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"Tone Deaf" - Seahawks' Doug Baldwin rips new NFL anthem policy

By Gregg Bell, Tacoma News Tribune

Wide receiver Doug Baldwin #89 of the Seattle Seahawks speaks with quarterback Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers after the game at CenturyLink Field on September 25, 2016 in Seattle,Washington. 

By Gregg Bell, Tacoma News Tribune

The following is a commentary from Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune 

Tone deaf.

That is what Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin calls the NFL's new national anthem policy.

"The NFL just doesn't get it," Baldwin told KIRO-AM radio, the team's flagship station in Seattle, on Wednesday.

That was hours after commissioner Roger Goodell announced the league's new policy. It requires "all team and league personnel on the field shall stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem." It gives players the option to stay off the field during the anthem—and Goodell the power to "impose appropriate discipline on league personnel who do not stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.​"  

"It's more of a PR move, to me, than anything," Baldwin to 710 ESPN Seattle of the anthem plus other NFL policies and initiatives off the field. "They aren't trying to get to the gist of it.

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"I don't think they ever did care about the initiatives, what the players care about. It's just about their bottom line."

Baldwin said "I'm not surprised. The NFL cares about one thing and that's the NFL. That's the bottom line.

"I'm not surprised, I'm disappointed."

Baldwin has been meeting for the last year with police officials across the state and Washington attorney general Bob Fergusion in the player's efforts to get meaningful police reform, especially in the use of deadly force. He established a Seahawks players action fund to help make changes in society. In October, Baldwin wrote and Goodell co-signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering legislation on criminal justice reform. 

When he announced the new policy Tuesday at the end of league meetings in Atlanta, Goodell said there was unanimous agreement among owners on it.

Before Tuesday afternoon became evening, Newsday reported the owner of the New York Jets said he would pay any fine the league assesses a Jets players related to the anthem.  

San Francisco 49ers owner told the Bay Area media he abstained from voting on the anthem policy because he first wanted to discuss it with his players.

Not exactly unanimous.

Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright was asked about the anthem policy on Seattle's KJR-AM radio Wednesday.

"It's crazy," Wright said.

Then he thought about the mechanics of how pregame activities may go Sept. 9 when the Seahawks open the 2018 season at Denver.

"I believe that to keep everything nice and easy, players should just stay in the locker room," Wright said. "If they want to make such a big deal out of it, maybe guys as a team should just stay in the locker room. Do it how they did, I believe, like 10 years ago, 15 years ago (when) players didn't even come out for the anthem.

"I believe that the union is going to go back and forth with them, and we should just all stay in the locker room."

Wright went on to say this will remain an issue with players until all can form a consensus.

"I think we gotta get this issue resolved before the season, so that everyone is on the same page," Wright told SportsRadio 950 KJR.

"We gotta figure out our game plan before the season even starts, and we're going to go forward as a team so it doesn't become an issue. And guys are going to respect each other's decisions, and we're all going to be on one accord."

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