Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
A Friday town hall meeting between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and content teams for organizations helped facilitate the league’s video response that condemned racism.
Bryndon Minter, the NFL’s manager of social video, told The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue and Lindsay Jones the meeting was “raw.”
“People were able to speak directly to (Goodell), ask him whatever they were thinking. … I think it was helpful,” Minter said.
On Friday night, Goodell released a video on social media condemning racism and police brutality. He also admitted wrongdoing in not listening to player protests in the past and said, “We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter.”
The town hall was set up after several NFL stars released a video on Twitter on Thursday asking the NFL to condemn systemic racism and support black players:
Minter worked on the video’s script and production with New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas and said he was “at peace” with the possibility he could lose his job for doing so.
Rodrigue and Jones noted that video was born out of the “anger and grief” players in the league were feeling in response to the NFL’s initial statement about the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests against police brutality that were taking place across the country.
Goodell’s first statement never specifically used the words “racism” or “police brutality,” which Rodrigue and Jones said left many players feeling “it, and more directly, commissioner Roger Goodell, said nothing at all.”
Minter did acknowledge that the video statement didn’t necessarily solve anything, but he called it “a step” for the NFL and Goodell.
