Bills owner seeks compromise with players on social protests

Buffalo Bills owner Kim Pegula is seeking a compromise with players using their platform for social change in their protests during the national anthem.

Speaking on a panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, Pegula said Friday she believes players might not realize their activism may potentially have an adverse impact on the business side of sports.

"My own experience, I think a lot of it is just communication," she said, per Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. "I know that's easy to say. But I know that several of our players, when I actually talked to them and actually gave them a different perspective -- just like they were trying to give us a different perspective -- on the impact of the business and what the impact is of what they do socially, off the game, at home and then how that affects the business side. They didn't grow up in the sports business world. They came in on the players' side.

"So a lot of [Bills players] just didn't understand or know the impact that it had on the business, the organization and the community -- good or bad. So I do think there's definitely an impact. I wouldn't shy away from it at all. I think there is a common ground. I think a lot of it is more about communicating and learning from each other on both sides and coming to some type of a compromise at some point. Sometimes you won't be able to come to a compromise. But something usually gets done when that happens."

The NFL and its players have continued discussions geared to drive social change. Former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the protest movement in 2016, during his final season with the 49ers when he began his ritual of kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games. He was called out by several political and veteran groups as well as President Donald Trump, and remains unemployed after the 49ers released him following the 2016 season.

Pegula and her husband, Bills owner Terry Pegula, met with a group of Bills players the night prior to a Sept. 24 game against the Denver Broncos to address controversial comments made that week by Trump about NFL player protests. The Pegulas later released a statement calling Trump's comments "divisive and disrespectful."

--Field Level Media