The conversation was refreshing because it’s one that probably wouldn’t be seen on CNN or MSNBC, whose hosts often seem petrified of going against the uber-liberal grain.

Maher, Thomas and Whitlock, along with a handful of brave others, see the NFL’s empty virtue-signaling for what it is: a cheap publicity stunt.

If the league really wants to show that it cares about racial inequality, it could invest more of its billions in profit in volunteer organizations to improve education and access to quality playing fields and coaching.

Instead, intentionally or not, the NFL is telling its audience that it sees America through a racial prism, as two countries divided by race. And it is doing so at just the time when many liberals and African Americans are rightly rejecting that notion.