Last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA president Michelle Roberts wrote a co-sponsored letter to players encouraging them to continue speaking out on social issues and encouraging their activism off the court. This came in the wake of a number of players, including stars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, speaking out against Donald Trump and his policies.
The NBA’s response to player activism came in stark contrast to the NFL’s handling of similar issues, as players have launched numerous protests and spoken out against social and racial inequality, only to find themselves seemingly on an island rather than garnering support from the league.
Players in the NFL took notice of the NBA’s public support of its athletes and four of them — Michael Bennett, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins, and Torrey Smith — penned a letter to commissioner Roger Goodell calling for him to take a step forward in support of his players as they campaign for racial equality and more.
The memo, obtained by Yahoo! Sports, was 10 pages long and called for the league to invest time and resources into its players’ activism, including financial support.
“To be clear, we are asking for your support,” a portion of the memo reads. “We appreciate your acknowledgement on the call regarding the clear distinction between support and permission. For us, support means: bear all or part of the weight of; hold up; give assistance to, especially financially; enable to function or act. We need support, collaboration and partnerships to achieve our goal of strengthening the community. There are a variety of ways for you to get involved. Similar to the model we have in place for players to get involved, there are three tiers of engagement based on your comfort level. To start, we appreciate your agreement on making this an immediate priority. In your words, from Protest to Progress, we need action.”
It’s a strong call to action from players in which they use the NFL’s ambiguous words to try and coax them into action themselves. The NFL has yet to respond to the memo, either publicly or privately, but it’s clear that players want to feel some level of support from the league in their efforts to promote social change.
