NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says he would “encourage” a team to sign former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.<\/p>\n
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Kaepernick, 32, began kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016 in a protest against racial injustice and has been a free agent since 2017.<\/p>\n
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The National Football League banned players from protesting in such a way but now says it was “wrong” to do so.<\/p>\n
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Goodell said he will “support” a club wishing to sign Kaepernick.<\/p>\n
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“If he wants to resume his career in the NFL, then obviously it’s going take a team to make that decision,” he told ESPN.<\/p>\n
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“I welcome that, support a club making that decision, and encourage them to do that.”<\/p>\n
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How the NFL made its U-turn on protests<\/p>\n
Goodell added on Monday: “If his efforts are not on the field but continuing to work in this space, we welcome him to that table and to help us, guide us, help us make better.”<\/p>\n
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Kaepernick’s peaceful protest has gained renewed support in the wake of the death of unarmed African American George Floyd, who died on 25 May while being restrained by a white police officer in Minneapolis, which sparked protests across the US and worldwide.<\/p>\n
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Current NFL stars including Patrick Mahomes and Odell Beckham Jr had called on the league to “condemn racism and the systemic oppression of black people”.<\/p>\n
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New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees also posted a statement asking for forgiveness after he was criticised for saying kneeling protests would be “disrespecting the flag”.<\/p>\n
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The NFL has since pledged $250m (\u00a3198m) over a 10-year period to help combat systemic racism in the United States and says the fund will “support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African Americans”.<\/p>\n
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However, President Donald Trump has maintained his opposition and says he will not watch the NFL or the US Soccer sides if players do not stand for the national anthem.<\/p>\n
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Kaepernick became a free agent after the 2016 season and remains unsigned. He filed a grievance against NFL owners in October 2017, believing they were conspiring not to hire him because of his kneeling protests. It was resolved in February under a confidentiality agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says he would “encourage” a team to sign former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick, 32, began kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016 in a protest against racial injustice and has been a free agent since 2017. The National Football League banned players from protesting in such a way but now says it was “wrong” to do so. Goodell said he will “support” a club wishing to sign Kaepernick. “If he wants to resume his career in the NFL,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20611,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20609\/revisions\/20611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}