If Roger Goodell Is Serious, Then He Needs To Get Colin Kaepernick Back In The NFL Now

Two words . . .

Colin Kaepernick.

One question . . .

How soon will an NFL team sign the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback within the next few months, weeks or days?

That silence you hear is loud enough to drown out anything NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said out of nowhere for 81 seconds during a video released Friday evening, you know, when the national and the local news cycle begins its dead period through the weekend.

Not only that, but most of the media eyes these days are focused on the George Floyd demonstrations in streets around the world.

You also have the global pandemic.

Goodell knows all of that, because everybody does.

Which means this leader of a business that made a record $16 billion last season, partly because of its expertise at marketing, wasn’t exactly hoping for maximum exposure during his declaration that the NFL was “wrong” for not listening to players (hello, Kaepernick) about racism against African Americans.

Never mind 70% of NFL players are African American.

Forget about this league of 32 teams featuring just three African American coaches and two African American general managers.

To hear Goodell tell it, (see below), he’s only now noticing a racial problem in America overall and around his league in particular.

That’s weird, or shall we say telling. In 2003, the NFL concocted its phony Rooney Rule, which asked teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching jobs, but so much for asking.

Goodell eventually joined NFL owners this year in supposedly enhancing the rule by requiring teams to interview multiple minority candidates for head coaching and GM jobs. The league also made other hiring-related tweaks that they boasted were minority friendly.

“Without black players, there would be no National Football League,” Goodell said ring the video, before adding, “and the pros around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality and oppression of black players, coaches, fans and staff.”

Centuries of silence?

During the NFL’s 100 years in existence, its commissioners and owners have been more vocal regarding profit margins than social injustice. In addition, when Goodell talks of “inequality” and “oppression,” well, we’re back to Kaepernick and the league’s hiring practices regarding African Americans.

Not good for either subject.

So hold your glee, folks, over Goodell’s confession, epiphany or whatever you wish to call what he said.

Such caution especially would be wise for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and any of the other dozen or so NFL players who told league officials through a video Thursday to admit the NFL shouldn’t stifle peaceful protesters (hello, again, Kaepernick), and that it should support the Black Lives Matter movement and condemn racism.

Yes, Goodell said everything in his video those players wanted him to say, and for the most part, he looked only slightly like a hostage in somebody’s basement.

“We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people,” Goodell said in the video. “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all players to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe that black lives matter.”

We, the wise among the skeptical, believe Goodell has a long way to go before receiving an NAACP Image Award.

If Goodell is serious, he should . . .

1. Call Kaepernick now.
2. Apologize to the guy face to face.
3. Get somebody to hire Kaepernick now.

Kaepernick was blackballed by NFL owners after he began kneeling during the national anthem through the 2016 season to protest police brutality and other injustices against African-Americans. So he started the current movement before it officially existed.

Even though the NFL agreed to give Kaepernick a tryout last year, the event was a sham, ranging from the league burying it down the stretch of the season, forcing Kaepernick’s people to change its location at the last minute in the Atlanta area for various reasons and having just eight NFL scouts present for the whole thing.

At 32, Kaepernick showed the arm strength of a guy who at least can become somebody’s backup in a quarterback-starved league.

If Goodell is serious, here’s the bottom line: He and his NFL owners can solve their head coaching and GM issues with African Americans by hiring them, period, and they can make Kaepernick somebody’s quarterback in the league soon after the start of the good news cycle Monday.

Then Goodell can do another video, and everybody can watch that one without rolling their eyes.