Kareem Hunt is back on an NFL team, three short months after video surfaced of Hunt shoving and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel. While Hunt is playing, Colin Kaepernick sits at home, two years after kneeling for the national anthem in protest of the wrongdoings against African Americans. The NFL and its franchises make cold-blooded moves, signing abusive athletes back onto their teams, while living in fear of bringing a protesting athlete back into the NFL spotlight. These moves are easy for the NFL to make, and the fans are to blame.
For a fan, owning and wearing an NFL jersey shows true fandom. When a fan sits down with his favorite player’s jersey on to watch his beloved team play, he is helping the NFL make money. By fans consuming the NFL through games on TV, sponsorships and merchandise, the NFL continues to gain more money and expand in size. Through merchandise sales, television deals and league-wide sponsorships, the NFL brought in 15 billion dollars in 2018, and commissioner Roger Goodell told NFL.com the league hopes to bring in as much as 25 billion dollars by 2027.
The tremendous growth in revenue for the NFL keeps it from thinking twice about who they let play in the league. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” seems to be the mantra the NFL operates on.
Former and current NFL players Dez Bryant, Santonio Holmes and Buffalo’s own Lesean McCoy all have committed acts of domestic abuse in the last 13 years and have seen nothing but prosperity for their jersey sales.
Bryant was charged with domestic violence in 2012 and saw his jersey rise to the number one selling jersey in 2016. Holmes was charged in 2006 and saw his jersey crack the top 25 in jersey sales in multiple seasons after the incident. Holmes’ jersey is still being purchased from the NFL shops today, five years after his retirement. For the Buffalo Bills star running back McCoy, his jersey cracked the top 3 in jersey sales in 2014 while consistently being in the top 20 since.
No NFL team has reached out to Kaepernick about a job because of the impact he made to the NFL’s ratings. The 49ers viewership dropped eight percent in the games in which he kneeled. Eight percent may not seem like much, but when you are dealing with millions eight percent can put a dent in many teams bank accounts.
Bringing Hunt back into the NFL does not come as shock to NFL fans. Before Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs, his jersey ranked eighth in sales among NFL rookies and sat just outside the top 30 in jersey sales for the rest of the league. To think the NFL would give up the amount of revenue having Hunt on the field creates is unthinkable.
When fans do not watch, the NFL does not make money. Fans seem to have an issue with the protests of athletes, while being completely fine with the abusive actions of athletes off the field. NFL executives may see an issue with giving athletes with a criminal record a second chance, but they may never admit it as long as the fans continue to tune in and make the senseless hiring of abusive athletes okay.
By John Pullano, Opinion Editor
pullanjj18@bonaventure.edu
