NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he wants the league to ‘listen earlier’ to Colin Kaepernick

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league should have listened earlier to Colin Kaepernick and other players protesting racism by kneeling during the national anthem.

In a scene from retired NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho’s upcoming web series ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man’, Goodell got the chance to give a public apology to Kaepernick, who the Commissioner has so far refused to sit in front of a face -face assembly.

“We had invited him several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue,” Goodell told Acho in a video posted on Sunday. ‘I wish we had the benefit of it. We never did it. And we would definitely benefit from that. ‘

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league should have ‘listened’ earlier to Colin Kaepernick and other players who protested racism by kneeling during the national anthem

In a scene from retired NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho’s upcoming web series ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man’, Goodell addresses a public apology to Colin Kaepernick

The protests began with Colin Kaepernick in 2016, when he was with the San Francisco 49ers, as a way to tackle inequality and racist police brutality. Hundreds of players have followed by kneeling, sitting or lifting a fist during the Star-Spangled Banner, even though Kaepernick has been left unsigned since 2017, when he awaited his contract pending his release

Goodell previously acknowledged that the NFL must have listened to the concerns of its players following the death of George Floyd as a Minneapolis police officer on May 25.

“We should hear that sooner,” Goodell repeated to Acho. ‘And that’s where we needed to be with them, understand and figure out what we can do as the NFL.’

The protests began with Kaepernick in 2016, when he was with the San Francisco 49ers, as a way to tackle inequality and racist police brutality. Hundreds of players have followed through by kneeling, sitting, or lifting a fist during the Star-Spangled Banner, even though Kaepernick has been left unsigned since March of 2017, when he canceled his contract pending his release.

Last year, Kaepernick settled a collusion lawsuit with the league for an undisclosed amount after he accused owners of blackballing in retaliation for the protests.

Trump pictured during Army Navy football game of 2019. Trump originally grabbed the issue of player protests back in 2017, calling the protesters ‘sons of b **** es’

Although Goodell tried to implement a rule that required players to stand in front of the national anthem, he eventually regretted it, and players continued to demonstrate amid intense criticism from fans and even some owners.

While tensions over the protests continued throughout the 2016 season, they were buzzing in 2017 when President Donald Trump took up the issue at a rally in Alabama. Since then, Trump has continued the protests as unpatriotic, and has gone so far as to refer to protesters as ‘sons of b **** es’.

In an interview with Acho, Goodell emphasized that the demonstrations were not unpatriotic but rather mischaracterized by critics.

‘These are not people who are unpatriotic. They are not disloyal. They are not against our military, ‘said Goodell. ‘In fact, many of those boys were in the army, and they are a military family. And what they are trying to do is exercise their right to pay attention to something that needs to be fixed. And that misrepresentation of who they were and what they did was the thing that really bothered me. ‘

Goodell previously told ESPN that he hopes to see 32-year-old Kaepernick back on an NFL roster, and has encouraged teams to sign him.