The best thing Roger Goodell can do for racial justice in the NFL is resign

The NFL Commissioner needed to say Black Lives Matter, but he’s years too late.

Nobody gaslights their constituents like our various elected hacks on the dole, but the National Football League might not be far behind in those dubious abuse-of-power rankings. For several years running, Roger Goodell and the NFL owners for whom he so carefully tap-dances were adamant that they cared about the issues of systemic racial oppression and targeted police brutality that so deeply, painfully affected many of their employees and the communities in which they made millions.

Then, on Thursday, Goodell stared directly into the camera and declared that he was wrong. There was something modestly refreshing to hear him say the words “Black Lives Matter.”

Unfortunately, it’s much too late.

After years of filibustering and verbal contortions toxified with PR platitudes — as well as the effective blackballing of Colin Kaepernick, the face of this entire movement — Roger Goodell can show us he’s for real if he resigns as commissioner.

If Roger Goodell truly wants to support Black Lives Matter and player protests, his only choice is to resign as NFL Commissioner

Let’s travel back to October 2017. Here’s what Goodell had to say about players like Eric Reid kneeling during the national anthem in peaceful protest:

"“I think our clubs all see this the same way. We want our players to stand. We’re going to continue to encourage them to stand. And we’re going to continue to work on these issues within the community.”"

He added that he wanted to take the number of player protestors, literally dozens at the time, and “put that at zero.”

That whole oppressive statement belongs not in the garbage heap, but in the dank Death Star trash compactor below the garbage heap.

When the owners made it clear that they staked their financial bottom lines to stamping out peaceful player expression drawing attention to racism and police brutality, a roadmap headlined by Kaepernick’s blackballing, Goodell was unquestionably along for the ride.

That’s why Thursday’s statement ultimately rang far more hollow than it should have.

There is a way he can prove he’s a changed man, of course. He can step aside and make way for a new generation. As the country asks for the same thing in the wake of Donald Trump’s reign, the NFL can take a page and hand the baton to the generation calling for change and needing a position of power to make it happen. It wouldn’t be cowardice, it’d be an act so bold the impact of it can’t possibly be comprehended.

It won’t happen, but we can still dream.

Nobody’s expecting ol’ Rog to walk the streets singing “Amazing Grace.” Performative over-compensation for his past sins is ultimately unproductive and would reek of the kind of empty commitment to justice he and the NFL’s owners have already been guilty of for years. But now that he’s made it clear that players suddenly have far more power and agency, he’s effectively asserting his own need to get out of the way.

It’s time for him to do exactly that. Resign, Goodell, and pen a second act built on reconciliation and benevolence that the players you gaslit for years can finally be proud of.