CRT and the NFL

and the Politics of Being Goodell

Politically, NFL commenators and analysts tends to run right of center.

It’s mostly a by-product of making bank and having a sudden urge to pay less in taxes than bigbox store employees, but a sizable chunk of their mild conservatism is also an aversion in sports to change of any kind. The National Football League is the epitome of this.

Often the conservatism leads to predictable reactions.

Colin Kaepernick kneels during the national anthem over racism and commenators and analysts responded predictably. In situations where the issue breaks down to a labor v management, those right of center rarely side with workers. Unhappy team owners and their point man, Roger Goodell, set the tone early on in the faux controversy.

Faux? If the NFL can explain how kneeling silently, which does not violate the letter or spirit of the U.S. Flag Code, is diminishing America or football, I am all ears. It doesn’t, of course, and the issue really came down to messaging. The NFL began partnering the U.S. Armed Foces in 2010 or so and Kaepernick’s silent kneeling was creating a countermessage that neither the NFL nor the U.S. military would accept. The result - Kaepernick ostracized from employment as a professional football player. He had a QB rating of 81, which is higher than Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Ben Rothlisberger, and Trevor Lawrence. And Colin Kaepernick has the exact same amount of military service as Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones.

But, as in most things, sometimes the racism of things is so egregiously obvious that the same cadre of sports analysts and commentators who leaned away from Kaepernick leaned in to support former Miami Dolphin head coach Brian Flores.

Why?

Well 70% of the players in the NFL are African-American and the dearth of coaches who are African-American is easily seen. Currently, there is exactly one.

Neither the NFL or Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Doplhins, has a good defense. Brian Flores went 10-6 in 2021 and 9-8 in 2020 with a mediocre quarterback and a heavy handed owner (Ross).

The NFL’s attempt to correct this and give African-American NFL coaches head coach opportunities via the “Rooney Rule” has become a joke. It was a mean-spirited one in Flores’s case as he interviewed for a head coach job in New York in 2022 after the job was already filled by a white coach. Flores, who once worked under Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick, was tipped off by him.

Flores has accused of numerous accusations of misconduct that could cost Ross the Doplhins, including trying to sway a certain quarterback under contract away; but essentially his lawsuit centers on Critical Race Theory, specifically that systemic racism kept Flores from getting another head coach position and that it was at that the root of his firing.

Roger Goodell wants to sweep the case and controversy under the rug along with his Washington Football Team investigation and John Gruden’s lawsuit against him and the NFL. Given the political lean of sports commentators and analysts, Goodell may need wall to wall carpet to keep Flores’ case under wraps.

BTW: In case you think Bill Belichick is saint in the process, he is not. Brian Flores was the 2018 Patriots’ Defensive Coordinator in fact but not in title - Belichick would not let him have that.