President Donald Trump invited NFL players to reach out and suggest people who have been mistreated and should be considered for a pardon. He thought it was an olive branch to a group of football players that had been protesting during the national anthem over racial injustice, police brutality and an unfair criminal system. He noted last week that none had taken him up on his offer.
A group of them did on Thursday, although they didn’t respond with a list of convicts who might be deserving of a second chance. The players instead took to social media and the opinion pages of The New York Times to issue a plea to the president to use his position and executive powers to bring about wide-reaching change that will benefit a larger population.