that the nfl is nearly 70% african-american players. these players come from a system of exploitation from the ncaa. and these guys are looked up to in their communities back home. and so a lot of people in their communities are going through these issues on a daily basis that most people in the country don t have to deal with. so for people to say that these players should not, you know, be taking a knee and doing this protesting that they ve been doing, they ve been working hard behind the scenes. i think it s i think it s a bad conversation to try to stop these players from speaking out when they ve been dealing with this for a long time, for a number of years. dante, thank you. joe, thank you. i appreciate it. we ll be right back. you won t see these folks at the post office they have businesses to run they have passions to pursue how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters
doing, they ve been working hard behind the scenes. i think it s i think it s a bad conversation to try to stop these players from speaking out when they ve been dealing with this for a long time, for a number of years. dante, thank you. joe, thank you. i appreciate it. we ll be right back. ower. new innovations. .and a tradition of excellence. luxury. .and performance, engineered to take the crown. presenting the all-new lexus ls 500 and ls 500h. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. capital one has partneredthing with hotels.com to give venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. all you have to do is pay with this. at hotels.com/venture. 10 miles per dollar?
the new york times is reporting on audio obtained from that meeting and what was said behind closed doors is pretty surprising. joining me now to discuss is joe lock hart, the former chief communications officer for the nfl, and dante starworth, a former nfl player. let s look at some of the comments now involving nfl players and owners back in october. this is what philadelphia eagle s owner jeffrey lori said. he said we ve got to be careful not to be baited by trump or whoever else. we ve got to find a way not to be divided and not get baited. you were the league s top pr guy. what was the strategy in responding to these attacks by trump? i think the interesting thing is how quickly, the nfl owners are 32 successful business people who all have pretty large egos who all think differently. this brought them all together. this meeting was extraordinary. and the strategy i think was in
dana: rick, thank you very much. i kept ari fleisher. this story is right up your ally. crisis, communication and politics. can the nfl get past it? sure can. each week you ll see fewer people kneel. the solution i would love to see is for the team owners to get the players together with tk police chiefs. they would love to have a relationship. the players should tell the police chief what their life is like. dana: joe lock hart one of our former press secretaries told me in denver they did that. it was successful. they are doing it in a couple places. they need to make this the outlook for all the players. get them off their knees and into action. do something productive with it. police would benefit and the players would benefit by hearing how hard it is to be a cop. you have to make split second decision about life and death. dana: is the damage to the nfl, is it lasting? can you make a correlation to seats not being as filled on
we re joined by john thin martin, joe lock harte, and joe lock har lockhart, had you been a member of the president s communications team, you served under president bill clinton works you have taken this same action and did they do it too late? i don t think they did it too late. in the short term, the president benefited. the president called out the barker today, donald trump. there s no better cable split screen than donald trump and the president because it reminds people that s the choice they re going to face in 2012. takes it away from real problems in the country and the president said a carnival barter. the president made a stronger point. in the longer term we ve got to have this debate. as much as think hurt republicans and they squeezed out of it was time to put this to rest.