Roger Goodell Addresses Reporters Following Meetings On #TakeAKnee Protesters

Roger Goodell just held a press conference to recap the meetings the NFL had centering around the national anthem protests.

As I told you before, the NFL isn’t formally doing anything about the protests. Shocker.

Goodell said the NFL believes everyone should stand for the national anthem, but he didn’t explicitly say they’re going to change anything.

“We believe everyone should stand for the national anthem. That’s an important part of our policy,” Goodell said.

Instead, he wants to focus on why players are kneeling and talk about community based things they can do to address those issues. But get this– he said they didn’t even discuss punishing players who kneel during the national anthem. He said that wasn’t necessary. 

Goodell said he would not commit to making a rule stating players must stand for the anthem.

“Our players will state to you publicly they are not doing this in any way to be disrespectful to the flag,” Goodell said. He said the league is “not looking to get into politics, but what we’re looking to do is to continue to give people a focus on football.”

 

The commissioner said that about half a dozen players are still protesting, and the NFL will “try to get that to zero.”

 

“We need to make real differences in our community. That’s really what’s going to ultimately be the important aspect,” Goodell said.

Here’s the entire press conference:

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/6j7Xem4k00c”]

In other words, nothing is going to change. This was Goodell trying to appease both sides.