Somewhere along the line, the NFL came to see itself as more than a sports league.
The league’s decision today to “compromise” on their anthem stance is only the latest evidence that this league is incapable of looking at itself merely as a business, and by being a business, protecting its business interests. Any competently-run business would take a hard look at what the controversy over Colin Kaepernick (and later, a raft of other players) kneeling during the anthem was actually doing to their business, discuss how to protect their business interest and make the largest possible slice of their customers happy, and then move to put together a proposal that accomplished those goals.