NFL Players Coalition members respond to Trump's pardon recommendation request

A group of four NFL players - and members of the Players Coalition advocacy group - responded to President Donald Trump's request for a list of people who should be considered for criminal pardons.

In a New York Times op-ed published Thursday, Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins, and Benjamin Watson wrote that the president still isn't listening.

Trump responded to the NFL's new anthem policy - which allows for players to remain in the locker room if they so choose - by offering to meet with those who protest during the anthem and ask for a list of those unfairly treated by the justice system for possible pardons.

"A handful of pardons will not address the sort of systemic injustice that NFL players have been protesting," the players wrote.

Baldwin, Boldin, Jenkins, and Watson listed police brutality, unnecessary incarceration, excessive criminal sentencing, residential segregation, and educational inequality as examples of the injustices NFL players have protested during the national anthem in recent seasons. Those protests - kneeling or demonstrating during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" - have drawn the ire of the president.

"Our being professional athletes has nothing to do with our commitment to fighting injustice," the players wrote. "We are citizens who embrace the values of empathy, integrity, and justice, and we will fight for what we believe is right. We weren't elected to do this. We do it because we love this country, our communities, and the people in them. This is our America, our right."