NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during a recent interview that he wished the league had listened to ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick “earlier” after he started kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem.
In an interview with former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho for his YouTube-based series, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” Goodell repeated an earlier apology and insisted that players who take a knee while “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played are not disrespecting the flag or the country.
Goodell said he had wished a dialogue had taken place between the league and Colin.
Goodell also said during the appearance “We had invited him in several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue.”
He added: “I wish we had the benefit of that. We never did. And we would’ve benefited from that, absolutely.”
Goodell further went on to defend players kneeling during the national anthem and said it’s “not about the flag.”
“These are not people who are unpatriotic. They’re not disloyal. They’re not against our military,” the NFL commissioner said.
“In fact, many of those guys were in the military, and they’re a military family. And what they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed. And that misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me” he continued.
