“We were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in June 2020, “and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.” Goodell’s statement came a day after nearly 20 NFL players called on the NFL to take a stronger stance amid nationwide protests, rioting and looting in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Although Goodell did not mention former NFL player Colin Kaepernick by name in his 2020 statement, it was Kaepernick who in 2016 was the first to do what Goodell called for: “speak out and peacefully protest.” Kaepernick did so in August 2016 by, according to the NFL, “refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States.”
The NFL’s historically significant article on that historic event was live for its website for 6 and 1/2 years, but was quietly removed some time in early March this year. A visit to the URL for that article now brings up the below image.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people,” Kaepernick said on August 27, 2016. “There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Kaepernick’s actions and controversial statement “forever enraged millions of Americans” according to Time Magazine. He never played in the NFL game again, yet parlayed the controversy into the “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything” campaign with Nike, and his own line of Nike merchandise.
According to the independent non-profit Archive.Org, the NFL article in question was still present on February 28th, but had been removed by March 14th.
On its website, the NFL say that “press inquiries…please see our Communications page at https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/Home.aspx.” However, that page contained no contact information.
Because the NFL makes itself unavailable for press inquiries, we were unable to obtain comment from the organization on why the NFL’s historically significant article, contemporaneously detailing events and the NFL’s own views, was quietly removed from their website.
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