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Colin Kaepernick refuses “to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people”...

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http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ung-unhappy-nfl-social-justice-reform-efforts

Okung, players could skip meeting with owners

Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Russell Okung, who attended the recent NFL owners-players meetings in New York, is not pleased with the league's efforts on social justice reform.

It's even possible that Okung and other players could decide to skip next week's meeting if their unhappiness with the league continues.

"I am disappointed that further progress has not been reached on discussions with the league," Okung said Thursday. "NFL officials appear unmotivated and don't share the same sense of urgency. Increasingly, the meetings appear unproductive at best and disingenuous at worst. Furthermore, the ongoing disparagement of Colin Kaepernick is a factor needing remedy for the players and public to feel heard and for real progress to be made."

Okung was expecting more from the league.

"I thought there were concrete plans to help," Okung said. "To my dismay, that wasn't true at all. It's only remained as just talking. There hasn't been any action.

"It's disappointing, because anytime the NFL says it cares about something, like breast cancer awareness, domestic violence, concussions, it comes out in force. So far we haven't seen that."

Okung acknowledged there have been attempts to promote individual players in the community, but he believes not enough has been done, and he said other players feel the same way.

They are encouraged by the talk, but so far discouraged with the results.

Representing the players at the last meeting were NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith and president Eric Winston, former player Anquan Boldin and current players Darius Butler, Kenny Stills, Julius Thomas, Michael Thomas, Mark Herzlich, Kelvin Beachum, Demario Davis, Chris Long, Josh Norman and Okung.

Players were skeptical going into the first meeting with owners; the level of trust between owners and players has been low in recent years due to a variety of issues tied to the commissioner's decisions and the collective bargaining agreement.

Some felt there was progress, but Okung said it has not been quick enough or substantial enough. And now it could impact the state of relations between the two sides, as well as attendance at next week's owners-players meeting in New York.
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Hope for the best, expect the worse

It’s gonna take years for the NFL to have anything place about social inequalities

It’s been said many times but I’ll say it again, issue within the communities of POC will continue to be at the bottom of America’s list and you best believe it’ll remain that way for some time if White America has anything to say about it
 
https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-co...rs-nfl-owners-next-round-talks-165637789.html

Sources: Colin Kaepernick to join players, NFL owners in next round of talks

After nearly eight months without an NFL job, Colin Kaepernick will now find himself sitting across from the team owners he has accused of blackballing him.

Two sources told Yahoo Sports that Kaepernick has agreed to attend a meeting between a coalition of NFL players and owners sometime next week, in which the two sides will continue talks about the league’s engagement in social activism efforts. It’s the second time he has been invited to the meetings by members of the players’ coalition, but declined his first invite after confusion about whether the NFL was open to his attendance. This time around, the NFL has been notified that Kaepernick has been invited to join the meeting, despite it coming in the midst of his grievance against the league for allegedly conspiring to freeze him out of a job.

“We look forward to him joining the conversation,” NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday.

Two sources told Yahoo Sports that Kaepernick’s attendance has been pursued by multiple players who believe he is an important voice in their efforts, which have sought to have larger league involvement in a platform promoting racial equality and judicial reform. After sitting and then eventually kneeling during the national anthem during the 2016 season, Kaepernick ignited a spate of game day protests that have continued into this season and become a rising concern for league owners.

That is what ultimately pushed the league to the meeting table with players in recent weeks, sparked largely by rants from President Donald Trump and recent statements from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones that discipline should be levied against protesting players. The political theater has been particularly troubling for the NFL, reaching new heights of distraction when Vice President Mike Pence staged a walkout at a game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers in Week 5 after some players protested during the anthem. That ultimately appeared to have been orchestrated by Trump, who said he asked Pence to walk out in the event that protests occurred during the anthem.

NFL owners have said they would like players to refrain from protests during the national anthem on game day, although it now appears that Jones is the last owner in favor of establishing hardened rules barring it. The league continues to believe that anthem protests are damaging the NFL’s bottom line, and that has led to the owners reaching out to find a solution with players.

As Jones said Sunday, “There is no question the league is suffering negative effects from these protests.”

It remains to be seen what impact Kaepernick could have with his direct involvement with meetings. But a league source told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that there is an expectation from the NFL that Kaepernick’s inclusion in talks will draw more attention from Trump. The president has spoken both directly and indirectly about Kaepernick on a number of occasions already, most notably making a thinly veiled reference to him as a kneeling “son of a bitch” in a speech in September.

Perhaps making Kaepernick’s presence more awkward is his grievance against the NFL, which accuses both the NFL’s executive branch and its owners of colluding to keep him from signing with a team. Among other things, that grievance is seeking to dig into private communications of owners and executives over the past year, apparently in hopes of finding a smoking gun that proves teams worked together against him as a form of retribution for his protests during the anthem.
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http://www.freep.com/story/sports/n...lions-rod-wood-anthem-protests-cte/805609001/

Lions president Rod Wood goes in depth on anthem protests

Wood: Protests 'obviously affect how people view the game right now, there's no denying that'

No topic has caused more consternation in the NFL this year than players kneeling in protest during the national anthem.

Eight Detroit Lions took a knee before a game against the Atlanta Falcons last month after president Donald Trump made incendiary comments encouraging owners to fire players who refused to stand for the singing of the song.

The league-wide protests have quieted in recent weeks, and every Lions player stood for the anthem the last two games. But the subject remains a sore spot with some fans who say the protests are contributing to the NFL's sagging ratings.

In Part 2 of our sit-down with Lions president Rod Wood, he addresses the protests, how Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford has handled them internally
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Q. National anthem protests have been a big topic all season. Players have said they met with Mrs. Ford and she asked them not to kneel. Can you clarify what she said what came of that meeting?

A. “I was in the meeting and I’m going to try not to say too much about it because I’d want to keep team meetings as kind of private team meetings, but I saw what the players said and the essence of it was her and I went to a team meeting, which was admittedly unusual that she would come to a team meeting, more to talk about the issues that are really important to them and the best way to draw attention to those issues. And as stated by a couple of those players, she did state her preference that they not kneel. She didn’t instruct them not to kneel, she didn’t threaten anything if they kneeled. But I think the best part of the team meeting was the dialogue that followed with the players and her and me and Coach (Jim Caldwell) and Bob Quinn talking about the issues that are important to them.

"And since then, there’s been a number of meetings with the players and with Coach, and I’ve gone to one of Jim’s leadership meetings, and I think they’re very close to having a set of initiatives that they want to focus on that are really going to be driving positive change and bringing attention to the issues that are there, that are important, that need to be addressed. And we’ve committed not only time and brand equity of the team, but financial resources to partner with them on those initiatives. So I’m not prepared to announce what they are, but that’ll be coming pretty soon. And I think what (NFL commissioner Roger) Goodell has been talking about is moving from protest to progress, and I think we’re kind of as a team in the progress mode right now, which is a good thing. And I think what at least in part started that was the team meeting that she attended."

Q. How much money will the organization contribute to the player initiatives?

A. “I’m not going to get into that. It’ll be a substantial amount."

Q. What are the initiatives?

A. “There’s three really specific things because talking about social justice and racial equality, that’s pretty broad. So we’ve tried to take those big, overarching issues and boil it down to here’s a couple of things that we can do that will impact those big issues. Cause we’re not going to solve social injustice by just talking about it. What are the tactics, what are the programs, what are the things that we could put money, time, marketing dollars, hopefully even partner with some of our corporate partners that would want to get behind some of those things, and move it off of the protest to talk about here’s what we’re doing in a positive way. And I think we’ve made really good progress with our team on that.

“I think on the anthem, generally speaking, it’s still an issue across the whole league. We haven’t got down to zero (players protesting during the anthem), which is what Goodell’s goal is. And I think it’s a team by team, region by region issue. Things that are in San Francisco are different than Detroit, and New York’s different than Tennessee. But I do think heading towards zero is where we are and that needs to be the ultimate goal because it does obviously affect how people view the game right now, there’s no denying that. And it also, I think, from the player’s perspective, isn’t letting their voice be heard the way they want it to be heard about issues that are really true and important and real. So hopefully we can continue to work with them and get it down to zero and then get focused."

Q. Just to be clear, what is Mrs. Ford’s position should a player take a knee going forward?

A. "Well, her position is what she asked them, she prefers them not to kneel. We’re not going to tell people not to kneel. We’re not what other teams have – I won’t comment on what other teams, but have demanded, required. And I think the potential backlash of anything right now that’s in the form of a demand or requirement is real. And I think right now we’re at a good place with our team and I want to keep it that way."

More from Wood on protests:

Q. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the league was “suffering” from the protests. You alluded to that. What feedback have you gotten from corporate sponsors on the topic?

A. “We’ve heard from a few, and it varies depending on the kind of business that each company might be in. I think the initial wave after that first weekend with the president’s tweet that kind of ignited this, there was a lot of reaction. I’m not sure how much of it was real, how much of it might have been orchestrated. In some cases, I think it was an effort to amplify what the president said as opposed to real reaction from people. But to the credit of most of our corporate sponsors, we’ve communicated with them and they kind of see the progress is being made and I hope as I said, that we’re going to come out the other side of this and have some of our corporate sponsors want to partner with us on some of these initiatives and get behind the positive change and ultimately benefit from this. And I do think there’s an opportunity to turn what was an issue for a couple weeks into a real positive. For the players, for the league, even for some of our corporate sponsors."

Q. How many sponsors, if any, have you lost because of the protests?

A. “None."

Q. What ultimately do you see as the end game with this, both in terms of the impact the initiatives have in the community and how protests play out over the next year?

A. “I think the ultimate end game, hopefully we do get down to zero players taking a knee, and we continue – and I don’t want this, and I’ve told our players, this is not an exercise to get you to not take a knee. This is an exercise to really focus on issues that are important to you and have it be an ongoing part of our program in the community and our charitable dollars be allocated to those things. ... When we get behind something, we get behind it and it benefits the organization and it also benefits the Lions by being part of a good community impact. And so I think just the players showing up, the Lions showing up, with money, with maybe a corporate sponsor, it could be a win-win for everybody, and I hope that we can kind of keep that going. And the other thing that I think’s a benefit is it has created, and I can’t speak to every team but I think it’s across the league in most respects, a really positive dialogue between ownership and players, which doesn’t always exist. And hopefully that can lead to a lot of good things down the road."
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https://theundefeated.com/features/the-courage-of-colin-kaepernick/

The attempt to censor Kaepernick by citing his lack of racial bona fides is a tragic game, and one that, once one gets on that slippery slope, can never be stopped, because there’s always somebody blacker than thou. Ward also criticized Kaepernick for the manner of his protest – that instead of sitting down during the anthem he should give his entire check to the cause he believed in, and that he was being a distraction to the team. Yet Kaepernick’s method of disruption proves his point: giving a million dollars, or even his entire salary, may have created a celebration of Kaepernick’s generosity, but it wouldn’t have drawn attention to the underlying oppression that Kaepernick was protesting.

Some have said that the protest is all about Kaepernick, and not about the issue, but the two are not unrelated. Kaepernick’s protest has been met by the same white resentment and defensive postures – the same see-no-evil-hear-no-evil approach – that have characterized policing of black folk in the street and its subsequent justification in the courts and police stations across the nation. Rice says that Kaepernick shouldn’t disrespect the flag, but he is hardly doing that; he is simply asking us to truly honor the flag in our treatment of the least of these. Of course, the same astonishment and anger that Kaepernick would dare sit during the national anthem also greets those blacks who protest in the streets and are said to be disrespecting the police.
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at the end of this long read it made sense who wrote it great read though
 
2stepz_ahead;c-10064291 said:
i am curious how these players feel now that they are being called slaves.
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If they didn't feel and know that is how the team owners felt already majority of them will never feel a way about it. As long as they keep getting their checks they just fine.

I don't say that from a standpoint that all the players need to be on some Malcolm X shit or even go as hard as Kaep is going but damn stop falling and going for anything cause you not willing to stand for something.
 
Last edited:
D. Morgan;c-10064311 said:
2stepz_ahead;c-10064291 said:
i am curious how these players feel now that they are being called slaves.
Click to expand...

If they didn't feel and know that is how the team owners felt already majority of them will feel a way about it. As long as they keep getting their checks they just fine.

I don't say that from a standpoint that all the players need to be on some Malcolm X shit or even go as hard as Kaep is going but damn stop falling and going for anything cause you not willing to stand for something.
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sadly...i can hear alof ot these dudes saying " as long as he signs the check he can say what he wants"

problem is....these niggas dont really know what they are worth. that check is pennies to these dudes. and once they get hurt.....its fukk you.

now you just a nigga who cant play no more.
 
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