NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is once again speaking out about the lack of support the league offered to now-free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick when Kaepernick began protesting during the national anthem in 2016.
Unlike his first statement, he actually mentions the former QB by name. Goodell sat down with Fox Sports’ Emmanuel Acho for Acho’s Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man video series.
“Well the first thing I’d say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to,” he said. “We had invited him in several times to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had the benefit of that. We never did.”
Kaepernick hasn’t taken a snap since Week 17 of the 2016 season against the Seattle Seahawks, but talks of him possibly getting back into the league have resurfaced this year in the wake of the death of George Floyd.