NEW YORK _ It's ultra-rare for NFL players to participate in the annual fall meetings of the league's owners, but these are unusual times.
A group of players, their union's leader, and Commissioner Roger Goodell will join team owners Tuesday before the regularly scheduled meetings at the Conrad Hotel to discuss the national anthem controversy created by players kneeling to protest racial inequality. The NFL wants to hear the concerns of the players while not further alienating fans, and potentially sponsors, who see the protests as disrespecting the flag and the military.
Although the league and the union both say there will be no change to the current policy that players are not required to stand for the anthem, Goodell emphasized to teams in a memo last week that the league prefers players stand.
"Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the national anthem," Goodell wrote. "It is an important moment in our game. We want to honor our flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us. We also care deeply about our players and respect their opinions and concerns about critical social issues. The controversy over the anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues. We need to move past this controversy, and we want to do that together with our players."
League spokesman Joe Lockhart said Monday that the NFL will discuss additional ways it can use its considerable influence to support causes that matter to the players.
"As we have talked about before, the commissioner and league staff will be presenting a plan to use the platform that the NFL enjoys (for) raising awareness about many of the issues, but more importantly, to make progress on them," Lockhart said. "We'll have a lot more to say about that (Tuesday), but it is something we have been working with our players with over the last couple months."
