I doubt they would have the courage to apologize directly, without a lot of double-talk and trying to appease leftists along the way.
This isn’t a stand-off and an apology would be a fake gesture. Anyone who comes crawling back because the league said “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again” is acting like a battered spouse that keeps returning to the abuser.
The abuse will happen again and again and again, until you say, “no more”.
“No, but it might stop the freefall”
i would say it would SLOW the freefall: many other reasons for dropping viewership besides kneelers, namely, NFL football has become predictable and boring, with all teams playing not to lose, playing solely for the other team to make more mistakes, blizzards of time-killing penalties, too many three-and-outs, low-scoring games, WAY too many commercials, and lame announcers that never STFU, e.g., Chris Collinsworth. Out of 3-3.5 hours of telecast, there are actually only an average of ELEVEN minutes of actual football when you add up all the play times between snaps and whistles.