In March, when the media representation and overall attention at the annual league meeting was far more intense, the NFL deliberately avoided the anthem issue. In May, with much less notice being given to the meetings as Memorial Day weekend approaches, a collection of middle-aged-to-elderly billionaires are attempting to end the problem in one fell swoop.
Prediction: It’s not going to end well.
Regardless, it’s going to end on Wednesday. Or, more accurately, the owners will craft a new anthem policy on Wednesday. Which will close one chapter and likely open another, as players, the NFL Players Association, plenty of fans, and many in the media push back against any effort by the league to taketh away that which the league previously has given. Eth.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Giants co-owner John Mara (who essentially runs the league) said Tuesday that further discussion regarding the anthem issue will happen on Wednesday. Mara also said that he expects a resolution.
Even if there’s a resolution, the issue will hardly be resolved. As previously explained, the NFL gave players the right to protest during the anthem, the NFL confirmed the right to protest during the anthem when Colin Kaepernick began to protest during the anthem in 2016, and the NFL reiterated the right to protest during the anthem when President Trump launched an all-out attack on the league and its players. How can the league simply remove that right unilaterally, with no negotiation, discussion, etc. regarding the situation?
The fact that the owners reportedly are considering potentially clunky outcomes like letting the home team decide whether protests can happen (ensuring that protests will never happen in states where the fan base would be the least inclined to accept it) or imposing a 15-yard penalty on any team with players who protest confirms that owners still don’t understand why players protest -- and that owners simply want the issue to go away, primarily to ensure that President Trump (a man for whom many of the owners privately and/or publicly have little or no regard) will simply leave the NFL alone.
But here’s the thing, NFL owners: He won’t. If you don’t change the rule, the President will periodically badger you for not changing it. And if you change the rule, the President will periodically rub your nose in the fact that you did.
“How about this one, folks?” he’ll inevitably say at a rally, somewhere. “They didn’t want to make the players stand for the national anthem but you know what? We made them do it. We did it. Together. If we can do that together, what else can we do? Or should I say, ‘What can’t we do?’”
There’s simply no easy path out of this maze for the NFL, but owners who are used to getting their way whenever and wherever and however they want it seem to think they can find one. They can’t. The sooner they accept this, the better off everyone will be.
And they only have themselves to blame. By making the players props in the effort to wrap The Shield in The Flag nearly a decade ago, the league made this mess by creating a right to protest. Whatever the next step, the NFL will be putting its big toe on a land mine.