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Be honest, you’ve thought it for a long time: The owners of teams in the National Football League are, as a collective group, not very bright. The ham-handed way they and their mouthpiece, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, have handled the ongoing player protests of the National Anthem proves that their group decision-making skills rise no higher than those of that herd of cattle out on Farm Road 888. It’s not that they lack intelligence – they are, as individuals, mostly highly intelligent people. Yes, some – like the Luries, the Maras, the Irsays, the Halases and the Krafts – are...

Last week, the NFL sent a letter to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones accusing hims of "conduct detrimental to the league" after Jones threatened to sue the other owners if they approved commissioner Roger Goodell's new contract. It was the latest escalation between the league and Jones, a schism that appears to have origins in Goodell's decision to suspend Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott for six games. But on Tuesday, Jones abruptly dropped the idea of a lawsuit. According to a letter from Jones to Falcons owner and chair of the compensation committee Arthur Blank obtained by the New York...

A few weekends ago, at a seersucker-in-November southern horse-racing event I attended with some lovely and friendly people who will nevertheless be the first ones taken out when the revolution comes, a family friend, an older white man, asked me what I, the one sportswriter he knew, thought of the kneeling NFL players. I told him that while I stand for the anthem myself, I supported the players’ right to express themselves politically and encouraged him to worry less about the kneeling and more about what the players were trying to say. He snorted and said he was done with...

As Roger Goodell attempts these next few days to not only save his job but ask for a raise and luxurious perks amid NFL ratings that are plummeting even further into the abyss, undoubtedly many football fans across the country are wondering if our recent national trend towards the hyper-politicization of everything is here to stay.When Colin Kaepernick began kneeling last summer during the national anthem during football games, claiming that he was doing it to protest what he believed was the oppression of people of color, it caused a sharply divisive uproar across the country that has now snowballed...

President Donald Trump continued his complaints about the NFL and the players that protest during the national anthem, claiming that Americans are fed up with the protests, calling the NFL "weak and out of control." Players have protested since the beginning of the season, whether it was in response to police brutality or racial injustice and even Trump, who called the players "s*** of b******," which led to a league–wide protest during Week 3.

The Commissioner finally has a new contract. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL’s Compensation Committee has informed all owners that a new contract for Commissioner Roger Goodell has been executed.

In trying to avoid a national anthem controversy, the NFL has sparked a national anthem controversy. The league is under fire again for rejecting a Super Bowl advertisement from a veterans group that urged people to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The league invited American Veterans (AMVETS) to place a one-page ad for the Super Bowl LII program, and the completed submission included an American flag alongside the words, “#PleaseStand.” The ad will not run, which now has AMVETS crying censorship. “Freedom of speech works both ways,” AMVETS national commander Marion Polk wrote in a letter to commissioner Roger Goodell...

With the support of many N.F.L. owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell is prepared to escalate his public feud with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and long one of the most influential people in the league, by ordering him to pay millions of dollars for his efforts to derail negotiations to renew Goodell’s contract and for his outspoken defense of a star player who was suspended, according to five league officials with direct knowledge of the situation. The punishment will be issued in the coming weeks by Goodell, who will declare that Jones’s actions were detrimental to the league,...

The policy adopted today was approved in concert with the NFL’s ongoing commitment to local communities and our country — one that is extraordinary in its scope, resources, and alignment with our players. We are dedicated to continuing our collaboration with players to advance the goals of justice and fairness in all corners of our society. The efforts by many of our players sparked awareness and action around issues of social justice that must be addressed. The platform that we have created together is certainly unique in professional sports and quite likely in American business. We are honored to work...

Former New York Jets safety Burgess Owens recently slammed the NFL for looking to implement “affirmative action for a Marxist,” by encouraging teams to sign Colin Kaepernick. As a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Kaepernick prominently started protesting against the country during the playing of the national anthem in 2016 but found himself left unsigned by any NFL team the following year when he turned free agent. Despite not playing since 2017, this year, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has begun saying that the NFL needs to work with Kaepernick to guide the league’s spending on social justice issues. On...

A deal reached by the National Football Leauge and the NFL Players Association bans players from attending any indoor church services that are above 25 percent capacity, multiple sources told NBC Sports on Saturday.Alongside its restrictions on attending worship services, the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) also prohibits players from attending indoor nightclubs and bars (except for take-out), indoor concerts, professional sports games, and indoor parties that include 15 or more people. The deal has not been publicly released, but NBC Sports made no mention of any restrictions on attending protests. Meanwhile, the NFL’s Twitter account has been sharing and celebrating pictures of players...

Colin Kaepernick’s NFL career is officially over. For months, there has been quiet speculation regarding whether or not he will finally get a chance to return to the league that seemingly washed its hands of him four years ago. Now we have our answer: no. This week Mike Florio confirmed that despite NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially coming out and wrapping his arms around Kaepernick, and irrespective of the very public endorsements the 32-year-old received from head coaches Anthony Lynn and Pete Carroll, nobody actually wants to sign him.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently announced that NFL end zones would feature certain political messages in an effort to promote social justice awareness. Somehow, the message chosen for Thursday night’s Kansas City Chiefs vs Houston Texans match-up managed to tick off people on both sides of the aisle.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has explicitly told teams to go out and sign Colin Kaepernick. Goodell made the surprising admission earlier this week, during a conversation with Mike Tirico on NBC.

[snip] Some of the team plans seemed more haphazard than Week One’s careful coordination. The Tennessee Titans were in the middle of pre-game warmups when the song started, causing the team to rush to the sidelines. Titans linebacker Rashaan Evans, safety Kenny Vaccaro, and defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney took a knee, while defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons held his right fist in the air. Titans left guard Rodger Saffold knelt with center Ben Jones with his right hand on Saffold’s back. Right guard Nate Davis took a knee, as right tackle Dennis Kelly’s rested his left hand on Davis’ right shoulder....

DeAndre Hopkins made headlines this week when he flipped off a caravan of Trump supporters on his way to Sunday night’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks. A few days later, Hopkins appeared on the All Things Covered podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden and explained why he did what he did.

Until Roger Goodell and the NFL recently signified their devotion to the anti-American mythology promoted by Black Lives Matter and prostrated themselves before its pantheon of privileged heroes such as Colin Kaepernick, football had for decades been something that made us all incredibly happy and was a central feature of our lives each fall. Now it will not be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future, and I seriously doubt that we're unique. That should strike fear into the hearts of NFL executives. There is a seismic shift beneath our feet in the world of sports today, and...

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a recent interview that players’ kneeling protests against racial injustice during the national anthem are “not about the flag," adding that he wishes the league listened to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sooner when it came to the matter. Goodell made the comments in an interview with former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho on his YouTube series "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man," that went live on Sunday. In the interview, Acho pressed the commissioner about a statement he made in early June apologizing for the league’s past handling of the kneeling...

You can come out, now, Roger! In his continuing role as the NFL’s Neville Chamberlain — the British prime minister who appeased Nazi Germany until it was too late to prevent World War II — Roger Goodell continues to pander to the bad acts at the risk of imperiling the good and welfare — and value — of the NFL. Goodell has proven he would rather offend the NFL’s most devoted, fair-minded fans than the league’s most offensive players.

It is now being reported that the NFL will be playing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a song that has been called the “Black national anthem,” before all NFL games in Week 1. This is a high-risk, low-reward move by the NFL. There are countless problems with this strategy to appease the woke mobs, and it would be difficult to overstate just how foolish and dangerous it is. First of all, a “Black national anthem” can only exist if there is a broad acceptance of the notion that black people, as a racial category, share a common identity with other...