Nearly a week after refuting claims made against owner Jeffrey Lurie regarding unsigned quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the Philadelphia Eagles revealed Wednesday that Roger Goodell paid a visit to the city after the team's season opener, meeting with Lurie, Eagles players, local police and politicians to discuss criminal justice reform.
"Shortly after the start of the 2017 NFL season," a video on the Eagles website announces, "Malcolm Jenkins, Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith invited Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to meet with police, grassroots organizations, policy leaders and public defenders in Philadelphia. The group, along with Rodney McLeod and Chris Long, met to get a better understanding of the complexities of the criminal justice reform work that many of the players have been conducting over the past year to strengthen the community."
Among the group's stops were the headquarters of the Philadelphia Police Department and the Defenders Association of Philadelphia, where police commissioner Richard Ross contributed to discussion of incarceration and policing practices.
"Hopefully what we've done" in opening a dialogue, Jenkins says in the video, "can be replicated in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit. I think that we can play a major role in changing the narrative from this argumentative, combative narrative to one of solutions, one that is aimed at bringing people together, because that's what unique about this game."
Jenkins, who has started at safety for the Eagles since 2014, previously teamed up with Boldin, a 14-year wide receiver who retired this offseason, when he announced he would raise his fist during national anthems this season not to protest but to push "for racial equality and a much-needed reform to our criminal justice system." The Pro Bowler's anthem demonstration, one of many around the league since Kaepernick knelt for the pregame song in 2016, has drawn public support from teammates like Long and McLeod. And his accompanying efforts to meet with local law enforcement and, as he and Boldin once put it, play "against policies and practices that reinforce the cycle of poverty in communities that need the most help," have elicited endorsements from Lurie.
