On this Episode of The Critical Hour with Dr. Wilmer Leon, The NFL Players Association's complaint is "on behalf of all players challenging the NFL's recently imposed anthem policy," NFLPA said in a statement. "The union's claim is that this new policy, imposed by the NFL's governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement." The policy, approved by team owners in May, requires athletes on the field to stand during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Should a player or other team member refuse, or otherwise disrespect the song, the offending party will be subject to a fine. The policy was put in place as a compromise move after President Donald Trump frequently railed against players for kneeling during the anthem in protest of racial and other injustice in America, particularly police brutality.
In our last segment, the federal government has quietly revived its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy whose abduction and killing remains, almost 63 years later, among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the South.
He was murdered August 28, 1955 in Money, MS, four years before I was born. But his death was so horrific and it's impact so pervasive that it's one of those events that has been seared into my memory as if I was alive when it happened. Is there any correlation between his death and the murder of Antwon Rose II in Pittsburgh and the, as Gil Scott Heron would say, the endless list that won't be missed when at last America is purged.
GUESTS:
Mason Ashe — currently on the Adjunct Faculty at Howard University School of Law and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania where I teach Sports Law. Plus, I have practiced sports law for 29 years during which time I was a certified agent for NFL players for 15 years.
Antone Barnes — Founder CEO of Brand Architects where for over two decades the company has worked to develop brand integration, personal & business management and partnership building for NFL, NBA and various celebrity clients.
Peter Bailey — Journalist, author and lecturer, he is a founding member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), where he was editor of the OAAU newsletter, Blacklash. From 1968 to 1975, he worked as associate editor for Ebony magazine.
