The Official 2017 NFL Season Thread

marc123 wrote: »

https://deadspin.com/the-nfls-proposal-to-end-anthem-protests-gives-the-nfl-1820876878

• The $89 million in spending breaks down over seven years, and involves donations of $250,000 per year per owner, with an equal amount contributed by players. That’s chump change, especially considering how that money might be spent.

• The rest of the money is to come from the league’s coffers, but, according to Slate, Reid believes

“that the league could simply shuffle around funds that had already been allocated to charity projects, or spend the money on public service announcements that essentially served as advertising for the league itself.”

That’s essentially what the league has done with its previous social causes like domestic violence, breast cancer, and CTE research, where, in each case, the NFL’s first interest appeared to be in running commercials touting how much the NFL cares.

• Reid is also concerned about what strings might be attached to the money being spent. Setting aside the protests, which ESPN reports “the NFL hopes this effort will effectively end,” the league has a history of being heavy-handed with its generosity. When the NFL pledged $30 million to concussion research, it demanded final say on what research received the money—and blocked it from going to a researcher who had been critical of the league. The NFL eventually pulled out of its partnership with the NIH with more than half of that $30 million unspent.

• As for how the future money will be disbursed, the proposal creates a group of five players, five owners, and two league staffers. Yes, basic math says the NFL carries this voting body 7-5, making it dubious how much say players will actually have in how the money is spent.

So, let’s recap. NFL owners are pledging to spend a relatively paltry amount, not pledging that they won’t just take that money from previous charitable pledges, not promising that they won’t veto players’ preferences on where the money should be spent, setting up a voting body specifically designed to outvote those players, and expecting that this will stop players from protesting during the national anthem. No wonder so many players from the so-called Players Coalition have walked away in disgust.