Roger Goodell made a rare appearance this season and was asked about the discussions with the players' association to revise the new anthem policy. His answer was evasive but also easy to interpret — the league has moved on, and the policy appears to have been mothballed for now.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made a rare appearance this season and was asked about the discussions with the players' association to revise the new anthem policy.
Goodell's answer was evasive but also easy to interpret — the league has moved on, and the policy appears to have been mothballed for now.
The NFL had a new policy for players during the national anthem, and then they didn't. Now it looks like the discussions to revise that short-lived rule have been quietly mothballed, and it is the best move the league has made yet since Colin Kaepernick first took a knee in 2016.
During a segment on the NFL Network, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made a rare appearance this season and was asked about the discussions with the players' association to revise the new policy. His answer was, let's say, evasive, and was reminiscent of Bill Belichick's famous "We are on to Cincinnati" comments when asked about previous struggles.
While Goodell doesn't address the question directly, it is not difficult to read between the lines and see that there is no focus on the anthem policy. In other words, it appears to be dead.
With the NFL not publicly stating that the policy is dead, it allows for it to be resurrected at some point in the future. It also doesn't give President Donald Trump anything to criticize, as he most likely would have otherwise.
When the Carolina Panthers signed Eric Reid, the first player to join Kaepernick in kneeling during the national anthem, earlier this season, it raised eyebrows. When he wore a shirt to his first press conference expressing support for Kaepernick and when he kneeled during his first game with his new team, people noticed.
And now, so has the NFL's new anthem policy.