There Is One Thing The National Football League Still Hasn't Done

  The National Football League and Commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement on May 30, 2020 in regards to the protests that have been taking place across the country due to George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, MN., being murdered by the police on May 25, 2020.

NFL Statement via Twitter

By their tweet, Goodell and the NFL would lead you to believe that they stand behind the black community as they look to gain civil justice and equality, following the murder of another unarmed African American. However, their actions have proven otherwise over recent years. The tweet that they are still missing is a public apology to former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

In 2016, the 49ers' quarterback led the way, as players exercised their American right to a peaceful protest, by taking a knee during the National Anthem before games. This blew up across the media and it gained a lot of steam through the league and a more and more players began to participate. This form of protest got a lot of criticism and was taken out of context by many. They accused Kaepernick and others who took a knee of being unpatriotic and going against the military and protesting the US flag. In reality, this was never about the military nor the flag. Kaepernick clearly explained many times that this was about police brutality against unarmed/innocent black people and civil injustice.



The NFL made created a rule stating that players are not allowed to take a knee during the National Anthem. Players who violated this rule would be disciplined. A lot of teams started to implement this rule themselves, also, because they didn't want to be fined by the league due to player breaking this rule.

At the conclusion of the 2016 season Kaepernick would become a free agent, no team would look to sign him either. There was a lot of talk that teams didn't want the "media circus" that came with signing him or the famous excuse of "he's a distraction" but in reality were those ever really valid reasons to not sign a quarterback who was in his prime and just three years removed from taking his team to the Super Bowl? It seemed like the NFL had pretty much black-balled the outspoken quarterback for his take on the governments lack of civil justice for the black community and equality that still plagues America today.

The last game Colin Kaepernick played in was on January 1, 2017. The 49ers would come up short again the Seattle Seahawks 25-23; Kaepernick was 17-22 for 215 yards and 1 passing touchdown.

The National Football League and Roger Goodell can't expect for people actually buy this support as sincere and pure, when just a few years ago they penalized players for standing against these civil matters. If they want to anyone to buy their condolences and apologies to the family of George Floyd, others who had come before him like Michael Brown or Sandra Blatt... They need to start with an apology to Colin Kaepernick.