All Rev'd Up: NFL Statement On Black Lives Matter Is 'Too Little, Too Late'

Dallas Cowboys v San Francisco 49ers — SANTA CLARA, CA - OCTOBER 02: (L-R) Eli Harold #58, Colin Kaepernick #7 and Eric Reid #35 of the San Francisco 49ers kneel on the sideline during the anthem prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium on October 2, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

June 08, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement on Friday saying, 'We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter."

Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III spoke with Boston Public Radio on Monday about the irony of this statement, coming from a league that freezed out activist and player Colin Kaepernick for his racial injustice protest starting in 2016.

"It's too little, too late, because when we look at this moment in time, everybody wants to be on the right side of history," Monroe said. "The NFL's Roger Goodell now speaks affirmatively that black lives matter, that's what Colin Kaepernick did, but now Goodell gets it, all of sudden?"

The NFL needs to take serious actions, rather than just post statements that could soon be forgotten, Monroe added.

"They can rehire Kapernick if they're really serious, and educate white players how to be less racist," she said. "I just feel like it's a moment for them — they don't want to lose their white progressive base, more so than that they're concern about their black football players and police brutality."

Price also noted the irony of Goodell's statement.

"Some corporations who have been doing things right for a long time, have not had to make statements," he said. "So those companies and institutions that feel forced try to get on the frontline are those who are virtue-posturing."

Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.

Price is professor of worship, church & culture and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.