Roger Goodell Apologizes For Being Wrong about Anthem Protests, Still Doesn’t Mention Colin Kaepernick

It took noted herb Drew Brees three and a rebuke of Donald Trump for his apology to be kinda, sorta expected, so maybe Roger Goodell’s next apology on behalf on the NFL will actually mention Colin Kaepernick, the man most wronged by the NFL owners ignoring what the national anthem programs were about.

Goodell’s willingness to say the NFL is wrong is hard to look at as anything other than a PR move, but at least it was a start. At least the owners have admitted some wrongdoing, even if it’s only save a little face. But still; acknowledging that you’re wrong while skipping past the thing (or the person) you’re wrong about is almost worse than apologizing itself. It makes it clearer that the apologizer doesn’t really understand what they’re apologizing for.

Yes, the NFL was wrong for not listening to player’s on the protest. But they are also wrong (and continue to be wrong) for colluding to keep Colin Kaepernick out of the NFL, and they are wrong for passive aggressively mentioning that any and all teams are free to sign him when there seems to be a clear directive not to. You can produce all the videos of black players willing to play ball with the NFL you want; Kaepernick’s continued unemployment is and will remain a stain on the NFL shield for as long as it takes the NFL to re-hire him.

This statement isn’t happening in a vacuum. Former Georgia and current Bills quarterback Jake Fromm had to apologize for saying only “elite white people” should get guns. Vic Fangio had to apologize for saying that there was no racism in the NFL. As I mentioned, Drew Brees had to apologize three times. And most of these apologies come with some sort of caveat; Fromm had to be sure to mention that while his “word choice” was poor, his heart was not; Fangio said that he should have been “more clear” with his words; Justin Rohrwasser, a noted conservative who likes Ayn Rand and wore “MAGA” hats on campus, somehow didn’t know his tattoos had ties to white supremacist roots.

All of these white men simply apologized not because they were wrong, or they were hesitant to admit that their beliefs were wrong. They’re wrong because we took them wrong and they apologize not for their backwards ass conservative dogma but because everyone got offended by it.

Kaepernick didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t need to issue an apology; his protest of the anthem was justified, and has been more crystallized than ever. An apology about how wrong they were without admitting how they wrong Kaepernick specifically is toothless. It’s an apology of omission, like apologizing to a spouse because you cheated on them but leaving out the part where you cheated on them with their sibling.

If Goodell wants to make good on his apology, than he’ll have to issue another apology where he admits that the NFL has been wrong in purposely excluding a man who was only kneeling against police brutality, not against the flag or the troops or whatever. He’d announce that effective immediately, any team that wants to sign Colin Kaepernick can with no repercussions. He’d apologize to him face to face and let him know he was wrong.

The NFL took a tepid step forward in addressing the biggest elephant in their room. In a league rife with people who just can’t wait to get across just how unwoke they are, and in a country that at long live last seems ready to address systemic racism again, the NFL should put it’s money where their apologies are and hire Kaepernick already.