In what amounts to more bad news for conservative-minded fans of football, the National Football League (NFL) has revealed that it will continue putting social justice messages described by many as “woke” in the end zones of fields to show its commitment as an organization to certain causes and issues.
As background, the NFL began including the social justice messages in the end zones during the 2020 football season as a direct response to the death of George Floyd and riot-tinged outrage surrounding his death. The “Inspire Change” initiative, as it became known, first included messages like “End Racism” and “Stop Hate.” Later, “Choose Love” was added to the end zone message lineup.
Many conservatives saw the inclusion of the end zone messages, when paired with the general situation surrounding George Floyd, as the NFL getting involved in wokeness and siding with the American left on social and political issues, which infuriated many conservative-minded football fans.
As a result, many have demanded since 2020 that the messages be removed, and the hope of many was that because the election of Donald Trump has brought a corporate reversal on commitment to wokeness, the NFL might join in the course reversal and appease its fans by getting rid of the social justice messaging.
That hope has proven unfounded. According to a report in ESPN, this year’s NFL messages in the end zones will include social justice-tinged platitudes like “End Racism,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love,” or “Inspire Change.” Further, all games will feature at least one end zone with he phrase “It Takes All of Us.”
NFL senior vice president of social responsibility Anna Isaacson, explaining the decision, noted that the NFL wants to work with players to push issues they purport to care about. She said, “We’re working hand-in-hand with players, and alongside our clubs, to amplify player voices and underscore what is most important to them.”
Continuing, Issacson bizarrely framed the decision as being part of a larger commitment to unity in America, as if it won’t alienate much of their audience. She said, “For decades, the NFL and its players have been a unifying force in American culture and society that brings people of all cultures and backgrounds together to enjoy America’s most popular sport.”
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Still not done, Isaacson said the NFL is pushing similar social justice causes outside of games as well, and that pushing them in the end zones and outside of games is an “honor.” She said, “This is an honor and responsibility that the league takes seriously, which is why we actively invest in off-field programs and on-field initiatives that promote unity.”
Isaacson also claimed in her comments to the media that the “Choose Love” slogan pushed by the league a few years later than the others is a favorite amongst the NFL’s players, saying, “Choose Love continues to resonate across the league. It has become a unifying message of healing and hope, one that many players continue to wear voluntarily on helmet decals.”
Watch President Trump describe the Democrats as “insane people” here:
Featured image credit: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons