Watch: What can Roger Goodell, NFL do better to address injustices?

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This is Yardbarker's Chris Mueller.

Roger Goodell and the NFL took plenty of criticism for Goodell's statement in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis. Goodell's statement last Saturday was criticized by media, by some current players for being tone-deaf, for being too vague in its language.

But there's a path forward here for Goodell and for the league to better address these issues if and when they arise in the future.

Just a couple simple things, really, that Roger Goodell can do that'll go a long way with the players.

One is to treat them like human beings when situations like this arise. This isn't a management and labor discussion, and if Goodell is able to show more humanity to be a guy that listens, to be a guy that approaches players honestly and wants their input and wants to know how they're feeling, I think it would help a lot.

Another thing that Goodell can do if and when another serious issue like this arises is to confront the issue head on with explicit language that describes what people are protesting, what people are angry about.

One of the big problems in his statement on Saturday was, it was vague. Police brutality was the issue, and if Goodell would have laid that out in no uncertain terms, it would probably help a lot with the players in terms of his perception that he's taking things seriously and not dancing around a sensitive issue.

The last thing might be difficult, but I think it would go a long way. And that is simply to allow players to kneel in peaceful protest during the national anthem.

That would be dicey. The owners wouldn't like it, and it would probably expose Goodell to criticism.

But it would be the kind of thing that would allow for more dialogue. It would get people talking.

And as we've seen the last 10 days, at the very least, people are talking, people are paying attention, and that's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, steps to starting to create positive change.

So they're just a couple of different things that Roger Goodell can do in the future if something else should happen to handle it better.

For Yardbarker, I'm Chris Mueller.