CHARLOTTE N.C. — Sure, the NFL can run away from Bank of America Stadium. It can take Sunday’s Panthers-Vikings game from the city that has been damaged physically and emotionally by tragic events throughout the past week. It can run, scared.
Don’t do that, NFL. Just like how you need Charlotte, its residents who pay your absurd ticket prices and its promise as a growing sports market, Charlotte needs you.
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The city needs this home game much more than the Panthers do to potentially boost their record to 2-1. The city is hurt. It’s embarrassed. It needs healing. It needs a dose of normalcy. It needs to assure its residents that its law enforcement is capable of returning and maintaining order. It needs to know the NFL and the Panthers have its back.
"This game absolutely should be played," defensive captain and longtime Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis said Thursday. “It’s a tough time right now in our community, and we need something that's going to bring people together with all that’s going on right now."
What was going on in the days before kickoff, scheduled five days after the police-involved shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, was violent protests. Wednesday night in uptown Charlotte, in particular, resembled more of a war zone than a typically lively, nightlife-driven area.
The NFL as of Thursday evening had no plans to move Sunday's game, but given the declared state of emergency in the city and uncertainty regarding continuation of potentially violent demonstrations, the league is “monitoring events in Charlotte."
If the city remains in a state of emergency five days after the incident that prompted public uproar, there are bigger issues at play here than a football game.
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Ron Rivera doubts that’ll be the case.
"My understanding is we’re playing,” the coach said, via The Charlotte Observer. “You know me, I want to play here because I really think this would be good for the city. I think this community needs us. Heck, last year we brought it together. Who knows? Maybe we can help."
Odds are they can, and they will.
Davis used the makeup of Carolina’s football team — a congregation of men of varying races, backgrounds and beliefs — as an example of how football can be a tool for unity. The crowd in the stands, he said, presents a similar construction.
"If you look at the way the game of football is, it has a unique way of bringing people together," he said. "If you take this game away, I think that’s just gonna continue to add to the stress and continue to add to what’s already going on in a negative way."
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Make no mistake — protests will occur all over the NFL this weekend, not just in Carolina. For many, the sports-are-an-escape-from-politics game changed the minute a reporter in August asked Colin Kaepernick why he sat during the national anthem (though sports and politics for years have been as inseparable as ketchup and mustard).
The fear for the NFL and the Panthers on Sunday is those protests turning violent like they did Wednesday night. Such a large crowd seems like an easy target for those who prefer to create chaos.
But that’s what the police are for; that’s what recently heightened stadium security is for. The negative attention garnered by a potentially violent protest outside Bank of America Stadium would hurt less than the message sent by the league and team in fleeing the scene.
Ironically, and in part thanks to Kaepernick’s decision to start the wave, NFL games are effective mediums for peaceful — key word, "peaceful" — protests. Moving the game takes away the ability of 106 football players to protest in peace in a city starving for it.
Tre Boston, for example, wouldn’t discount the idea of kneeling during the national anthem and following Kaepernick’s lead. He’s not yet sure whether that method of protest is right for him, but he wants to do something.
"People are going to treat us like football players — we have be quiet and just play football," the Panthers safety said. "But God allowed me to live for more than that. He allowed me to use my voice. He gave me a mouth, two eyes and two ears. It hurts, because when it’s in your backyard, you want to do something so bad about it."
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So give players like Boston the ability to do something, NFL, in a time they need that ability most. Help one of your 31 cities heal, simply by being there for it.
Don’t run away in fear of unlikely disorder. Even if it’s for all the wrong reasons — we know you’d prefer not to deal with the logistics of a move and the natural dip in revenue — stay.
You’ll be fine. And with your help, Charlotte will be fine, too.