Michael Huyghue - Behind the Line of Scrimmage: Inside the Front Office of the NFL

President Trump was in Huntsville, Alabama, for a campaign-style rally with his base supporters. I watched the news on TV as Trump rambled on, congratulating himself for the self-proclaimed amazing job he had done so far as president in such a short time. This man is truly delusional! I yelled out from the living room to my wife, who was, fortunately for me, cooking dinner. She had reached her limit of the broadcast and my guess what Trump updates. Too depressing, Kim would usually say, but this time she called back nonchalantly, Whats he saying now?, still not turning her head toward the television.

Although her tone suggested she really didnt care to know, her natural curiosity and accumulated knowledge belied that suggestion. Kims stay-at-home wife/mom title is a designation that doesnt fit the Harvard-educated, authentically beautiful independent black woman with whom Im blessed to have shared my life for twenty-five years.

Same old bullshit! I shouted back, reminding myself that shes much smarter than me. Then, somewhat randomly, Trump switched subjects and began a rant on black NFL players who were bending a knee during the national anthem to bring awareness to social injustice in the black community.

Wouldnt you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. Hes fired. Hes fired, Trump said.

I stood up from my easy chair, my mouth wide open, aghast. I could not believe hed actually said what he said. I heard a raucous ovation of approval from the crowd.

Disrespecting our flag, I said out loud. Its the whole nations flag. The flag doesnt belong to just a portion of the country, I continued, directing my rebuttal toward the television.

He has now become unhinged, Kim chimed in, overhearing my muttering and affirming her steadfast belief that the man was not mentally competent.

He has not taken the time nor the interest to drill down on what the NFL players protest is all about. He just hijacked a racially divisive hot topic and used it to

Enough of this crap, she said. I took all this time to cook, so lets eat. Kim spared me any more agony by grabbing the television remote from my hand and clicking it off. Okay, fair enough; shes the boss at home.

The NFL players protest first arose in 2016 when then backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, of the San Francisco 49ers, began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice in America. A small number of his black teammates knelt in support of him, as did other black players spottily across the league. Kaepernick is biracial, with a white mother and a black father, though he was adopted by white parents.

Racial makeup and delineation always seem to be important in the race discussion, as if we need to define someone as either partially or fully black. Its irrelevant. Race is not just skin tone or even DNA. Its ones self-identification and embrace of the culture that defines racial makeup. Labels can be misleading. When people ask upon what basis Kaepernick, a biracial player, could lead a cause primarily connected to black people, my answer is that Kaepernick obviously identifies with the black community.

At the start of the 2017 season, no NFL team signed the then twenty-nine-year-old free agent Kaepernick, even though his skills seemed to clearly warrant his making an NFL roster. Just a few years prior, Kaepernick led the San Francisco 49ers to a division title with a regular- season record of 12-4. No team publicly acknowledged that he was being blacklisted, though as a longtime NFL insider, I knew his signing would have rattled and upset the fan base of any team. NFL owners never lose sight of the pulse of their fan base. As Weeb Ewbank, the 1969 Super Bowlwinning coach of the New York Jets, once famously said, We are in the business of selling tickets. Owners know the lifeblood of their teams is ticket sales. Television revenues pay the bills, but ticket sales speak to the stature of a team. Owners typically steer clear of highly controversial players.

As we ate, I barely tasted the meal Kim was so proud of. I began to search my nearly thirty years of experience in and around the NFL for an answer to why race in the NFL had become headline news and presidential political football.

Kaepernick pledged more than $1 million of his own money to organizations that work in oppressed communities, including the Black Lives Matter movement, which organizes rallies around the country against police brutality and the killing of young African American men. Kaepernick also made it abundantly clear in his messaging about his protest that he was not disrespecting the flag or the men and women of the armed services. To the contrary, he was attempting to use his celebrity to bring attention to and provoke conversation about racial injustices in black communities.