How player activism in the NFL has recently evolved

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick set a model for NFL players to follow when discussing matters of race and activism, but something else broke down the wall that led to the modern climate: The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

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Episode 2 of “Between the Lines” reveals how NFL players became activists during the summer of 2020, and their perspective on the ways the league both supports and hurts their message.

Voices in the episode include New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty, former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin, former Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Michael Johnson, and former NFL linebacker/NFLPA senior director of player affairs and senior advisor to the executive director Don Davis.

Davis on what changed following the murder of George Floyd:
“Any time you see a man get murdered by placing a knee on the back of his neck, no matter what your color is, I think you can say that’s wrong. The national narrative has changed and that has allowed more athletes in general to use that platform. With how social media is, people saw that you can connect as a community, and therefore, as well, it kind of allowed players to stand up and decide to take a stand.”

HBO and ESPN personality Bomani Jones’ observation on how activism changed in 2020:
“I think that we had this incredible shock to the system of 2020 with George Floyd. The fact that Patrick Mahomes would put his face and name on anti-racism rhetoric is actually, I think, a bigger deal than people give it credit for, right? The Black quarterback has typically behaved like every other quarterback when it comes to anything of consequence and just stayed quiet. That’s not the game he chose to play.”

Baldwin on why he became increasingly interested in social activism during his time in the NFL:
“I couldn’t sit around and not do anything about what was going on in our country or at least address it from a perspective or an angle that I thought that I could have some impact in.”

Baldwin on why the NFL, as an organization, needs to invest in Black communities:
“If you’re going to benefit from the drive and motivation of these players comes from a very specific place, and I’m not trying to get too deep into this, but there’s a reason why players are willing to do what they do on the football field and disregard their bodies. If somebody benefits from that, then I think, yeah, they have an obligation to give back to the community, to the sources, to the origin of why that is what it is in the first place.”

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(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic)