Roger Goodell came through with a massive statement this past week as he released a video in which he claims the NFL stands with protesters and that the league was wrong about kneeling for the anthem. Goodell noted that he wants to protest with the players now and that the NFL is committed to fighting against racial injustice. The commissioner even said that the league wouldn’t be anything without black players which is very true considering 70 percent of the league is black. 

According to Pro Football Talk, many owners were unaware that this statement was going to be made. In the report, it notes that there is a small group of powerful owners in the league and that Goodell usually runs stuff by them first. After getting approval from his small circle of owners, Goodell posted the video without notifying the other owners. 

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Per Pro Football Talk:

“The “few owners” undoubtedly were the most powerful of the owners, the ones who actually run the league and the ones with whom Goodell communicates most frequently. The rest, the ones who don’t run the league, didn’t get advance notice.”

Many players throughout the NFL have been speaking up against police brutality while others have even taken part in the protests themselves. With this in mind, it’s clear that the league will have a lot of peaceful protests happening on the field when the next season starts back up.

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Chief of Universal Music Group Lucian Grainge sent a memo to his staff announcing the formation of a task force to “accelerate our efforts in areas such as inclusion and social justice,” this week, following the death of George Floyd and protests across the country.

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Grainge is appointing chief counsel Jeff Harleston to lead the task force.

“This week, yet again we saw our society’s most painful realities about race, justice and inequality brought—cruelly and brutally—into the harsh light of day,” Grainge wrote in the memo. “But no matter how shocked or saddened or infuriated we may be, we cannot just despair. We must act. Each one of us has a duty to do what we can to alter those realities, to help build a society that is far less unequal and much more just.

“I’ve appointed our General Counsel Jeff Harleston to lead a UMG Task Force to accelerate our efforts in areas such as inclusion and social justice. Jeff is convening a group of qualified executives from throughout the company to review our current programs, identify gaps and deficiencies, update our plan where it’s outdated, propose new initiatives, and ensure that these issues remain at the top of our agenda.”

Grainge goes on to say that more details will come next week.

Check out the full memo here.

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Jason Whitlock is one of those sports pundits who is consistently criticized for his outlandish opinions on social issues. Simply put, Whitlock doesn't see much of a need for social justice these days and whenever racism is brought up, he is quick to dismiss its existence, at least in certain instances. He has also been critical of athletes like LeBron James, for standing up against white supremacy.

On Wednesday, Whitlock found himself hating on LeBron, once again, following James' comments on the horrific Ahmaud Arbery murder. In the tweet below, Whitlock claims that LeBron is simply posturing for social media and wants to make it all about himself. Whitlock even made a comparison to Michael Jordan, which seemed a little bit uncalled for.

During last night’s airing of “The Last Dance,” ESPN looked into Michael Jordan‘s history when it comes to social justice and how he never liked to play the political game. Back in 1990, Jordan was asked to endorse an African-American Democrat who was running for office. Jordan refused to do so at the time because he simply didn’t know enough about politics to say anything.

Jordan also infamously got himself in trouble by saying the phrase “Republicans buy sneakers too.” This made MJ seem like he only cared about money and that politics meant absolutely nothing to him. At one point in the documentary, former President Barack Obama even weighed in on MJ’s now-famous comments.

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“I’ll be honest, when it was reported that Michael said ‘Republicans buy sneakers too,’ for somebody who was at that time preparing for a career in civil rights law and public life, and knowing what Jesse Helms stood for, you would have wanted to see Michael push harder on that,” Obama said. “On the other hand, he was still trying to figure out, ‘How am I managing this image that has been created around me, and how do I live up to it?’”

For many, what Jordan said shouldn’t even be seen as an issue. At the end of the day, politics are a tricky thing and not everyone has to partake in them. Some would argue that MJ had a responsibility to be political although that’s another debate entirely.