The meeting that took place between NFL players, owners and league officials on Tuesday, October 17, didn't produce any sort of conclusive decision regarding the ability of players to kneel during National Anthem ceremonies, and neither did it aim to. Rather, those present at the gathering attest to having engaged officials in the discourse that players - who've been demonstrating - are trying to generate, in prelude to future developments concerning their issues and the anthem.
NFL stars, Kenny Stills, Russell Okung, Julius Thomas, Demario Davis, Michael Thomas, Josh Norman, Mark Herzlich, Kelvin Beachum, Chris Long, and Malcolm Jenkins were supported by NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith and president Eric Winston at the meeting. And joining the collection of activist-athletes was Commissioner Roger Goodell, football operations chief Troy Vincent, and owners, John Mara, Art Rooney, Jeffrey Lurie, Terry Pegula, Robert McNair, Shad Khan, Michael Bidwill, Arthur Blank, Jed York and Robert Kraft.
Last week Goodell sent out a memo pledging to bring parties together to help navigate the stand-still that many owners are having with their players, with players feeling standing on their right exercise the First Amendment, while owners reel over fans pressuring them to answer to President Trump's call by decisively eliminating the protests. Goodell has confirmed that a separate meeting, exclusively attended by owners, will take place to establish what teams want to do going forth. On his part, Goodell has taken a page out of NBA commissioner Adam Silver's book, in encouraging that players stand, with promises to usher in a platform for their voices to be heard in the coming season.
According to a joint statement delivered by owners and players via NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, parties on hand "had a productive meeting focused on how we can work together to promote positive social change and address inequality in our communities." Whether such meet-ups will lead to a resolution one way or the other remains to be seen. Some teams have seemingly already gotten their players to agree to stand, or to at least compromise, with the Miami Dolphins, for example, has already seen its three kneelers remain in the stadium tunnel throughout the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, and then exiting onto the field when it came to a close.
