Why didn’t Commish mention Kaepernick in his apology and why send out an apology now? Well let’s look at what an apology is:
Apologizing when you’ve broken a rule of social conduct—from cutting in line to breaking the law—re-establishes that you know what the “rules” are, and you agree that they should be upheld. This allows others to feel safe knowing you agree that hurtful behavior isn’t OK.Apologies re-establish dignity for those you hurt. Letting the injured party know that you know it was your fault, not theirs, helps them feel better, and it helps them save face.Apologizing helps repair relationships by getting people talking again, and makes them feel comfortable with each other again.A sincere apology allows you to let people know you’re not proud of what you did, and won’t be repeating the behavior. That lets people know you’re the kind of person who is generally careful not to hurt others and puts the focus on your better virtues, rather than on your worst mistakes.
Why didn’t Commish apologize to Kaepernick?
Perhaps because for some people, an apology often feels like an admission that they are inadequate—that, rather than having made a mistake, there is something inherently wrong with them. Others believe that offering the first apology after an argument is an admission of guilt and responsibility for the entirety of a conflict that involved wrongs on the part of both parties; they think an apology from them will allow the other person to take no responsibility for their own part in the conflict. Sometimes an apology seems to call added attention to a mistake that may have gone unnoticed.
Why apologize now – it’s about the money!
If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that the National Football League is a financial juggernaut. In 2014, the National Football League raked in 7.3 billion dollars, with each of the league’s 32 teams taking home $226.4 million. This was an increase of more than twenty percent from 2013’s revenue.
Professional football became Americans’ favorite spectator sport in the 1960s. It was a decade of great players (as is every decade): Johnny Unitas and Sonny Jurgensen, Lenny Moore and Gayle Sayers, Deacon Jones and Dick Butkus, John Mackey and Raymond Berry.
The National Football League (NFL) has longed reigned as America’s favorite professional sports league, having surpassed Major League Baseball (MLB) and prevailed against the National Basketball Association (NBA). Success may have spoiled the NFL, as the league has exhibited pompous and arrogant behavior.
NFL owners could congratulate themselves for having survived World War II intact, if just barely so. The 1945 championship game garnered the top gross gate receipts in the history of the championship with 32,178 fans contributing $164,542.
Whatever the product the NFL was selling in the 1990s and early 2000s, it came predominately in shades of black. The commercialization and racialization of NFL football have proceeded hand in hand since the 1960s, as pro football’s thrills have been disproportionately provided by African American players. The number of black players in the NFL increased from 12 percent in 1959 to 28 percent in 1968, 42 percent in 1975, and 49 percent in 1982, the last season that African Americans constituted a minority in the NFL. The black majority grew to 54 percent in 1985, 61 percent in 1990, and 68 percent in 1992, where it has more or less stabilized (fluctuating between 65 and 69 percent).
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Pro football is a continuation of war by other means. —Thomas B. Morgan, Esquire , October 1965 (after Von Clausewitz) It ain’t even war, it’s just show business. But show business is a kind of war. —Peter Gent, Esquire , September 1980
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References:
Oriard, M. (2010). Brand NFL : Making and Selling America’s Favorite Sport. The University of North Carolina Press.
Surdam, David George. Run to Glory and Profits : The Economic Rise of the NFL during the 1950s, UNP – Nebraska, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cmlibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1335303.
Created from cmlibrary-ebooks on 2020-06-06 12:03:50.
Oriard, M. (2010). Brand NFL : Making and Selling America’s Favorite Sport. The University of North Carolina Press.
