Sports and Business News: June 16th

Roger Goodell Won't Back Down to Trump

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made an appearance on ESPN and reiterated the league’s stance on supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Goodell admitted the league was wrong for “silencing players for peacefully protesting.” 

It has long been rumored that the NFL blacklisted Colin Kaepernick after the 2016 season when he started kneeling during the National Anthem while also targeting other players that supported Kaepernick’s movement. The former 49ers quarterback's peaceful protest led to major controversies and criticisms including a series of speeches and tweets from President Donald Trump, which the NFL now admits they handled poorly.

Sparked by a recent video that featured the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley, Michael Thomas, and Odell Beckham Jr, Goodell and the league are now changing their tune. 

The NFL announced they are donating $250 million over 10 years to “combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans.”

President Trump tweeted about Goodell’s new stance on kneeling during the anthem and questioned if the NFL is now saying, “It would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?”

Goodell did not directly respond to Trump’s tweet but did say, “I can tell you that we’re going to continue to focus on our work, the things we’re doing in our communities to make them better." 

Historic Partnership Between NFL Team and Sportsbook

Colorado is the latest state to legalize sports gambling and one of the pro teams in the Centennial State just agreed to a historic partnership with a sports gambling company. 

The Denver Broncos announced a partnership with FanDuel, which is the first time an NFL team has partnered with a sports book. The NFL changed their policy in May which previously prevented sportsbooks from teaming up with NFL franchises. 

The NFL and NFL Player Association signed a new collective bargaining agreement in the Spring which carved out a profit-sharing formula that would generate revenue for players and team owners if (and more likely when) sportsbooks have gambling kiosks or stations inside NFL stadiums.

Since the Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports gambling, 17 states have an active legalized sports gambling system in place with about a dozen currently looking to pass legislation at some point in the next 6-12 months. 

Daily Business/Coronavirus Update

There are 8 million cases of the coronavirus worldwide, with over 438,000 deaths. The U.S. has over 2.1 million cases with over 116,000 deaths. 

There are 2,518 patients hospitalized in Texas with COVID-19.  Back on Memorial Day, there were 1,500. Texas has around 89,000 cases. 

Florida, in the past week, has seen over 2,400 new cases in Miami-Dade County. Miami mayor Francis Suarez announced in a Monday press conference that Miami won’t move into the next phase of reopening due to the rise in cases. 

Beijing has shut down schools to close and has urged people to work from home as the city sees a resurgence in cases of COVID-19. Additionally, low doses of the steroid dexamethasone have been found to reduce the risk of death by up to one-third among coronavirus patients with severe respiratory complications, researchers from Oxford University said. 

The drug was given either orally or through an IV. It reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with a ventilator and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen. 

The drug is used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions, per the BBC, and it appears that it helps stop some of the damage that can happen when the body's immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.

TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report