Thursday Jay-Z and National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell held a news conference announcing a deal with the league in which the hip-hop mogul’s company will handle the NFL’s entertainment events with a purported nod toward enhancing a message of social justice. This is a coup for Goodell and the league, which has been under fire from both sides of the political spectrum over the NFL’s reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s protest of racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. Trump and conservatives have used the anthem protests as a wedge issue for the culture war in order to stoke white resentment among the Republican base, with the resulting firestorms leading many of those making money decisions in the sports industry to scurry away from either covering, discussing, or wanting to involve themselves in political discussions. ESPN’s Dan Le Batard recently defied the network’s edict of “no politics” by calling out Trump’s racism, and called ESPN’s reluctance to cover those issues directly “cowardly.”
Even as the anthem protests have become more widespread, with Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women’s national team during the World Cup and Race Imboden at the Pan American Games, Kaepernick has remained unsigned to any NFL team since 2017, and other players have been frozen out and found it difficult to work in the league for their support of the protests. Over these past years of controversy, celebrities have offered differing degrees of solidarity with Kaepernick, usually by refusing to be a part of NFL events. Both Rihanna and Cardi B reportedly turned down an offer to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show because of the appearance of supporting the NFL after its treatment of Kaepernick. In public performances and some of his music, Jay-Z has in the past turned down offers to perform with the NFL and publicly supported the stance taken by Kapernick, calling him “an iconic figure.” For Beyoncé’s and Jay-Z’s 2018 track “Apeshit,” Jay-Z called out the NFL with this: “Once I said no to the Super Bowl: You need me, I don’t need you. Every night we in the end zone. Tell the NFL we in stadiums too.”
But that support only seems to go so far. Jay-Z’s decision to partner with the NFL has faced intense blowback from critics who believe collaboration with the league allows the powers that be to sidestep Kaepernick’s protest, and the NFL will use Jay-Z as an imprimatur to shut down any criticism of how the NFL handles the intersection of politics and sport, especially if team owners enforce edicts which silence players. For his part, Jay-Z claims “we’re past the point of kneeling” and his deal with the NFL is about “action.”
As part of the deal between Roc Nation and the NFL, Jay-Z’s entertainment agency will be consulted and collaborate with the NFL on the production, promotion, and marketing of any live music events connected with the league. The deal also anticipates possible community concerts, artist podcasts, and albums. The partnership will also involve Roc Nation being a part of the NFL’s “Inspire Change” initiative, which has the stated goals of education and economic advancement, improving police and community relations, and criminal justice reform. The initiative will include community events, “social justice grants” to help communities “bridge economic and racial divides,” and the promotion of stories from NFL players about their past and efforts to affect change.
However, there is one notable aspect which this deal doesn’t include: Kaepernick.
It doesn’t seem like the NFL or Jay-Z felt it necessary to seek Kaepernick’s approval for this arrangement, or to take into account his current circumstances of still seeking employment. The announcement of this partnership between Jay-Z and the NFL may or may not be a step in the direction of Jay-Z becoming the first African American majority owner of a football team, but it also comes at the same time Kaepernick released a video marking the three-year anniversary of when his protest began.
From Morgan Phillips at Mediaite:
“We forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice,” said Jay-Z. “In that case, this is a success. This is the next phase. There [are] two parts of protesting. You go outside and you protest, and then the company or the individual says, ‘I hear you. What do we do next?'”
Another reporter in the room asked Jay Z if he would stand if he would kneel. Jay-Z said “we’re past the point of kneeling” and it’s time to move on with “actionable items.” “I think everyone knows what the issue is, and we’re done with that… okay next,” said Jay-Z, adding that he was not minimizing Kaepernick’s kneeling because it was a necessary part of the process.
“For me it’s like action, [an] actionable item, what are we gonna do with it? Everyone heard, we hear what you’re saying, and everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying [in Kaepernick’s message]. So what are we gonna do? You know what I’m saying? [Help] millions and millions of people, or we get stuck on Colin not having a job,” said Jay-Z.
According to reports, Jay-Z and Kaepernick did have a discussion on Monday, but sources say “It was not a good conversation.” Critics in the media have gone so far as to say it’s the modern equivalent of Jay-Z having “30 pieces of silver inside the cupholder of [his] Maybach,” and have compared Jay-Z to African Americans who collaborated with segregationist institutions during the civil rights movement to give businesses the appearance of tolerance while they still excluded other blacks.
Kaepernick’s girlfriend, radio host Nessa, publicly excoriated Jay-Z Thursday night for “letting [the NFL] use him,” which she called “disgusting and disappointing.”
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid has criticized the move as “despicable,” seeing it as a distraction to cover up the NFL’s treatment of Kaepernick and to put a “black face” that’s marketable front and center in order to make perpetuating the current institutional policies of the league more palatable.
From Jemele Hill at The Atlantic:
The financial arrangements have not been made public. But whatever the numbers, the NFL’s new partnership with Jay-Z is a huge win for the league. Some of the biggest celebrities in the world have voiced their support of Kaepernick, saying they would boycott the NFL until Kaepernick is back in the league.
Now that the NFL has Jay-Z’s blessing, it’s conceivable that some of those entertainers who distanced themselves from the NFL might change their mind. Jay-Z has given the NFL exactly what it wanted: guilt-free access to black audiences, culture, entertainers, and influencers.
NFL officials must have been bothered by how much Kaepernick was discussed during Super Bowl week earlier this year. Not only did Goodell have to answer more questions about why Kaepernick still isn’t receiving any interest from NFL teams, but there had also been a number of reports that the league was having a hard time finding performers for its halftime show … It’s easy to see why Kaepernick would be upset now. The partnership with Jay-Z is part of the NFL’s larger strategy to continue to absolve itself of what happened to the quarterback and throw enough money at social-justice causes so that the players will no longer feel the need to protest—or, at the very least, keep their opinions about racial injustice far away from the football field. Last year The New York Times obtained audio of the three-hour meeting that took place among owners, players, and executives in October 2017, during the pinnacle of the protest drama. The late Houston Texans owner Bob McNair told the players who were present at the meeting, “You fellas need to ask your compadres, ‘Fellas, stop that other business. Let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you.’”
By leaving Kaepernick completely out of the mix, Jay-Z is now complicit in helping the NFL execute its strategy. Now he is an accomplice in the league’s hypocrisy.
Now, as Hill points out and to be fair to Jay-Z, he does have a history of using his position to do exactly what he claims this NFL deal will include, which is using media to point out areas of injustice.
Some sports pundits like Stephen A. Smith and Jalen Rose have defended Jay-Z’s partnership with the NFL by arguing Kaepernick wanted the NFL to address issues of social justice, and this deal may be a step in that direction which could be embraced and used instead of condemned. Rose has argued this is the NFL giving a “full embrace to the hip-hop culture.”
But all of it is colored in self-interest and money. No one in this is doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. No one believes the NFL would be doing this if they hadn’t been pushed and pulled to this point. There are dollars and cents involved, and that’s true of even Kaepernick as well. His deal with Nike, which has used Kaepernick in advertisements and stood beside him even in the face of MAGA idiots burning their shoes, has been criticized on similar ground as being a sellout of Kaepernick’s message. In the end, the question in all of this becomes whether the sort of change and attention which people like Kaepernick want can be achieved from within, and whether this sort of big-business approach to “social justice” is possible.