The Dallas Cowboys will begin their 2020 season in less than three weeks against the Rams in Los Angeles.
It’s not yet known what will take place during the national anthem ahead of the “Sunday Night Football” matchup on NBC. What we do know is that several big-name players plan to protest during said anthem in the midst of a year that has seen racial division in the United States at its highest level since the civil rights movement some four decades ago.
Despite, this Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has not joined others in showing public support for the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing protests. Fresh off a man by the name of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by police officers in Wisconsin, this has been brought to the forefront once again.
How will Jones and the Cowboys respond to all of this?
Jerry Jones still seeking common ground with Cowboys players over national anthem protests
“At the end of the day, as a recognition we support our players,” Jones said on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday (h/t the Star-Telegram). “I knelt with our players, as you know, on a personal basis but as a team, we all knelt together before the anthem and then we stood for the anthem to recognize what it’s symbol is to America. And [I] thought that was good and that’s the kind of thing we’ll be looking to see if we can implement.”
Back in 2017, when pretty much the entire NFL took a knee to protest police brutality and comments made by President Donald Trump, the Cowboys didn’t take part. They took a knee before the anthem, only to stand with Jones when the anthem itself was played.
That’s highly unlikely to cut it once the NFL season opens next month. As we have seen recently, players have not been quiet following the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd by a then-Minneapolis police officer back in May. Other incidents, including both the Blake shooting this past weekend and the killing of Breonna Taylor, have NFL players from all walks of life speaking up.
Meanwhile, the NFL itself has admitted it mishandled the Colin Kaepernick-led protests from years ago. The league now supports Black Lives Matter and the rights of players to protest police brutality during the anthem.
As it relates to Jones, he’s received a ton of criticism for not showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Jones’ personal friendship with the president and his donation of $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund complicates things further in this regard. That’s especially true given the current state of race relations in the United States and the 2020 Presidential Election just over two months away.
How Jones and his players handle all of this heading into the 2020 NFL season will be a major back drop in Big D. That’s for sure.