Many were pleased to see NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admit that the league was wrong in its handling of player protests, but one of the league’s leading voices on social justice feels that the NFL is still failing in one key way.
New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins believes the league will not get it right until they specifically address Colin Kaepernick by either apologizing to him or putting him on a team.
“I still don’t think [the NFL has] gotten it right. Until they apologize, specifically, to Colin Kaepernick, or assign him to a team, I don’t think that they will end up on the right side of history,” Jenkins told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday, via Tim McManus of ESPN.
“At the end of the day, they’ve listened to their players, they’ve donated money, they’ve created an Inspire Change platform; they’ve tried to do things up to this point. But it’s been one player in particular that they have ignored and not acknowledged, and that’s Colin Kaepernick.”
Goodell seemed to acknowledge that the league had failed Kaepernick as part of his video message by saying the league was wrong to not listen to players sooner, but did not directly acknowledge the free agent quarterback. That is clearly something that Jenkins wants to see corrected. Goodell’s statement leaves a lack of clarity in some places, and players like Jenkins will want to see it backed by actions going forward.
