It is a seminal moment in American history, with the twin crises of a global pandemic and nationwide outrage over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody convulsing the streets with protests, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1960’s. What’s happened in the NFL over the past several days is therefore just a small slice of the bigger picture, given that more than 100,000 lives have been lost to COVID-19 and the hundreds of protest marches, some of them violent, have dominated the country’s attention.
Yet it is nevertheless impossible to minimize the significance of the events within the league itself, and how the fallout may reverberate long into the future.