The master of spin is at it again.
And this time, as usual, Roger Goodell’s words are being uttered during a moment that once again demonstrates just how much his actions never line up with what he says.
“Well the first thing I’d say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to,” Goodell said recently. “We had invited him in several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had the benefit of that. We never did. We would’ve benefited from it, absolutely.”
The NFL Commissioner was expressing his remorse on Emmanuel Acho’s “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.” It’s a social media series where a Black man coddles white people, allowing them to freely discuss their white guilt and “apologize” for their willful ignorance.
Quite simply, it’s a waste of time. It’s a show designed to make white people believe that “uncomfortable conversations” are the answer — not actions, legislation, or corporate policy.
“What our players are doing is being mischaracterized. These are not people who are unpatriotic. They’re not disloyal. They’re not against our military,” Goodell said. “What they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. That misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me.”
The clip of Goodell and Acho was released on Sunday. By that evening, another black man had become a hashtag due to the police.
Kenosha, Wisconsin, is in an uproar right now after white police officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times as he was walking away from them and into his car.
Here’s the link to the video.
Click it.
Watch it.
I want you to see just how this country and law enforcement still treat Black people. As of now, Blake is in the hospital fighting for his life.
There are people who will defend Goodell, as usual, and say that he’s trying to change and make good on his words. They will tell you that it’s just a coincidence that he’s on camera telling a Black man — Acho — that he should have listened to the Black man — Kaepernick — who was trying to tell America what was going on, instead of being commissioner of a league that blackballed him.
But coincidences don’t happen this often.
Roger Goodell is the same man who announced an “anthem policy,” — that was never instituted — a little over two years ago, just hours before video was released of Milwaukee Bucks guard Sterling Brown being tased and slammed to the ground by a group of Milwaukee police officers for parking in a handicap spot.
Roger Goodell is the same man that leads a league that settled the collusion case that Kaepernick and Eric Reid brought against them for blackballing them for taking a knee.
Roger Goodell is the same man that said “We’ve moved on” from Kaepernick last December after the league created a rushed and phony workout for him that would have been closed off to the media.
Roger Goodell is the male Kellyanne Conway. A person who gets paid to lie to the American public.
He’s lying when he said he didn’t listen to Kaepernick. He saw what was happening and watched as a movement grew. He just didn’t care. Kaepernick predicted it, too. And now Goodell blames Kaepernick for not accepting his invitation to explain his reasoning — which Kap had been pretty clear about in the past.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said almost four years ago to the day. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid-leave and getting away with murder.
“This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” he said. “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”
As Black America woke up Monday morning angry about Jacob Blake, there was also a sense of frustration in the air, as every American should also be frustrated. But even if a Black man fighting for his life isn’t enough to upset you, just know that on Sunday something else happened, too.
Roger Goodell’s league announced that “several positive tests from each of the clubs” came back from the NFL’s preferred lab. The details are hazy, though, and it remains unclear exactly how many teams use that particular lab — or just how many players tested positive in total.
Why?
Because the NFL is determined to play football, despite the fact that over 200,000 Americans have died as a result of this pandemic.
Black lives aren’t the only thing Roger Goodell doesn’t care about. He’s negligent of your life, too.
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