In this study, scholarship was extended on cultural meanings of race and athlete activism by interrogating one key media spectacle surrounding athlete protests: President Trump’s 2017 speech questioning NFL player’s character, with a focus on NFL owner’s responses. NFL owner’s statements (n=32) were subjected to critical discourse analysis (CDA). Discourses of post-racial nationalism and functionalism and the subject positions of ‘good player citizen’ and ‘benevolent facilitator’ (re)created meanings of the protests devoid of racial politics, linked to ideologies of color blindness, meritocracy and diversity. These discourses and subject positions allowed NFL owners to control protest meanings to maintain White privilege and appeal to their White fan base. These findings expand research on color-blind racism in sport, which perpetuates neoliberal ideals and myth of a post-racial America, via taken for granted language use within discourses.