The NFL only wants to give the appearance of allowing the players freedom of expression while controlling which messages can be expressed and which can’t.
Last week, the NFL fined San Francisco 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa $11,255 for displaying a “Make America Great Again” hat when he crashed the postgame, on-field interview of teammate Brock Purdy after their Oct. 27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
This isn’t the first time that the NFL has fined a league employee for making a right-wing political statement. In 2022, Washington Commanders Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio was fined $100,000 because he referred to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a “dustup.” Jan. 6 may not have been a “dustup,” but should an employee be fined $100,000 because he mischaracterized it as such? Is there no freedom of speech left in the NFL?
Many people have compared Bosa’s political statement to the actions of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the National Anthem before every game in 2016 in protest of the highly publicized police shootings of black men that summer. People on both sides assert that there is hypocrisy on display in the differing reactions to these two political stunts.
Some claim the NFL is hypocritical for fining Bosa for his political statement while never fining Kaepernick for his political protest of the National Anthem. (In fact, the NFL paid Kaepernick millions to settle a lawsuit in which he asserted that owners were colluding to keep him out of the league.) Others have accused NFL fans of being racists because of the collective outrage at Kaepernick’s political protest before the game while remaining relatively quiet about Bosa’s political statement after the game.
