L'Équipe: L'ombre Kapernick

November 11, 2020

L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. Here is a following excerpt, trasnlated from french.


On June 4, several NFL stars demanded that their employer condemn racism. The next day, Roger Goodell, boss criticized by the League, formalized a 180 degree turn. In a video recorded at his home, without his usual suit and tie, he admits that "we, the National Football League, were wrong not to listen to NFL players earlier and encourage them to speak out" take up the slogan repeated by the street: "Black lives matter." Kenneth Shropshire, head of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University finds "this truly spectacular public stance" for an NFL that has so long sought to stay out of politics. But after George Floyd, “If you didn't make a statement, you were in the minority. To say nothing was political whether you wanted to or not. "
The NBA can be seen as a league of players (the logo is the silhouette of former Lakers figure Jerry West), facing an owner-dominated NFL (the logo is a shield) with interchangeable athletes. Their unsecured contract and the shortness of their career (less than four years on average) limit risk taking. "I feel like the NFL is constantly looking to intimidate players and force them to bend to their will," former Seahawk Michael Bennett observed in Football's Fearless Activists.

 

Download full article by Loic Pialat:kaepernick.pdf