NFL Kickoff Week: Can the Shield handle player protests?

Welcome to the Yardbarker NFL Roundtable, a place where our most fervent football contributors can kickback, relax and look at the fun (and sometimes not-so-fun) parts of the biggest league in America; the massive behemoth that is the National Football League. Don't forget to check out Part I,  Part II,  Part III and Part IV.

Over the summer both Michael Bennett and Aaron Rodgers expressed frustrations with both players and the league over the lack of opportunity to speak their mind on societal issues in a way other leagues have allowed for over the past year. On top of that, we keep hearing that “new media” will replace “old media” in driving the conversation around players, but reactions to Cam Newton (his personality) and Colin Kaepernick (his personal protest) have proven otherwise.

So we asked our panelists:

How does the league handle this tipping point? Is Adam Silver and the NBA the best example of balance, or is the modern “business first” NFL just not equipped to handle societal shifts no matter where they look for guidance?

Phillip Barnett: Nothing is bigger than the NFL until something becomes bigger than the NFL, and Colin Kaepernick's protest during the national anthem has created a storyline that The Shield can't control. Kaepernick is going to enter Week 1 as the No. 2 quarterback on the San Francisco depth chart, but he's the most important gun-slinger in the league right now. What's most fascinating about this is that the NFL works harder than any other athletic institution to make sure athletes fall in line with the status quo and maintain the public facing culture that we've come to expect. Kaepernick has ostensibly stepped out of that shadow to create a new conversation – only tangentially related to the NFL – that's both intellectually stimulating and worth the words we spend on the league. Football is great, but football can only provide so much regarding public discourse until its most premier employees are allowed to speak about the worldly issues that are most important to them without fear of being reprimanded by their employers. 

Joe Boland: The NFL is so much about sacrifice of the individual for the team, and breaking that mentality is difficult. It's even more difficult when dealing with the type of out-of-touch thinking that NFL owners often have due to them being wealthy, mostly white men used to having their way. But other leagues are already setting examples, and while the NFL is stubborn and arrogant, I don't think the league is stupid. Once it begins to affect the bottom line in a negative way, that's when it will change course.

Unfortunately, not much has been able to make a dent into the NFL's multibillion industry. Really, it ultimately comes down to the way in which the paying fans react. If people start slamming and shaming the league, eventually the NFL will respond, as it has slowly done with concussions/injuries. Once it starts to really feel the pressure, then it'll at the very least put forth the appearance of keeping up with societal shifts, but I don't think it will ever be swift-acting when the plan of action is to give individual employees bigger platforms and more freedom to do as they please in such a regimented league.

Demetrius Bell: The NBA is the golden standard for this and has been ever since Adam Silver became Commissioner. He's fostered an environment in which NBA players feel comfortable to speak on major issues in society and they know that they can speak out and the league will have its back. Roger Goodell and the NFL would do well to emulate that, but they won't. Like you said, it's business first and the Shield before everything, so as long as the league's focus is on making sure that the league looks good and business is still booming, then that's what they'll focus on instead of "silly little things" like societal issues.

Shiloh Carder: Adam Silver has done an outstanding job understanding the diversity of his leagues and human beings that work and sustain its success. Remember he walked into the job and had the Donald Sterling mess come up and he emphatically ended the Clippers owner's long time association with the NBA. He has championed LBGTQ causes which is an important leadership stance to fans and players of both the NBA and WNBA and done so without any goading or as just a photo op for good feelings. Silver cares about his players and fans.

Back to the NFL, it seems as if Goodell has gotten lost in his role as commissioner. His sheriff attitude has created more social controversies than it has championed. The NFL has been slow to address domestic violence, player safety among other issues and has hit and missed with figuring out just what is important to their game. While there are stars in the NFL, the star of football is the game of football. Players are asked to conform and I found it a bit shocking that the league hasn't tried to force Kaepernick to censor his statement. It's always about "protecting the shield" and the Kaepernick situation certainly puts a lot of heat on the league and puts stress on their corporate model. Allowing the players to be vocal on social issues and being supportive of their rights is a pleasant departure from the controlling nature of the business of the NFL.

Daniel Tran: The NFL is one of the least self aware organizations when it comes to social issues. It starts at the top with Roger Goodell and extends to all the team owners who have this thought that having socially conscious players will affect their multi-billion dollar bottom line. Currently, there is nothing to indicate that the league will do anything to allow their players speak their mind. But if they want to change that, one thing that the NFL can take away from the NBA is explicitly supporting their players for exercising their freedom of expression. Adam Silver may not agree with everything his players support, but you won't hear him admonish an athlete for taking a stance on a particular issue. The NFL doesn't have to be at the forefront of social change, but they shouldn't discourage their players from wanting to be there.

Jamie Neal: The NFL's model of how they want to do business is fine from a business perspective, but they will always be looked at as a joke unless they give their players the chance to speak out about things that are important to them.

NFL players (and athletes in general) are not necessarily role models, but when they choose to carry that flag and want to say something that could move society forward in a meaningful way, they should be afforded the opportunity.

When the Los Angeles Clippers wore their warmups inside out during the Donald Sterling saga, Adam Silver handled it appropriately. Could you imagine Roger Goodell's response to such a display?

Adam Silver has handled himself and the NBA in a way that inspires confidence in the general public and allows its players to be comfortable and confident in the way they choose to express themselves without allowing the league to become a laughing stock. Nobody takes the NFL seriously because the things that matter to the NFL (players having their socks pulled all the way up on every play) don't make much sense.

Goodell has done a poor job of making the game fun for the players and the fans while increasing the value of the NFL and making everything the NFL does "MUST SEE TV!!!!" His ability to do this keeps the owners happy, but drives a wedge between the owners/front office and the players/fans who play and consume the game. 

The NFL should take a hard look at the NBA and how they are accomplishing what they are in terms of keeping the balance between societal responsibility and running a business. No one is demanding NFL players be role models (clearly, Ray Lewis, Greg Hardy, and half of the 49ers roster play in the NFL), but if they want to plant their flag in a worthy cause, why hinder it?

Sam Greszes: First of all, I want to say that I think Adam Silver has really done an admirable job of supporting his players who want to use their position to help bring attention to causes they believe in. Silver has taken the stance that NBA players are, essentially, individuals -- meaning they have the right to speak out on issues they feel are important. Goodell doesn't share that view.

The NFL is a machine, beholden to sponsors, investors, and owners in a way that few other sporting leagues are. The players, in Goodell's mind, are cogs. That means that when somebody like Kaepernick wants to speak out, it's a problem. It's a problem because it could cut into sales of Bud Light, or affect the price of DirecTV ads during broadcasts. The NFL isn't just a brand, it's a self-sustaining advertising machine, and societal (and cerebral) issues are unimportant when stacked next to the piles of money that advertisers offer. Under Goodell, the NFL has enjoyed unparalleled popularity in the USA, and perhaps because of that popularity, the NFL's players have had to shy away from saying anything that could be conceived as controversial, even if they were making an effort to affect real social change. It's disappointing, and in my mind, the fault lies with Goodell for turning the league into one that puts sponsors before athletes.

Vincent Frank: Forcing someone to pay respects to a flag he doesn't believe represents what his nation should be about is hypocritical. It speaks to nationalism that existed in Europe in the lead up to World War II. Therefore, I do support the NFL's willingness to look past its previously archaic sets of rules.

As it relates to the league as a whole, the NFL is nowhere near where it should be on societal issues. The NBA took a stand for equality when it moved the All-Star Game from North Carolina to Louisiana. Commissioner Adam Silver has indicated multiple times that he likes to hear his players speak out on the topics of the day. He's also a fan of the entire celebration thing on the court.

The NFL's "business first" approach has alienated the common fan. From its own arrogance to an ignorant belief that Roger Goodell can play judge, jury and executioner, there's a lot to dislike here. It should be about letting the players be themselves while protecting the shield. That's been lost on the NFL under its current commissioner.

Mike Tunison: The league has actually handled the Kaepernick protest pretty well, save the front office folks giving anonymous condemnation to journalists. Roger Goodell would prefer the NFL remain like that Simpsons episode where the school gets uniforms and all the kids become automatons plus there's an independent thought alarm. So it's unlikely he'll push for social justice messages from star players anytime soon.

David Matthews: The NFL as it exists right now is too large to be controversial. The league is not going to suffer at all when controversies do arise (Colin Kaepernick jerseys are flying off the rack right now), but I can't see anything close to what happened in the WNBA this summer happening in the NFL without a three-week filibuster and Roger Goodell attempting to use the office of the Commissioner to call in the National Guard. This is a league that is literally letting its former employees waste away and will do everything within its power to keep collecting billions from TV networks and taxpayers. At least they relented on their tax-exempt status.

More to the point, it's impossible or NFL players to make waves, unless their supremely talented. Cam Newton is amazing and I love watching him play, but other people are racists jerks. As soon as Cam gets hurt or loses a step, Jerry Richardson's going to cut him faster than the Road Runner traversing a canyon. The players speaking out is great, but they should turn their focus inward and see that the league itself hates them. That means strengthening the player's union so Goodell doesn't force an 18-game schedule on them. I'm sure they'd like guaranteed contracts, too.