Abdimalik Mohamed, sports editor

The NFL has a history pertaining to civil rights and social justice initiatives. While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell generally frowns upon things like kneeling for the national anthem, in 2020 there was something that really caught the attention of the NFL and the entire country as a whole: George Floyd and his unjust murder. 

In response to his murder and the civil unrest that followed, the NFL and all the other major sports leagues wanted to do something to stand up to systemic racism. The NFL in particular started the 2020 season by letting their players put stickers on their helmets with phrases like “Black Lives Matter,” “It Takes All Of Us” and “Stop Hate.” These slogans and sayings are great, but the main thing that really caught the attention of the greater public was the fact that they also put the words “END RACISM” in the end zones of their fields. Goodell’s reasoning for this slogan and all the other social initiatives that the NFL adopted in the pandemic were revealed in a story by CNN where he said that he “supports and encourages civic engagement and voting of fans, players, legends and club and league personnel.” 

I believe him when he says this because the NFL is really good when it comes to voter registration, breast cancer awareness month and salute to service month. It was really cool to see them take this seriously and tell millions of Black Americans that they see and hear them. Now, years later, it seems the NFL is done using the “END RACISM” slogan in their end zones. Fans were quick to notice that it was not used during the Super Bowl. This caused a stir among many people and the general public started to wonder what this meant because of the recent inauguration of President Trump. The NFL has repeatedly stated that they were not intimidated to do this by the new administration and that they will continue with their diversity efforts, but Goodell told the New York Times, “We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League.” And we’re going to continue those efforts, because we’ve not only convinced ourselves we’ve proven it to ourselves — it does make the NFL better.” 

We must hold sports leagues like the NFL accountable when it comes to social issues because we send our children to get concussions, torn ACLs, torn MCLs and CTE. Goodell knows where his bread is buttered and that is placating the 32 owners in the NFL who are mostly white and conservative. Hopefully the NFL will see those fans as not just consumers of a product, but as people who care not just about the bottom line but about our brothers and sisters not being taken out by racism.