What the recent Charlie Kirk tributes say about a long-running strategy of political positioning
September 10, 2025 was a dark day for America. There was yet another school shooting—the 161st of 2025—this time at Evergreen High School in Colorado, at 12:24 PM. Fourteen minutes before that happened, conservative political personality and co-founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, was shot in the neck during a leg of his “The American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University. Later that afternoon Kirk, tragically, was pronounced dead, another high-profile instance of rampant gun violence in the United States. All this happening the day before the 24th anniversary of the September 11th attacks created a moment of massive grief and emotion across the country.
The following day, the NFL played a game in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers held a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk (while notably not mentioning the school shooting in Colorado), with the PA announcer saying that “the NFL condemns all violence in our communities. It will take all of us to stop hate”. Over the weekend, seven other teams held moments of silence for Kirk, while the Steelers flew American flags at half-staff and the Vikings and Texans held moments of silence for all victims of gun violence.
The NFL chose to honor a political pundit that wasn’t directly connected to the league, but has made comments about the league in the past. Kirk notably used racist rhetoric to describe Cowboys fans, suggested defunding the league, and criticized the NFL’s inclusivity efforts. The league and several teams choosing to honor someone whose views appear to be at odds with the image the league has emphasized since 2020 certainly seems curious on the surface. This decision appears consistent with the NFL’s pattern of pragmatic positioning around political moments.
For many years, commenters in conservative circles have advocated for a division between political causes and sports—often citing that sports is an escape from the political realities of the modern world and should stay that way. It’s a novel idea, except that the two entities have always been intertwined.
Sports has long been at the forefront of causes like the Civil Rights movement with the efforts of Black athletes like Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, and Jim Brown. In 1936, American track star Jesse Owens defied Adolf Hitler’s view of Aryan supremacy by dominating and winning medals at the Olympics in Germany. In 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a Black Power salute at the podium as a way of protesting the treatment of Black people in America. And Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War as an act of protest to a war he didn’t support and didn’t align with his Muslim beliefs.
In modern times, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf staged national anthem protests to speak out against police brutality and systematic oppression, respectively. During the NBA Bubble in 2020, players refused to play in playoff games in response to the murder of George Floyd and the growing tensions between the Black community and police officers. The history of politics and sports intersecting is long and consistent, which is what made Laura Ingraham’s “shut up and dribble” comments towards LeBron James so misguided.
The NFL has often aligned itself with political stances that have some level of mass appeal. It’s messaging around Kirk’s moment of silence has been a broad strokes condemnation of violence without acknowledging the nuance of Kirk’s past comments when it comes to his views on gun violence. In the wake of the George Floyd murder, they shied away from putting “Black Lives Matter” on the field of play the way that the NBA did. Instead they chose a more universally palatable message of “End Racism” and “Stop Hate”. Going back to 2001, the league’s stance has always been to not ruffle too many feathers and follow the trend that the nation seems to be heading politically.
The NFL’s history of making statements that move outside the boundaries of a football field can be traced to September 11, 2001. In the wake of the attacks that upended the notion of American life when the World Trade Center was attacked in New York City, the league suspended play for a week and made the decision to resume the season on September 23rd. That moment triggered a moment of patriotism across the sports world and the nation, but specifically in the NFL and MLB.
President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch in Game 3 of the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees while wearing a bulletproof vest under an FDNY jacket—a powerful symbol of national unity and solidarity with the city after the attack. When the NFL returned it was to messages of unity with American flags all over the stadium. The league crossed the threshold of just being a sports league and became a symbol of American resilience.
That moment ushered a period of national pride and patriotism in the NFL, with the national anthem gaining more prominence, flags becoming staples of pregame festivities, and gestures honoring the military (plane flyovers, Salute to Service merchandise). These actions were all fitting of a league that aligned itself with the ideals of a nation that soon found itself engaged in multiple wars in the Middle East.
In 2016, the Black Lives Matter movement began gaining momentum as police brutality against Black people reached endemic levels. Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl that year and during her performance of the song “Formation”, her backup dancers were dressed as members of the Black Panther Party. The show was a clear commentary on the plight of being Black in America at that moment, and it led to many conservative voices to criticize the singer for being anti-police and anti-White.
Later that year, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began his national anthem protests to draw attention to ongoing issues of police brutality. When it started picking up steam in the press that he was kneeling during the anthem, the NFL was initially standing behind its player. The league said that “players are encouraged but not required to stand during the national anthem”. The 49ers also expressed support, highlighting Kaepernick’s right to decide to participate in celebrating the anthem.
This initial response shows a league that read the room and found it to be a fitting strategy to embrace freedom of expression when it came to the national anthem and statements about the state of America for Black Americans. They simply saw the way the cultural winds were blowing and didn’t go against the grain. As the political landscape then shifted to the Donald Trump era, the tune of the league started to change.
In September 2016, commissioner Roger Goodell said that while he didn’t agree with Kaepernick’s protest, he was free to protest, while reaffirming his own sense of patriotism. Trump began to gain momentum and weighed in on the issue suggesting that Kaepernick disrespected the nation and should leave the country. As soon as the Trump presidency took hold, Kaepernick appeared to be blackballed by the league, an indication that the teams in the league were aligning with the right-wing trajectory of the nation.
Trump’s comments about anthem protests intensified, saying that players should be cut for protesting. He then doubled down on his stance, suggesting that fans start to boycott NFL games as long as protesting was allowed. The league, noticing that Trump will not back down on his stance on anthem boycotts, instituted a rule in 2018 that players cannot kneel on the field during the national anthem. Once again, the NFL appeared to adjust to shifting political winds. The move aligned once again with protecting brand and revenue.
In 2021, after the end of Trump’s first term and the murder of George Floyd, the league introduced its pro-diversity messages on helmets and in the end zone. Again noticing that there was a moment where togetherness was needed, they flowed with the winds of culture. At this time, leagues were honoring their Black players as Democratic lawmakers wore Kente Stoles and took a knee as they announced police reform legislation. What followed for the league was a 10-year, $250 million commitment to combat systemic racism.
But as a second Trump presidential term became a reality, it was time for another shift. With the announcement that Trump would be attending Super Bowl LIX, the league removed the “End Racism” messaging from the end zone—since it would have clashed with his messaging and talking points of the MAGA movement. The messages returned this season, further indication of the league following political trends in hope of not ruffling the feathers of the man that occupies the White House.