Just over three years ago, when the NFL found itself in the teeth of a heated debate over national anthem politics, social justice protests and building racial tension, one of the wildest assertions in NFL history spilled into the middle of a U.S. Senate committee hearing in Washington.
It was a September 2017 revelation that nobody in the league office could have predicted from any political hearing, let alone one featuring testimony from the heads of the FBI, Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center. The NFL was quickly learning that blindside moments in the Donald Trump presidency would be jarring and frequent.