On June 5, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a video proclaiming that “Black lives matter” and that the NFL was wrong in shunning peaceful player protests of social injustice and police brutality.
It was a stunning reversal of policy and a bellwether of the larger culture shift on issues of race in the United States in the aftermath of George Floyd’s homicide at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Prior to Goodell’s about-face amid a larger race reckoning, the league’s defining statement on the issues was Colin Kaepernick’s inability to find a job. While Goodell apologized that day for the league’s general response to peaceful player protests, he did not directly apologize to Kaepernick, whose leadership on the movement led to his blackballing from the league.