The NFL will join other sports leagues in putting social justice messages on the playing field this season.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on a conference call this afternoon that the league will stencil End racism and It takes all of us in the end zones at each stadium this fall.
The NFL stands with the black community, the players, clubs and fans confronting systemic racism. We will not relent in our work, Goodell said.
In the months since the police killing of George Floyd, pro sports leagues in the United States and around the world have spoken out against racism.
On Tuesday, former NFL players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the NFL deliberately manipulated cognitive function test scores to make it less likely that Black players would receive benefits under the concussion settlement.
The NFLs administration of the settlement created a Black door and a White door for benefits, in which former players with identical test scores get different treatment solely on the basis of race, Cy Smith, lead counsel for the players, said in a press release. This approach was not required by the settlement and the NFL is fully aware of its discriminatory impact on Black players. The NFL has a choice to make: live up to its word and treat Black players like their lives matter, or continue pushing them aside.
The lawsuit alleges that the process for assessing cognitive function of former players seeking benefits uses race-norming, which assumes that Black players start with lower cognitive function. As a result, a Black player who has played professional football, and who has potentially suffered cognitive decline because of it, is presumed to have experienced less decline as a result of playing football and thus is less likely to be eligible for compensation.
The complaint contends that the NFL expected and intended this result through the drafting, interpreting, and enforcing of the settlement. Simply stated, the initial filing says at page 3, the League sought to reduce the total cost of benefits paid to the Settlement Class, by greatly reducing benefits to the Black retirees who today make up a majority of both the Settlement Class and the NFLs workforce.