauf and the NBA encouraged him to stay in the locker room rather than sit for it.  NHL and NCAA also have no rules around the anthem because it didn't matter.  If you were out there, most stood, unless they were doing something else to prepare for the game.  Some were doing things inside their respective locker rooms or private areas....

If NFL teams just stay in the locker room, let fans have the anthem and then come out afterwards, it would solve the issue.... but they won't.  Personally, I think players will move on to other things, but not because they care about a silly NFL rule but because they'll want something more fashionable and new to voice their protests...

 

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Hank Kingsley

Hank Kingsley 21,061

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8 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Would you be okay if it was pro life players protesting abortion on the field and in uniform and the nfl stopped that?  Or do you think they should be allowed to protest whatever cause they want while in uniform and on the field?

They can protest whatever the fuck they want. I would just choose not to watch or support. 

 

Edited by Hank Kingsley
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