If the league wants to show its commitment to its players, it should hire and promote more Black coaches and executives.<\/b>
\nIn response to the Black Lives Matter protests, the N. F. L. has decided to play \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing,\u201d known as the Black national anthem, in Week 1 of its coming season.
As a former N. F. L. player, my initial reaction was: why?
Is this a sign that the N. F. L. is serious now, that it truly wants to honor its commitment to promote racial equality in the league? Or is it just a symbolic gesture, one meant to placate its players, without any meaningful change?
Don\u2019t get me wrong, symbolism can be a powerful thing. \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing\u201d is a fixture of Black life, a celebration of our tumultuous experience \u2014 the struggle and triumph, the joy and pain of being Americans.
The song was originally a poem, written by James Weldon Johnson, the historian, author and civil rights activist. He was no stranger to police brutality. In his book \u201cBlack Manhattan,\u201d he describes Black people running away from white mobs during the New York race riot in 1900, only to be violently beaten by the police officers, from whom they had sought protection. An investigation into the police violence was turned on its head and the police were treated as if they were the victims of a crime.
Similar themes are playing out today: no accountability and no justice.
The N. F. L. has had plenty of opportunities to be on the right side of history. It could have supported Colin Kaepernick and other players who took a knee four years ago to protest police brutality and racial inequities in the U. S. justice system. But the league failed to protect them, when the players needed them most.
It was only last month that the league issued an apology of sorts, admitting that \u201cit was wrong for not listening to N. F. L. players earlier.\u201d This mea culpa took place only after demands by more than a dozen of its young stars, including Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City quarterback who was named the Super Bowl\u2019s most valuable player last year.
How could the N. F. L. be so blind? The author and historian George M. Fredrickson wrote that \u201csocietal racism did not require an ideology to sustain it so long as it was taken for granted.\u201d
The N. F. L. is not immune from this observation. An overwhelming majority of owners in the N. F. L.\u2019s history have been white men. Today, more than two-thirds of the players are Black. But across 32 teams, there are only three Black head coaches and two Black general managers. Over the past three years, there have been 20 head coaching vacancies, but Black coaches filled only two of them.
And then there are the politics. Almost a dozen owners of N. F. L. teams have supported President Trump by contributing money or hosting fund-raisers. This is the man whose words and Twitter account can attest to his racism \u2014 who has insulted N. F. L. players who took a knee, suggesting that they shouldn\u2019t be in the country.
If the N. F. L. wants to send an unambiguous message that its concern is genuine and not performative, it must start with this political disconnect.
The recent pledge of the N. F. L. and its team owners to contribute $250 million over 10 years to fight systematic racism is not enough. Nor is honoring victims of police brutality with helmet decals and jerseys. (Though this is, no doubt, a departure for a league that has routinely sanctioned its players for minor uniform infractions, including fines of $7,000 for untucked shirts.)
The owners must make radical changes. First, they must immediately stop raising money for President Trump. It is impossible to walk in opposite directions at the same time, and supporting the president is the antithesis of supporting the players.
Then, using their vast political connections, the owners must personally lobby for issues that matter to the players\u2019 coalition, like legislation to reform policing.
And they should clean up their own house. The N. F. L. must be committed to hiring more Black head coaches and Black executives. It needs to build a pipeline for junior coaches, who can be promoted to coordinator and play-caller positions, jobs that are essential for promotion to head coach.
There is other work to be done \u2014 including by my former team in Washington. Its founder, George Preston Marshall, an avowed segregationist, was the last N. F. L. owner to integrate his team. His statue was finally removed from the front of RFK Stadium, the team\u2019s former home, as was his name from the stadium\u2019s Ring of Honor. But the team has not removed the club\u2019s offensive name, despite decades of opposition from Indigenous people.
Dan Snyder, the team\u2019s current owner, said in a 2013 interview that he would \u201cnever change the name.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s that simple,\u201d he said. \u201cNEVER \u2014 you can use caps.\u201d
Now the team says it will review whether to change the name. But what additional information does it need? The debate itself deprives our Indigenous brothers and sisters of their humanity, and their voices have been ignored for too long.
While I will enjoy hearing \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing\u201d during the N. F. L.\u2019s opening week, I will remain skeptical. I want to believe that league officials and team owners finally get it \u2014 and I know a number of them do. But as in football, good intentions don\u2019t win games, performance does. Radical change is truly needed. We don\u2019t need any more symbolic gestures. We need the N. F. L. to step up and change a decades-old playbook that has long been out of step with the times.
Dont\u00e9 Stallworth played in the National Football League for 10 seasons.<\/p>\n