Leading the Charge
Our union stands with all of its NFL player members as they support their communities, work to inspire positive change and fight against systemic racism & injustice.
SOCIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
This committee of NFLPA staff exists to provide our player members with informational resources to combat social injustice, amplify their collective voices and connect them with stakeholders to support their efforts to create positive change.
Our mission is to be a trusted resource for our members as they engage their communities through social action.
2024 Black History Month
HBCUs are incubators for NFL talent — a fact that is recognized annually through the NFLPA Black College Football Pro Player of the Year award. Two previous honorees in Antoine Bethea and Tarik Cohen took time to share their journeys from star talents at Howard University and North Carolina A&T, respectively, to All-Pro players at the highest level of their sport.
NFLPA x FIT Social Justice T-Shirt Student Design Contest
Football and fashion came together in a powerful way to inspire positive change in the fall of 2023. The NFLPA and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) teamed up to give students an opportunity to design a shirt surrounding the social justice issue of healthcare access and equity.
The winning design, created by FIT student Siara Mencia, was made into a T-shirt that players across the league wore during the 2023 NFL preseason games.
Learn more about the initiative here
THE NARRATIVE
The narrative begins to change when players start telling their side of the story. We talked to NFL players about their perspectives on important social justice topics like kneeling, racial profiling and having The Talk. Listen below to hear what they had to say.
2023 Black History Month: Testify
NFLPA player representatives Eric Kendricks and Harrison Phillips toured the “TESTIFY: Americana from Slavery to Today" exhibit – an extraordinary collection of African-American art and artifacts from the collection of Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and his late wife Diane. From a steel collar used on an enslave person in 1820s Virginia to a brick from the White House crafted by enslaved men, women and sometimes children, Page introduced the players to an array of unique items that highlight the complicated, compelling intersection of civil rights, labor rights and Black people in America.
Click here for more information about this important Black History Month film project.
Black History Month 2022: The Forgotten Four
One year before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947, there was Kenny, Woody, Mario and Bill. Meet the men who integrated modern-era pro football through this Black History Month spotlight.
This video includes scans of the original Houston newspaper that printed General Gordon Granger's General Order No. 3–the Juneteenth proclamation freeing all the slaves in Texas and thus in the entire United States. It also includes the Texas newspaper which published Lincoln's entire Emancipation Proclamation upon which the Juneteenth General Order No. 3 is predicated. The NFLPA thanks Mark Mitchell for these incredible pieces of history. To view more pieces from Mark Mitchell's collection, click here.
NFL players honor leaders in Black history from former NFL player Alan Page, to Barack Obama, to Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Founder Bryan Stevenson–all of whom served as trailblazers.
INJUSTICE AGAINST ONE OF US IS INJUSTICE AGAINST ALL OF US
In August 2020, the NFLPA and Executive Committee member Michael Thomas came together to find a way for NFL players to demonstrate their collective voice against racism in the United States after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and countless other people of color. What resulted was a league-wide initiative that saw players from all 32 teams wear Nike T-shirts in support of social justice during Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season.
#BlackLivesMatter
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Cam Jordan
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Equanimeous St. Brown
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Von Miller
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Rodney Mcleod
