Nearly one week ago, the NFL released a statement about the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The statement was a jumble of words, expressing sadness but never using the words “racism” or “police brutality” and it didn’t reflect the anger and grief from a large segment of its players that was about to boil over.
In the opinion of many players across the league and, according to sources who spoke to The Athletic on Friday, many of the league’s own employees: It, and more directly, commissioner Roger Goodell, said nothing at all.
Finally, on Friday evening, after nearly a dozen consecutive days of protests across the world in opposition to police brutality and systemic racism and oppression in America, Goodell released a second statement, this time via video, filmed from his basement.
“We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic…
