Oh, and it was going to be a so-quiet beginning to the great spectacle that is a National Football League season when training camps open this month. The league, which dedicated itself to minimizing the off-field and sideline distractions that annoyed both the fans and the sponsors who pay the bills, had done just about everything it could.
It successfully brokered a $97 million deal with protesting players to fund community projects if the players agreed to stop protesting, then instituted a new policy that allowed persisting protests but only if those were unseen by the public.