Abstract
On January 11, 2019, the National Football League (NFL) launched “Inspire Change,” a campaign for the league’s social justice efforts. The campaign, which would serve as the umbrella under which the NFL’s US$89 million social justice partnership with the players would be housed, launched with its own website, hashtag, commercial, and documentary series. This article textually examines the “Inspire Change” campaign and its associated media materials, contextualizing it against the kneeling protests carried out by Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players as well as the NFL’s reactions to those protests. In doing so, I argue that NFL’s response to its players’ call for social justice is at once a strategic expansion by the league that seeks to capitalize on the emergent activist power of professional players to build the league’s brand as an authoritative and inclusive American institution contributing to social good. At the same time, however, under withering criticism from President Trump and conservative media, it reestablishes league control over the voice of rebellious Black players by subsuming their social justice efforts under the auspices of a campaign that evades the ideological confrontation of the kneeling protests in favor of a more positive, market-friendly version of “justice” based in calls of unity.
Published Version
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