Sunday Night Football host Cris Collinsworth wasted no time tackling the Trump topic.
It’s been a historic day of protests in the NFL. Over 100 players knelt or sat during the national anthem across games throughout the day. As play started between the Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins — in Washington no less — Sunday Night Football host Cris Collinsworth gave his opinion on how Trump can make amends to the NFL.
Collinsworth explained that he thinks Trump needs to apologize for the SOB comment, saying “they’re not SOBs, they’re smart thoughtful guys, they really are.”
He added that he thinks the players share a common goal with the president of a “better America” but that “their version of how to get there is different than the president I understand that.”
Furthermore, he posited:
"But I guarantee you if the president invited — I can make a list of 10 guys — to the White House and heard their stories and heard their thoughts and heard how concerned they are about America, they would find the common ground and they would move this forward.And I think an apology for the SOB comment would go a long way."
Watch his appeal for yourself below.
— SirStreamAlot (@sirstreamsalot) September 25, 2017
It’s a nice sentiment, but the protests predate Trump’s SOB and firing comments. While the league, in particular, ownership, was certainly galvanized by the Friday night speech and subsequent Twitter commentary, taking a knee is not about Trump.
The players protesting are not protesting Trump and they’re not protesting in response to the SOB comment or the assertion that they should be fired for speaking their mind. They’re protesting discrimination and police violence. They’re protesting white supremacy. They’re protesting systems of power that the president, in many ways both implicit and explicit, condones.
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So, while it’s easy to understand the NFL and Sunday Night Football’s desire to “put a coda” on the day’s protests, it’s not going to be that easy. An apology from Trump — which let’s be real, will never happen — may serve the purpose of making amends between the president, team owners and league leadership. But it’s unlikely that an apology, or a White House visit, would have any effect on the protests and the players who have been taking a knee for their beliefs since before Trump went to Alabama — since before Trump was even elected.