SANTA CLARA — Amid wide-reaching tensions hovering over the NFL about on-field national anthem protests, the team where everything started is trying to move the conversation beyond the current stalemate by joining forces with a group of big-city police unions.
Thursday, the San Francisco 49ers and representatives of police unions from San Jose, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Long Beach and Portland will detail a broad agenda to address police-community acrimony across the country that are at the heart of the ongoing on-field protests that have far transcended the professional ranks.
That agenda is highlighted by a commitment from the 49ers to bankroll the production of a series of public-service announcements to be broadcast nationally to promote better relationships between law-enforcement and residents wary, and weary, of police violence.