So with social justice at the crux of this union, what will this quest for meaningful social change entail? According to Goodell, the NFL is merely following the lead of its players.
“We support our players in trying to inspire change,” Goodell said during the press conference. “To work with them on criminal justice education and better relationships with law enforcement in our communities. Those are the types of things that our players have identified as areas we need to move forward on.”
To that end, The Root’s Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton asked about an initiative built around community and policing, to which Goodell responded, “I’ve participated in some of those and they’ve been very effective. What we’ve actually done with
Kenny Stills and several [members of the Miami] Dolphins is we went into the Miami community [...] and we had a couple of events. We had dialogues, we shared each other’s perspectives and it was really possible. I think our players want to do that.”