According to reports, the NFL used a consulting firm co-founded by former NFL communications chief Joe Lockhart to seek data on fan attitudes toward high profile league concerns like domestic violence, player protests and player safety.
Though polls are used to determine consumer attitudes in many industries, one particular poll that was used to measure viewpoints on Colin Kaepernick is troublesome to some observers for several reasons.
The fact that it appeared to single out Kaepernick as an anomaly of concern is turning heads. It asked Americans whether he should have been signed by a team.
Some believe the poll will benefit Kaep’s collusion complaint against the NFL. The existence of questioning specific to Kaepernick leads some to suspect that the poll results were circulated beyond NFL executives and ownership groups.
Shaun King on Twitter
Wow. Clear proof that the NFL conspired to keep Colin Kaepernick out of the league. Last year they paid for a comprehensive poll of fan sentiments on dozens of issues, but they only named on player in the whole poll. Guess who? Colin Kaepernick. https://t.co/jVtaixaYPQ
According to Yahoo Sports, the NFL declined to comment on the poll, as did Kaep’s representatives and the NFLPA.
The NFL approved the research that sought two pieces of information: whether Americans believedKaepernickshould have been signed by an NFL team; and given that he remained a free agent, whether fans believed that was because he refused to stand for the national anthem, his on-field performance or other reasons.
The Shadow League on Twitter
If the NFL owners think this is the end of the conversation with the protests, they are sadly mistaken. https://t.co/veESdw6HF8
The poll also explored overall attitudes toward the potential disciplining of players who refused to stand for the anthem in protest over racial and social inequalities. That data was then divided into multiple demographics, sources said, including whites, African-Americans and Latinos, Democrats, Republicans and independents, and Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials.
Among other notable information was the deep racial divide in the answers. The majority of white NFL fans supported disciplining players who didn’t stand while African-American and Latino fans didn’t.
Marc Lamont Hill on Twitter
In the midst of this latest national anthem controversy, let us not forget that @Kaepernick7 is still being blackballed for taking a principled and peaceful stand for justice.
The majority of Republican NFL fans supported the disciplining of players versus a majority of Democrats who didnt, and a majority of Baby Boomers significantly supported discipline more than both Generation Xers and Millennials.
The polling data was culled in the summer 2017 and sent to commissioner Roger Goodell in October, with a memo stating, The current dispute over the National Anthem is threatening to erode the unifying power of our game.
That same memo also went on to discuss fan attitudes, saying, Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the National Anthem.
