To open the 2018 NFL season, Nike ran its now-famous Colin Kaepernick ad, featuring the out-of-work quarterback and cultural icon talking about crazy dreams as world-class athletes flitted across the screen. At the time, the ad provoked an intense reaction, with some Americans having deeply negative impressions of Nike and calling for boycotts of the swoosh. Burning of Nike gear became a thing, though not necessarily widespread (and Nike sales improved in the months after the ad).
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Kaepernick of course had been unemployed since after the 2016 season, in which he kneeled during the national anthem to protest incidents of police brutality and racial inequality. The following season, President Donald Trump attacked Kaepernick’s peers who also kneeled, saying at a September 2017 political rally, “get that son of a bitch off the field right now.” That created a firestorm that arguably depressed NFL TV ratings nearly 10 percent and made kneeling during the anthem, to some, an unpatriotic act.
In 2018 after the Nike ad ran, The Harris Poll surveyed Americans and found that about one in five had a negative perception of Nike because of the commercial, and 21 percent said they would boycott Nike. Some NFL teams quietly messaged that signing Kaepernick would be bad for business, and create a distraction with a media circus.
What has changed since Black Lives Matter protests swept across the country, gaining sharp increases in popularity after African American George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police? The Harris Poll last week surveyed the same Kaepernick/Nike ad questions to find out. The polling outfit plans to release on Monday results that show a swing of public approval toward Kaepernick and Nike as well.
The Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema has a message for the NFL about hiring Kaepernick, saying “looking at this data, and I’m not the NFL commissioner or Nike CEO, but I know what guy we would hire and what ad I’d run.”
In September 2018 when Harris polled Americans, 17 percent of respondents after the Nike ad reported negative attitudes toward the brand. When Harris went back last week and asked 2,200 Americans, only 9 percent are now in that category.
“That’s nearly half as many people viewing it that way,” Gerzmea said. “And I think kind of what was interesting is that at the time, you had almost a third of Americans, particularly seniors, 34 percent, saying that they would boycott or not buy Nike products. You probably remember at the time, people were saying they were going to burn their shoes and a bonfire and stuff on Facebook like that. But today that’s now 18 percent, even among seniors, so we kind of see this broader-based inclusion effect happening. Even conservatives, they said 41 percent in 2018, and now they’re saying 24 percent would boycott.”
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In October 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL for allegedly blackballing him (under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, disputes like his are shuttled to arbitration, instead of a courtroom, first). In February 2019 he reached a settlement with the NFL that the Wall Street Journal later reported was for less than $10 million.
The settlement did not preclude Kaepernick from playing again, though a widely publicized league orchestrated workout last November flopped over arguments over waivers and other subjects.
Many in the NFL at the time said they were ready to move on after the tryout fiasco, but now the issue of why a quarterback of Kaepernick’s caliber remains unsigned appears front and center again. Players like Baker Mayfield, and coaches such as the Houston Texans’ Bill O’Brien have said they will take a knee, making it hard to argue Kaepernick’s kneeling would stand out. And the Seattle Seahawks’ Pete Carroll, who had Kaepernick in for a workout in 2017, said last week he had been contacted by a team about the quarterback.
A legal representative for Kaepernick declined to comment when asked about the glowing Harris numbers.
Trump is again voicing his displeasure over the prospect of kneeling in the NFL. Three years ago that was more than enough to scare the NFL, many of whose owners have been tight with the president. Given the major shift in public opinion, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s video statement admitting the league was wrong for not approving of the players’ peaceful protests, Trump’s declaration does not appear as threatening as it did in 2017.
While Goodell has always said it is the team’s decision, and not his, to sign Kaepernick, a former Super Bowl quarterback, 61 percent in the Harris poll said the league’s top executive owes an apology to the former San Francisco 49er.
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In the years after Kaepernick last played, a drumbeat in NFL business circles was he would be bad for business. TV ratings fell 9.7 percent in 2017, and Trump convinced his base that kneeling during the national anthem was a sign of disrespect. Club executives worried about fans, especially in red states, tuning out.
Given coronavirus social gathering restrictions, the NFL this season is just trying to get some fans into stadiums and hardly worrying about spectators staying away because of opposition to kneeling during the anthem.
As it pertains to the NFL’s response to the protests and racial awakening, The Harris Poll respondents gave the NFL a mixed response. While 69 percent supported Goodell’s statement condemning racism and the oppression of black people in America, 66 percent also replied in another poll section the comments felt insincere and they are just doing it for publicity.
“What we are seeing is a lot of olive branches being handed out right now in America,” Gerzema said of corporate statements like the NFL’s. “This is a conversation that’s happening in America right now. And we see that in all our data. I think back in 2018, the Colin Kaepernick ad, was framed, you know, (as) division and disrespect. And now it symbolizes unity and inclusion. It’s like the start of a conversation. And that’s just my judgment looking at the data. But I think we see that across the board, in our broader data when you’re looking at should we reform the police, is there systemic racism in America, you’re just seeing a shift, a really substantial shift.”
(Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)