According to reports, several prominent black players are considering sitting out an NFL’s game in an effort to “force change.”
Jim Trotter of NFL Media noted on Friday that “[a] few prominent Black players are telling me they want to sit out a game to make their feelings felt & force change/action.”
The NFL is only about two weeks away from the league’s first game in its shortened 2020 season, but after the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NHL all canceled games when players demanded a response to the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, it now appears that the NFL wants in on the act too.
Pro sports began responding to the Blake shooting this week. On Wednesday, The Milwaukee Bucks led the NBA into a boycott of playoff games as players across the league announced frustration that all their activism has had little impact.
Wednesday’s boycott led to a cancellation of games for the week, though the players later came together and voted to continue the end of the season.
Basketball was not alone. Major League Baseball also began canceling games, as did the WNBA. Following all that, the NHL postponed several playoff games amid protests over the Blake shooting.
The NFL has also made several statements about the shooting. This week, various NFL teams refused to take the practice field in protest.
Left-wing sports analyst Mike Florio wondered if it might not be better for the players to go ahead and play and use “the platform to send clear messages before, after, and during games that both raise awareness and call for specific change.”
But, the problem with that idea is that no NFL player has called for any specific change to anything. Instead, they throw it around as if the word “change” itself is some sort of panacea. That and fewer people every day are interested in what pampered millionaire athletes have to say about anything.
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