Sunday was “an N.F.L. day the likes of which we have never seen before,” as Mike Tirico, the co-host of “NBC Sunday Night Football,” put it. Never before has there been a protest of this sort against the inflammatory remarks of a sitting President. The sight of so many huge men kneeling, sitting, and linking arms spoke volumes. My colleagues Jelani Cobb and Doreen St. Félix have written eloquently about the meaning and historical context of the protests. It is also worth listening to what the players, coaches, and owners said about the ideas animating the day. Their words—thoughtful, articulate, and uplifting—stand in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who, on Friday, called on the N.F.L.’s team owners to fire the “sons of bitches” who took a knee during the national anthem.
“I’ve been in the league a little while, and I know the players in this league,” Jim Caldwell, the sixty-two-year-old coach of the Detroit Lions, said on Sunday, after his team lost a home game to the Atlanta Falcons. “There are no S.O.B.s in this league. These are men that work hard, of integrity, they’re involved in our communities. They’re fathers, they’re brothers, and their mothers aren’t what [Trump] said they were. And our guys, just like anything else, believe in unity, civility, and also the First Amendment rights to peaceful expression and freedom of speech.” One of Caldwell’s players, Akeem Spence, put things more succinctly: “Right is right, wrong is wrong—and it was wrong. So we came together and just made a statement.”
The N.F.L.’s Protest of President Trump
Sean Payton, the coach of the New Orleans Saints, questioned whether Trump was up to the job of President. “I think we need a little bit more wisdom in that office,” he said after his team’s victory over the Carolina Panthers. “That’s being a little blunt, but that’s how I feel. You know, I want that guy to be one of the smarter guys in the room. And it seems like every time he’s opening his mouth, it’s something that is dividing our country and not pulling us together.”
While many players and coaches focussed their comments on Trump, some of them also referred directly to the issue that last year prompted Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, to begin kneeling during the anthem: racial inequality and oppression. “As a team, we have decided we will not participate in the national anthem,” the Seattle Seahawks, who on Sunday stayed in their locker room during the pregame ceremonies at Nissan Stadium, in Nashville, said in a statement. “We will not stand for the injustice that has plagued people of color in this country. Out of love for our country and in honor of the sacrifices made on our behalf, we unite to oppose those who would deny our basic freedoms. We remain committed in continuing to work towards equality and justice for all.”
Watching on television, it seemed like practically all of the players who knelt during the national anthem on Sunday were black. But many of the white stars of the league, such as Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, linked arms with their teammates in solidarity. “I certainly disagree with what [Trump] said. I thought it was just divisive,” Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, who is a friend of Trump’s, said in an interview on Monday morning. “I believe in bringing people together and respect and love and trust. Those are the values that my parents instilled in me.” Asked if he had heard the boos from some members of the crowd at Foxborough, Brady acknowledged that he had. “If you don’t agree, that is fine,” he said. “You can voice your disagreement, I think that is great. It’s part of our democracy. As long as it is done in a peaceful, respectful way, that is what our country has been all about.”
The protest extended beyond players: some team owners joined in, including Shad Khan, of the Jaguars; Daniel Snyder, of the Redskins; and Christopher Johnson, the acting owner of the New York Jets. Notably, Khan and Snyder both donated money to Trump’s election campaign; the full-time owner of the Jets, Woody Johnson, is Trump’s Ambassador to London. Perhaps the most surprising rebuke of the President came from his friend Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots. “I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday,” Kraft said in a statement. “There is no greater unifier in this country than sports, and unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics. I think our political leaders could learn a lot from the lessons of teamwork and the importance of working together toward a common goal. Our players are intelligent, thoughtful and care deeply about our community and I support their right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most impactful.”
Among the most powerful comments came in a postgame interview with Mike Tomlin, of the Steelers, who, in 2007, became the tenth African-American head coach in the N.F.L., and who, in 2008, became the youngest head coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl. “They were not going to be disrespectful to the anthem but at the same time many of them were not going to accept the words of the President,” Tomlin said, in explaining why almost his entire team had chosen to stay in the locker room before the game.
“To be quite honest with you, I didn’t appreciate our football team being dragged into politics this weekend, and I’m sure that’s a global perspective,” Tomlin said. “But we are blessed to do this for a living, and so with the blessing comes responsibility. We understand that. We understand that we are given a platform that is a unique one.” Anybody that is involved with football also has a high level of tolerance and understanding, Tomlin added. “We feel bad for people that aren’t involved in football, that don’t get an opportunity to have a brother that’s very different to him next to him that he has to rely on, so you gain understanding.”
“We will not be divided by this,” Tomlin went on. “We’ve got a group of men in there, man, that come from different social, economic backgrounds, races, creeds, ethnicities, religions, and so forth. That’s football. That’s a lot of team sports. But because of our position we get dragged into politics . . . and so, some have opinions. Some don’t. We wanted to protect those that don’t. We wanted to protect those that do. We came to play a football game here today, and that was our intention.”
Tomlin and the rest of the coaches and players in the N.F.L. played more than a dozen football games on Sunday. But they also did much more than that.