It turns out not much came out of the meetings between NFL owners and players, which everyone believed would bring action on the national anthem protests.
A group of 11 owners and more than a dozen NFL players gathered at the league’s headquarters Tuesday and although many in attendance believe that it was a beneficial meeting, no real progress was made.
When asked by members of the media whether they asked players to stand for the national anthem, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell revealed that they did not and had this to say of the discussions:
.@nflcommish when asked if players were asked to stand for national anthem at meeting today: “We did not ask for that.” pic.twitter.com/ZLRRMBTCIJ
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) October 17, 2017
“We spent today talking about the issues our players are trying to bring attention to. Issues in our communities, to make our communities better,” Goodell said. “And I think we all agree there’s nothing more important than trying to get back into our communities and making our communities better. That was the entire focus today.”
.@nflcommish: “[NFL players] commitment to addressing [social justice] issues is really admirable.” pic.twitter.com/vWufipKvMm
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) October 17, 2017
“I would tell you that our players are men of great character. They have a very deep understanding and tremendous knowledge of the issues that are going on in all of our communities and their commitment to addressing these issues is really admirable and something that I think our owners looked as saying, ‘We want to help support you.’ Those are issues that affect us, they are issues also we’d like to do together.”
The commissioner noted that they do plan to meet again in about two weeks, but gave no indication of what will be on topic.