CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Some have called members of the Players Coalition sellouts. I call them shrewd.

The ignorance and arrogance of Texans owner Bob McNair has renewed skepticism of the Coalition’s deal with the NFL for a social justice campaign, an agreement that prompted some players to say they would end protests that have become a lightning rod across the country.

The way critics see it, the players abandoned their principles, getting little more than lip service in return for their silence.


But it’s easy to be outraged. Anyone can do that. What’s harder is to channel that rage into action, programs and policies that will address the issues that prompted the protests in the first place.

“All the work we need to be doing is off the field and in the communities,”

Patriots safety Devin McCourty, who has emerged as one of the Coalition’s visible leaders, told USA TODAY.

“That was a vehicle that we used to draw attention,” McCourty said of the player demonstrations. “But doing some type of protest on the field every week is not going to stop an unarmed black kid from getting killed or fix a criminal justice system in another state.”

Members of the Coalition remain every bit as angry and heartbroken as they were when they began taking a knee and raising their fists, joining the protest started by Colin Kaepernick in 2016.

People of color continue to be killed by law enforcement officers. The judicial system remains stacked against minorities, children in particular. The opportunities that education affords have as much to do with a person’s ZIP code as his or her intellect.

But the players are also seeing small signs of progress — progress that goes further with the league’s involvement.

Last Thursday, McCourty was with current and former players at the Massachusetts statehouse, where legislators had finally reached agreement on a criminal justice bill that includes a provision barring children younger than 12 from being prosecuted and prohibits kids from being punished criminally for disruptive behavior in school.

The package, which still must be passed by the full Massachusetts House and Senate and signed by the governor, had been slow to develop after being bogged down for months in the legislative process. But when NFL players and Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his son Jonathan began lobbying for it, it raised both the profile of the issue and the urgency to get something done.

Friday, McCourty was joined by Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, Saints linebacker Demario Davis and retired receiver Anquan Boldin for a day-long symposium at Harvard on criminal justice reform.

“Not a lot of people are reading about what’s going on in the criminal justice system space. So if we can use our celebrity and the spotlight and just turn it to the issues that are going on, people are like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that was happening,’ ” Davis told USA TODAY.

“The people who are trying to do bad things in these spaces? They don’t want the light shined on them. When that light is shined on them, they’re under pressure, and they have to change,” he added. “I think that’s the power this platform gives us, that we can use some of that media space and some of that spotlight that’s on us and shine it on the issues. It’s simply us turning the camera.”

And sometimes it’s work outside the camera’s view.

While the Coalition now has about 100 members, triple what it started with, the group’s leaders are all too aware what the price of activism can be.

Kaepernick and Eric Reid remain unemployed while numerous players with lesser skills and thinner résumés have jobs.

To protect its members, the Coalition established a tier system: players with more job security — veterans, Pro Bowlers, Super Bowl champs — are the visible, vocal leaders.

Others operate below the radar but can still lend their names to op-eds or letters to legislators or help educate fellow players and community members on the legal system and why a race for, say, the district attorney or attorney general is every bit as critical as the one for president.

“Those aren’t controversial and nobody gets upset when you start telling people what a district attorney does. But those are impactful ways to actually make a change,” Jenkins said. “There’s plenty of room and work to be passed around, and we’re organizing to facilitate that.”

Which brings us back to that partnership with the NFL.

It’s clear from McNair’s comments Sunday that not everyone in the league understands the issues that sparked the protests or cares to see them addressed.

But there are owners who do, whether they’re out in front such as Jonathan Kraft or working quietly with Coalition members on local issues that don’t draw as much attention.

The money the NFL has promised — about $89 million over seven years — can be trans formative to grass-roots efforts.

“If we can just continue to spread this awareness and spread these stories — not spotlight us as players, but spotlight individual stories or policies that need to be changed — I truly believe people in their hearts are good, and they’ll want to change those things and make them better,” McCourty said.

“But I think we have to continue to push that and put it out in front so people can see it.”

History has shown that change occurs in many forms, and there’s no one right way to accomplish it.

Some members of the Players Coalition might be giving up their protests, but they are not giving up their voice.