More than two dozen current and former professional athletes are in Atlanta learning ways to promote social-justice causes, a result of last year’s contentious debate over the appropriateness of some football players kneeling during the national anthem to raise awareness about police misconduct and other issues.
The visitors are at a three-day “Advocacy In Sport” workshop at Morehouse College, organized by faculty, students, National Football League officials and others to find positive methods for athletes to support causes important to them. Six of the attendees are current or former Atlanta athletes, Morehouse officials said.
President Donald Trump was among the critics of the anthem protests, urging NFL teams to fire players who knelt during the anthem. The controversy generated headlines locally when a group of African-American Kennesaw State University cheerleaders knelt during several football games and administrators didn't follow University System of Georgia guidelines saying that colleges and universities should not do anything to curtail such demonstrations.
Colin Kaepernick, the football player who led the protests, was not at the workshop. Workshop attendee Najee Goode, a linebacker on the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, said he hoped both sides could have more constructive dialogue by understanding why Kaepernick protested.
“I would say understand the problem of what got us to this situation,” Goode said. “And if you’re mad at Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem, tell him to stand up and then ask him what’s wrong.”
Goode, who runs a youth football league with his father in Cleveland, said he's learning ideas at the conference that he hopes will help his organization.
Former NFL star Troy Vincent, now the league’s executive vice president of football operations, also spoke of discovering ideas from the workshop that could unify all communities.
“Whether it’s activism or advocacy, it’s really about love,” he said.
Morehouse College associate psychology professor David Wall Rice said he hopes the conference helps athletes find ways to improve their communities that best fit their goals, whether it’s through their involvement in a foundation or getting involved in issues such as incarceration rates for minority communities.
Morehouse's new president, David A. Thomas, has said one of his goals is to provide curriculum and programs that have a greater impact on the lives of African-American men, such as the workshop. Morehouse is the nation's only college with a specific mission to education black men.
About the Author
