Trump offers olive branch to NFL players with input on pardons

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he welcomes South Korea's President Moon Jae-In in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump held out an olive branch in his feud with National Football League players on Friday, asking them for recommendations as he considers pardoning several thousand people who may have been unfairly treated by the criminal justice system.

But civil rights activists were sceptical of Trump's gesture, given his repeated use of a controversy around the national anthem at NFL games to stoke the country's culture wars, and his fraught relationship with the African-American community.