If you’re reading this, you probably saw that I started a change.org petition, asking Maroon 5 to pull out the 2019 Super Bowl halftime performance in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
You then likely googled my name (Vic Oyedeji) and eventually landed here.
If you did that: Then what’s good! Glad you made it.
I won’t offer too long an explanation of why I made the petition, however what I would say is that something had to be done to further expose the wrong the NFL has done in banning Kaepernick. It’s been over 600 days so far. Damn!
I personally want the NFL players to boycott, but that may not be likely because of the high salary they receive (that’s too much money to lose). Also, many players have a high number of people who financially depend on them — which I think is a MAJOR unspoken issue and one reason why I recently started the online tech school Dubata®.
Each of us should be able to make our own great income and not rely on others to take care of us — unless it’s for medical reasons, to take care of your parents, or you lost your job and are currently seeking/working towards getting a better one. But that’s another story for another day.
To be completely clear and transparent, players boycotting would quickly and effectively bring Colin Kaepernick back to the NFL even if only the Black players boycotted (who’s 70% of the league & the very people Kaepernick took a knee for).
I also really, really want many of the best athletes, billionaires & millionaires who care about true inclusion and rights in the executive/ownership level to come together and start their own league, even if athletes don’t make as much money in the beginning short term.
However, we can’t tell the players what to do, so we as a people had to find a way to make our voice heard…
…and using our pockets & viewership as a tool is key.
Last year, through my other platform Unstripped Voice, I created the #NoKaepernickNoNFL petition on Change.org for us to stop watching games until Colin Kaepernick is signed. The petition is still ongoing and has 200,000+ signatures to date. Directly or indirectly, the NFL lost 10 – 13% of revenue over the past 2 seasons (depending who you ask). Some advertisers who supported the NFL publicly took a major fall as well, like Papa Johns.
However even after all that, each NFL franchise still made a record amount in TV revenue last season, leading the Green Pay Packers president to say “any effects from the NFL’s tough season, including the national anthem controversy, did not manifest in the books“. So another disaster over, NFL owners say. We can withstand this, NFL owners say.
“If the players aren’t boycotting, what’s the point,” the NFL owners say.
The reality is that NFL owners are right in their thinking, especially after taking the long-view approach — which is what every successful founder, CEO, owner and executive is supposed to do. They feel this “issue” will eventually die down and all this would be a *blip* in the NFL radar years from now.
“Kaepernick paid his price, and if anyone else DARES to do what he did that person would suffer the same fate as well. We can withstand the backlash,” the NFL owners say.
Again, the owners may be right, but the people have something to say. Every owner, founder, CEO, and executive knows that bad publicity and the loss of customers directly leads to the one thing they can’t lose over the long term: Loss of overall value and dollars.
Literally everything the NFL does is driven by that. But that’s driven by the people. THE PEOPLE! That means YOU!
Just like how your votes directly count towards who’s in political office, your money, power, and influence can affect any organization — even one as big as deep-rooted as the NFL.
If the Jim Crow era can die after 88 years (End of Reconstruction 1877 – Voting Rights Act 1965) then ANYTHING can be affected, even something like the NFL which has gone on for 98 years. And YOU lead the charge!
In the beginning of this message I said the players boycotting would quickly bring Kaepernick back to the NFL. This means that boycotting has power, and several people have already used that power.
Jay-Z and Rihanna stated they aren’t participating in the Super Bowl halftime show in solidarity with Kapernick. Amy Schumer made probably the greatest statement in asking “why more white players aren’t kneeling” in an Instagram post. She also asked Maroon 5 to step down from playing in the halftime show in another post.
I decided to follow in their lead and created another petition on Change.org, asking Maroon 5 to step down from performing in the upcoming Super Bowl. As a matter of fact, if you are an artist for equal rights (LGBTQAI+, Racial Justice, etc), then you should not support the NFL and what they have to offer in performing for the Super Bowl. Those viewership ad dollars around halftime are incredible for the league, and we have to do our part to seriously dampen it — or if anything, give them bad publicity. It’s the PEOPLE that can decide this (as I said earlier).
To be completely clear, I’m not asking you to boycott Maroon 5.
I think they are a great band! They have done great things in the name of equal rights and equal justice in the past. I simply created this petition asking for them to step down from the Super Bowl. Simple as that.
IT’S UP TO YOUR SIGNATURES TO DETERMINE HOW SERIOUS THIS WOULD BE TO MAROON 5 AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED. ONLY YOU CAN MAKE A TRUE DIFFERENCE AND GET YOUR VOICE HEARD.
And for you “military” haters,the American Military Veterans penned an open letter SUPPORTING Kaepernick’s free speech — they even supported his METHOD. Heck, even the U.S. doesn’t treat its veterans right when they return from service. So there’s that.
In all, it’s not about me. I personally have nothing to gain from this — only to see the NFL have true repercussions for what they did to Colin Kaepernick and what he took a knee for. It’s just not right for us to idly sit on the side without any progress towards a resolution on this.
If you don’t agree with me, I’m not here to change you. By this point you’ve already made up your mind. That’s fine. This is just for the people who support what Kaepernick has done and are upset on how he’s been treated and want to do something about it. That’s it.
Sign the Maroon 5 petition: https://www.change.org/p/maroon-5-drop-out-of-the-super-bowl-halftime-show
This post originally appeared on Vic’s personal blog.