it's a debate that's been the topic of
conversation for more than a year should
NFL players be allowed to kneel during
the national anthem it started in 2016
with Colin Kaepernick since then others
have joined in players kneeling say that
they do it to protest against police
brutality and inequality the NFL
announced that teams will be fined if
players kneel if they wish not to stand
they could stay in the locker room but
now the NFL's point back and is working
with the NFL Players Association on the
policy both can agree on for the
national anthem conduct the discussion
has even caused networks to decide
whether they will air the national
anthem before games joining me now to
talk about this as author Michael Haig
and former senior vice president of
football operations for the Jacksonville
Jaguars big topic that has just not gone
away I want some clarification here as
far as whether or not players can kneel
right now since it is up for discussion
what the policy will be can they still
go out or do they need to stay in the
locker room well actually the NFL really
botched this they came up with a
unilateral rule without consulting the
players and then they got a lot of
feedback from it and backlash so the
current policy allows players now they
can kneel they can protest there are no
fines currently and the NFL is doing
what it should have done which is going
back and meeting with the NFLPA and
trying to come up with a joint
resolution and that's why these players
have that Players Union to obviously
call make those calls like hey we don't
like this we want this to be discussed
further yeah and the NFL has a history
of knowing that player activism is going
on for a long time it wasn't that long
ago that players didn't have free agency
in the NFL so the NFL knows that there's
a procedure in a proper way to come up
with policy that affects players so
since they will be discussing a policy
is there a way that the NFL can kind of
make it a little bit easier ease the
tension I should say for the people who
are offended and say hey when they kneel
it's disrespecting veterans talk about
that well I think the NFL can help by
changing the narrative I think what's
happened is people have confused the
purpose of the players protests as if
it's something that's to try to
contravene their patriotism or something
against veterans and that's not really
been the case in the beginning so the
narrow
has been wrong and of course you know
fell didn't help when NFL owners get on
the field and locked arms with players
some kneeled with players so I think the
public's been very confused about what
the protest is about so they have to
kind of clear that up I'm glad you
brought that up what does that do before
a big game when you're seeing some
locking arms some kneeling I I've played
soccer for years I would think that
would make me feel a little separated
from my teammates almost like the team's
broken up yeah
well I think every player has their own
way if you were inside a locker room
before a game you'd see some players
with their head set on some players like
to be quiet some players like to be with
others so I think every player has his
own way of kind of getting ready for the
game but I think relative to the anthem
it's really important that we have sort
of a uniform and consistent policy or it
will be a distraction so it would it be
a distraction at that point for instead
of the player being on the field being
back in the locker room at that point
well it used to be that the players
never did go out on the field and the
policy only happened when the NFL sort
of embraced the whole military
patriotism concept but for many years
players are always in the locker room
and it worked very well that way there's
something else the players could do if
they if they decide you know what no you
are gonna be fined you're not allowed to
kneel but maybe they still want their
voices to be heard in a sense what good
players do that might be different well
I think if they work with the NFL again
helping the narrative to be clear about
why they're protesting I mean the issue
is very strong about injustice is and
killings of young black men and in the
inner cities that's a real issue so I
think the NFL has to work with players
to make sure that these players who want
to be activists and want to promote an
issue in our society have an opportunity
to do so I was gonna say let's delve
deeper into that because that is how
this started and it did kind of spread
into something a little more confusing
so again just to clarify why these
players are doing this in the first
place well I think Colin Kaepernick
started a great sacrifice to himself to
draw awareness to an issue that was very
important in the black community and
there been a number of young black men
that have been killed and justice has
not been served in many of those
instances and he took the individual
risk to kneel and to bring awareness to
that issue he also donated a million
dollars of his own money
other players followed suit and then
when he couldn't find a job back in the
NFL it created more of an issue it look
like he was blackballed from the NFL so
the communication between the owners and
the players has been botched the message
between the public and the players has
been botched and now the NFL's reworking
the policy so it's it's in a bad state
it'll be interesting to see what happens
with that thank you so much for coming
on yeah we'll be right back