NFL Players’ Message To League, Owners & Fans Leads To Rights Owner ‘Mea Cupla’ U-Turn Video

The NFL’s complete U-Turn last week culminated in a video featuring Commissioner Roger Goodell admitting that the league had been wrong for opposing players’ peaceful protests against police violence,

We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv

— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020

followed on from an earlier video featuring many black NFL stars calling out the league for not issuing a strong enough statement on the protests.

This video which emerged after an NFL content creator unofficially reached out to New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas and asked if they could make the video together. NFL employee Bryndon Minter contacted Thomas via Instagram direct message to ask if he’d consider making a video together.

Within 15 minutes Thomas replied and 24 hours later Thomas and other high profile black NFL players featured in a video initially posted on the receiver’s social channels.

“A message on behalf of the nfl” pic.twitter.com/iilDpnZfyV

— Michael Thomas (@Cantguardmike) June 5, 2020

pic.twitter.com/ltJwmjVVMW

— Saquon Barkley (@saquon) June 5, 2020

A few days later the NFL released its own volte face admission and the league’s relationship with social injustice seemed to have changed for good. Minter, who thought he’d be fired, told his NFL managers of the action before Thomas posted the spot and, following a senior management meeting, the league gave him permission to proceed.

Outcome:

The players’ spot generated 2.1m views on Thomas’ Twitter feed (with 91,000 likes) alone, with plenty of further engagement on the personal channels of the other players involved (including 3.6m on Saquon Barkley’s Twitter and 800,000 on Tyrann Mathieu’ Twitter).

Within just 24 hours the video had been viewed by more than 10m people across all social channels.

Comment:

There is plenty of debate around whether brand Black Lives Matter content can genuinely contribute to change, but this video demonstrates beyond any doubt that players can certainly influence direct change.

Links:

NFL

http://www.nfl.com/

https://goo.gl/VmTK0M

https://www.nfl.com/now

https://www.nfl.com/gamepass

http://www.nfl.com/podcasts

http://nflnonline.nfl.com/

https://www.nfl.com/apps

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