STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

NFL Players And Owners Have Reportedly Agreed To Donate Up To $100 Million To Social Causes Focused On Black Communities

But the tentative agreement already has some issues.

In a landmark decision, NFL team owners and the Players Coalition have tentatively agreed to contribute up to $100 million to effect social justice change of causes important to African-American communities. That includes $89 million being contributed to both national and local projects over a seven-year period, as reported by ESPN. The league's hope is that players end their protesting during the national anthem, although nothing was written in the agreement mandating that they do that.

So, on paper, this is a win for protesting NFL players, getting the league to contribute toward social justice change to help Black communities, right? Well, it depends who you ask, because everyone isn't happy with this agreement at all.

San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid tweeted Wednesday night that he'll no longer be involved with the Players Coalition because he feels like the organization's founders, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin, went ahead with this agreement without discussing it with other players involved.

And he has company with others withdrawing from the Players Coalition as well.

Reid told ESPN that Jenkins had conversations with the NFL without him or Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas being involved.

"That was never discussed at any point. I feel like I've been misled," Reid told ESPN about the agreement. "I won't accuse Malcolm of directly lying to me, because I don't think he's that type of guy. But I will say he's misled us. And shoot, if that's what lying is, then that's what it is."

Jenkins doesn't see it that way, claiming that they fully knew about the plan.

"They understood the entire scope of the plan," Jenkins told ESPN. "The last time we had conversations with [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell and [NFL EVP of Football Operations] Troy Vincent, Michael Thomas and Eric Reid were on that call. They understood the proposal. What we didn't have was a conversation with players in the coalition based on some of the responses that we got from the league. We then talked about myself contracting Troy Vincent just to give them some updates on some of our feedback, which I did. That call did not have Mike or Eric on it. Everybody kind of agreed to that."

Reid, who knelt beside Colin Kaepernick last season, additionally told ESPN: "Malcolm continues to have conversations on his own with the NFL, and the Players Coalition is his organization. When we agreed to be a part of the Players Coalition, we were under the impression that it would be our organization. We were under the impression that we would all have equal say in that organization. But we've come to find out that it's actually Malcolm and Anquan's organization. Nobody else really has a stake in the organization. Malcolm actually wants us to — he calls it invest, I call it donate — to the company to pay salaries for his staff. But again, we would have no equity in the organization."

According to ESPN, the agreement between NFL team owners and players to contribute money to social injustice changes to positively affect African-American communities will be allocated nationally as follows: 25 percent to the United Negro College Fund, 25 percent to Dream Corps and 50 percent to the Players Coalition.

Local allocations haven't been announced just yet.

Do you think Reid and Jenkins will get on the same page about this anytime soon?

BET Sports News — Get the latest news and information about African-Americans in sports, including weekly recaps, celebrity news and photos of your favorite Black athletes.

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.