Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since he sparked controversy by sitting and then kneeling during the national anthem ahead of several games to protest black male police shootings and other social injustices suffered by the black community.
Appearing in Emmanuel Acho's " Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man ", Goodell was asked to apologize to Kaepernick.
"Well, the first thing I would say is I wish we had listened to earlier, Kap, what you were kneeling down and what you were trying to get attention to," said Goodell.
"We had invited him over and over to have the conversation, to have the dialogue. I wish we had the benefit of that. We never did."
'It's not about the flag'
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback became a free agent in 2017 after no team offered him a contract. In October, he filed a grievance against the league, accusing team owners of collusion to prevent him from being signed.
He and former teammate Eric Reid, who knelt with Kaepernick, have finally settled their collusion disputes with the NFL.
Goodell says he now has a better understanding of why players were protesting and that he is frustrated when others misinterpret their actions.
"It's not about the flag," Goodell said. "These are not people who are not patriotic. They are not disloyal. They are not against our military. In fact, a lot of these guys were in the military, and they're a military family.
"What they were trying to do is exercise their right to call attention to something that needs to be fixed. This misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that kept me going. was really gnawing. "
In June, Goodell and the NFL publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement and admitted to making mistakes in the past.
"We, the National Football League, admit that we were wrong not to listen to NFL players earlier and encourage all of us to speak out and protest peacefully."
