The NFL wants Jay-Z to solve its optics problem.
Over the past couple of years, Colin Kaepernick has seen more love from Nike than from the NFL, and despite the former quarterback’s unpopularity in some circles, the league knows it has to do something to address how it approaches race.
It’s especially important for the NFL, beyond the way it has handled players kneeling during the national anthem, because its image is already unbalanced: A majority of NFL head coaches and managers in the league office are white, while the majority of players are not. As of last year, every single CEO or president in the league was white.
So now the NFL has partnered with Jay-Z and Roc Nation, the rapper’s entertainment company, to develop the NFL’s entertainment offerings as well as its social justice initiative.
“The deal effectively positions Jay-Z — who once rapped ‘I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don’t need you’ — as the face of the NFL’s social-justice program, Inspire Change, which was launched earlier in the year after years of unrest among its players,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Jay-Z is perhaps best known as the husband of Beyoncé, whose 2016 Super Bowl halftime show evoked thoughts of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black Panthers and sparked outrage from many viewers. His partnership with the NFL may not necessarily mean that the halftime show will get more political, though.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal about Kaepernick, Jay-Z said he would like to give people like the former quarterback a platform away from the field.
“He absolutely brought this conversation alive,” Jay-Z said. “We like to think that the way we build the Inspire Change platform, that if anything close to that would happen in the future, then Kaepernick would have a platform where he can express himself and maybe it doesn’t have to take place on the field.”
In addition to getting Jay-Z involved with the halftime show and the NFL’s social justice initiative, the partnership will allow the rapper to facilitate the production of other football related content, from music to podcasts where players could talk about social issues.
At a time when even sports have become increasingly politicized, Jay-Z could be doing the NFL a huge favor by taking politics off the field and to a podcast or other form of media. This doesn’t mean players will be done kneeling forever, but it should help ease some of the tension between players and team owners.
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross recently drew ire after he planned a fundraiser for President Trump. Jay-Z says he’s willing to work with people like Ross; he would have limited opportunities if he didn’t collaborate with those who voted differently than him.
“A lot of people are not agreeing with one another. And we have to just push it along a little bit,” he said. “There’s no magic pill. No one is going to have the solution themselves. You just have to do your little thing to push it along.”
We’ll see what the partnership has done at the Super Bowl next February, but until then, keep an eye out for how Jay-Z promotes the NFL’s social justice initiative. Its next steps might come off as a Kaepernick-esque performance, or they might be what the league needs to bring its viewers back together.
