Traitors or Heroes?

The 2017 season will probably be remembered more for what happened off the field rather than on it. For large parts of the season, the coast-to-coast debate over whether players should all stand during the playing of the national anthem drowned out any discussion of X’s and O’s.

President Trump ignited a full-throated shouting match in September, when he urged owners to fire players who did not stand for the anthem. His fury turned the N.F.L. — traditionally a unifying force — into a mosh pit of competing agendas and emotions, pitting owners, players and league officials mostly against the president, at least initially, and longtime fans against the league.

The dispute with Trump overshadowed the original intent of the protests. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was the first not to stand for the national anthem in 2016, did so to shine a light on police brutality and what he saw as the unfairness of the criminal justice system.

Some tarred Kaepernick and other protesting players as traitors. Others hailed them as heroes. Amid the storm, Jenkins and about three dozen other players formed the Players Coalition and got to work on finding solutions to the problems they cared about most. During the spring and summer, and then on their days off during the season, they visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill and in statehouses, went to prisons and bail hearings, and met with activists trying to help the incarcerated get back on their feet. They wrote op-ed pieces and letters to legislators and spoke on television.