Anquan Boldin: Wouldn't Be Wise for NFL Players to Give Donald Trump Pardon List

Former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin said Thursday that NFL players are doing the right thing by not recommending people to President Donald Trump to receive pardons.

According to Lindsay Gibbs of Think Progress, Boldin appeared at a Players Coalition forum on criminal justice reform in Prince George's County, Maryland, and said the following:

"We do want to engage on the recent pardons. But I think, for us, just pardoning certain people, I don't think would be wise. I think you attack it from a more strategic standpoint. I think the way we look at it, there's a lot of people, like [Alice Johnson, who Trump pardoned this month after he met with Kim Kardashian about her case], who should get pardoned. I think for us as NFL players, if we just gave him a list of names, it would kind of reinforce the current system—people who know people, people who have money, usually get the better end of the stick when it comes to our criminal justice system, which we know is broken."

Last week, Trump asked for NFL players to recommend pardons, and he said he would consider each case.

Trump asked players to send him recommendations June 8:

"I'm going to ask all of those people to recommend to me—because that's what they're protesting—people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system. And I understand that. I'm going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated and I’m gonna take a look at those applications and if I find and my committee finds that they've been unfairly treated than we'll pardon them. Or at least let them out."

On Friday, Trump appeared on Fox News (h/t TMZ Sports) and said that no NFL players had reached out to him:

"No, I haven't heard [from them]. ... They're all saying, 'Oh, it has nothing to do with the flag, it's the way we've been treated.' In the meantime, they're making $15 million a year. Maybe they've called the staff but I've not personally heard from one ... because I don't know if it's a real issue. I don't think it's a real issue."

The 37-year-old Boldin spent 14 seasons in the NFL. He signed with the Buffalo Bills last offseason but decided to retire and focus on humanitarian work prior to the start of the 2017 regular season.

Boldin is the co-founder of the Players Coalition, which is working to raise awareness in NFL circles regarding social injustice and racial inequality.