This message is for you, the Black NFL players.
Sam Acho, Lorenzo Alexander, Russel Okung, Richard Sherman, Michael Thomas and Benjamin Watson. These six individuals are not only the vice presidents of the NFL Players Association but also the six Black NFL players who are the voice for all of the NFL players. According to the NFLPA website, two important factors are a part of their mission statement: (1) Represent all players in matters concerning wages, hours and working conditions and protects their rights as professional football players and (2) enhance and defend the image of players and their profession on and off the field.
Recently, the NFL decided to implement a policy that not only violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by issuing a fine if an NFL player decides to kneel during the national anthem, but also is a direct assault toward the 80 percent of the NFL players who just happen to be African-American. Houston Texans owner Bob McNair stated, “The NFL can’t have inmates running the prison.” (I do not accept that man’s apology whatsoever because he said what he truly felt.) McNair is not the first NFL owner to think negative thoughts or feelings about the Black NFL players, who by the way are helping this owner and other owners make hefty amounts of money. McNair is among the first to explicitly state his true feelings about you.
Fellow vice presidents and Black NFL players, I cannot imagine the fame and fortune you must be receiving now that you have fulfilled your dreams in being in the NFL. Many of you have changed your lives and the lives of your families, friends and communities. Although I totally empathize with your feelings and emotions behind the lucrative contracts that you have been given and earned, there is one thing that I feel is priceless: your integrity as a Black man.
This idiotic, toxic, megalomaniac of a man who is unfortunately leading this country has said things behind the great podium that are a direct slap at you, at me and at the image of who we are in this country:
“NFL protestors shouldn’t be in the country.”
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!”
“If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect…our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the national anthem. If not, you’re fired. Find something else to do!”
We are proud Americans who have the Constitution behind us in defense of our patriotism and our right to express ourselves. Colin Kaepernick led the way for you in taking a bold stand by simply kneeling during the national anthem. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” he said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
I, as a Black political scientist, don’t need to share with you the historical proof of the aforementioned statement, you are a Black man in America just like me. You see it for yourself.
Kaepernick is 100 percent right. What is happening right now is bigger than football, and you can no longer be selfish and look the other way. There are young African-American men who are from the block who look up to you and strive to do whatever it takes to get out the hood, to be where you are, but their reality is just like yours and mine—we have to watch our backs and anything we say or do can be used as an excuse to be shot by the police. That is the reality of being Black in America in 2018.
Now the news broke out that the NFL commissioner and the owners of the respected NFL teams (not one is a Black owner) decided that if you kneel during the national anthem your team will be fined (but you have the option to not come out on the field when the anthem is played). The question I have to ask you my fellow vice presidents of the NFLPA is, how much are you worth?
Is your contract worth all of that? Is it worth you denying your skin, your representation on the global stage of your communities and who we are as Black men and women in our country? Is it worth pretending it doesn’t apply to you? Is it worth accepting “Sorry, not sorry” apologies from the NFL owners and the Goodell administration? If you know for sure that there isn’t any dollar amount that can be put before your Blackness, then in the name of King, Malcolm, Dubois, Parks, Bethune, Baker, Douglass, Truth, Marshall, Tubman, Martin, Garner, Castillo, Bland, Rice, Diallo, Brown, Pinckney and Obama, urge your players to walk out. Don’t play a single game and don’t stop until you achieve the victory of the respect that you deserve as a Black NFL player.
We as the community will do our part in boycotting the NFL, from not watching the games, to not purchasing any NFL paraphernalia, canceling NFL subscriptions and not attending any games because we know to hurt the NFL, we have to hurt their color of green because they don’t see the color Black. We as the community will do our part. It’s on you now to decide: Exercise your power as an American and make the great sacrifice or turn the other cheek and deny who you are and your responsibility as an African-American. I pray you don’t choose the latter.
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” —the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
