In this Sept. 11, 2017 file photo,
from left, Miami Dolphins' Jelani
Jenkins, Arian Foster, Michael
Thomas, and Kenny Stills, kneel
during the singing of the national
anthem before an NFL football game.
(Photo: Stephen Brashear, AP)
The Five
Hours
That
Forced
the NFL
to
Reconsider
Its
Anthem
Policy By
Conor
Orr
Sports
Illustrated
NEW YORK
- Back
in May,
when a
panicked
NFL
constructed
its
national
anthem
policy
of
straw,
the rest
of the
football
world
was
ready
for one
stiff
news
cycle to
huff and
puff,
blowing
it all
to
pieces.
That
news
cycle
started
on
Thursday
around
3:45 in
the
afternoon
(Eastern
Time),
and by
8:43
p.m.
that
same
night,
the
league
had
issued a
joint
statement
with its
players
union
agreeing
that “no
rules
relating
to the
anthem
will be
issued
for the
next
several
weeks”
while
confidential
discussions
between
both
sides
play
out.
Five
turbulent
hours
might
have
changed
the most
politically
charged
and
divisive
decision
in
modern
NFL
history.
At the
very
least,
it seems
players
will
have a
place at
the
negotiating
table
this
time.
Here’s
how we
got to
this
moment,
and what
you
might
have
missed:
•
The
Associated
Press
got its
hands on
a copy
of the
Dolphins’
team
rules
Thursday,
which
included
a brief
mention
of
“proper
anthem
conduct.”
In that
document,
anthem
conduct
fell
under
the
umbrella
of
“conduct
detrimental
to the
team”
which,
according
to the
collective
bargaining
agreement,
could
give a
club the
freedom
to
suspend
a player
for up
to four
games.
When the
NFL
created
its
anthem
policy,
it gave
teams
the
freedom
to make
its own
“work
rules”
regarding
the
anthem.
•
The
optics
of a
team
suspending
a player
for a
quarter
of the
season—more
than
some
players
get for
violating
the
NFL’s
domestic
violence
policy—were
horrid,
although
there
was some
fine
print
that
needs to
be
considered.
According
to a
team
source,
the
Dolphins
were
filing
their
rulebook
in
accordance
with NFL
guidelines,
which
mandate
that
teams
“must
publish
and make
available
to all
players
at the
commencement
of
preseason
training
camp a
complete
list of
the
discipline
that can
be
imposed
for both
designated
offenses
within
the
limits
set by
the
maximum
schedule
referred
to in
Section
1 above
and for
other
violations
of
reasonable
Club
rules.”
There
was no
cemented
national
anthem
policy,
but they
had to
include
any
potential
discipline
in the
rulebook
before
the team
reported
to
training
camp or
else
they
would
have
lost the
right to
insert
it
retroactively.
Putting
it there
amounted
to a
placeholder
of sorts
while
they
figured
out the
best way
to
address
the
situation.
So could
the
Dolphins
have
actually
suspended
a player
for 25%
of the
season
for
kneeling?
Yes.
Would
they
have?
It’s
unclear,
though
it
didn’t
appear
likely.
•
This was
going to
be the
first of
many,
many
stories
just
like it.
The
Dolphins
are
almost
certainly
not
unique,
but were
merely
the
first
team to
have
their
rules
leak out
into the
public.
This
would
have
eroded
any
chance
the NFL
had to
save
face
with its
players
before
the
preseason
opener
in
Canton
on Aug.
2,
creating
the
potential
for
disaster
during a
celebratory
weekend.
•
NFL
public
relations
and the
NFL
Players
Association
released
a
statement
a few
minutes
before 9
p.m.
saying,
in part,
that
“the NFL
and
NFLPA
reflect
the
great
values
of
America,
which
are
repeatedly
demonstrated
by the
many
players
doing
extraordinary
work in
communities
across
our
country
to
promote
equality,
fairness
and
justice.”
The
league
did not
respond
to a
request
for
comment
on when,
exactly,
discussions
between
the NFL
and
NFLPA
peaked
and when
this
agreement
to
freeze
all
policies
came to
fruition.
On
one
hand,
the
policy
freeze
provides
commissioner
Roger
Goodell
a second
chance
to do
something
he has
failed
to do
time and
time
again
throughout
his
tenure
as
commissioner:
Enact a
policy
with
broad
support
from
both
players
and
owners,
while
simultaneously
removing
the
league
from the
long
slog of
an
endless
legal
controversy.
Standing
up to
the
President,
who
admittedly
utilizes
anthem
protests
as a
mechanism
to
incite
his
supporters
and
bolster
his poll
numbers,
would go
further
toward
bridging
player-league
relations
than
anything
else
Goodell
has
accomplished
over his
career.
On
the
other
hand,
Thursday
brought
up a
question
many had
asked
when the
anthem
policy
was
first
announced
in late
May: How
could
they not
see this
coming
from a
mile
away?
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