NFL owner blindly sabotaging efforts at resolution in protest and health dispute with players

Honesty is a trait valued by journalists yet why would Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown think and speak like he does if he hopes to be part of problem solving a hot-button issue between many NFL players and the league’s owners?

Having the right to kneel while the national anthem plays is important to many players and with many in the public and several owners too being disappointed or upset with that stance, Brown did his side of the debate no favors with his comments.

”We have distractions,” he told the Associated Press. ”We have to get beyond them. We have to get beyond the anthem issue. We have to get beyond the concussion issue. There are other things. We’re about football. That’s what fans want. And this other stuff turns off everybody. We have to get away from it somehow, and it’s a challenge for us to do that.”

The anthem “issue.” The concussion “issue.” “We’re about football.”

Just because Brown doesn’t think those concerns aren’t important because they are distractions to him doesn’t mean those points aren’t very important to most players.

Does minimizing the critical importance of them and being frustrated or annoyed because they are still topics of conversation, study and debate help other people feel understood, respected, cared about and included in the conversation?

Does it assist in problem solving, facilitating trust and progress or does it create distrust, hurt, disgust, resistance and stronger impasse?

Could Brown’s statements lead more players and the players union (NFLPA) to believe, real or not, that the owners are low in social awareness, egocentric, lacking empathy and indifferent or resistant to a healthy relationship with them?

Civil treatment, brain health, quantity and quality of life for players, retired players and their families are understandably core concerns. For Brown to show, unintentionally, low emotional intelligence merely escalates the disputes instead of relationship build to aid in more progressive discussions, creative and collaborative problem solving within negotiation.

Brown revealed himself as low in empathy and compassion, disconnected from history on both points and many of his player’s (and families’) realities.

Dispute resolution doesn’t happen with that that type of thinking, beliefs, attitudes, carelessness, recklessness and speech.

The players see themselves as partners in the business of football, regardless of how owners or even the fans view it. To problem solve these contentious interests, owners have to see their players as human beings, colleagues, partners and talk to them in a manner that will encourage listening, collaboration and solutions that will serve the interests of the players and their families, the owners and the league. That’s the catalyst.

When that happens, progress will occur and proposals will be respectfully offered, negotiated and agreed upon.

For now, the disconnect not only remains, the chasm of difference is widening.

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