NFL players can wear six approved phrases on their helmets this upcoming season:
"End Racism" ... "Stop Hate" ... "It Takes All Of Us" ... "Black Lives Matter" ... "Inspire Change" ... "Say Their Stories"
Meanwhile, the phrases "It Takes All of Us" and "End Racism" will be stenciled in end zones again this season as part of the NFL's Inspire Change platform.
"This is absolutely not a good look for the NFL," says Martin Baker of Project 21. "You either have to do a strategy of all or none. Allow the players to pick their own messages or you don't have any of them."
Outkick.com sports author Anthony Farris tells American Family News he has witnessed his share opinions for and against the policy but he doesn’t fault the NFL for taking this newer approach.
“But what was curious that of those names or phrases, and this is what is causing a lot of, I guess you would say, watercooler talk,” he observes, “is the fact that there is no mention of military men and women, police officers. There is Black Lives Matter but there is not Blue Lives Matter."
“Blue Lives Matter” is a phrase used by supporters of law enforcement.
Especially after the U.S. lost 13 servicemembers in Afghanistan just one week ago, he adds, it is “shocking” that the NFL did not approve a message supporting the U.S. armed forces.
Farris points out that the NFL announced the approved slogans as football fans are going into the Labor Day weekend with the first college football games kicking off. That suggests to some, he says, that the NFL is doing it for publicity.
"The NFL and other major league sports have not learned a lesson," comments Steve McConkey, president of 4 Winds USA. "Black Lives Matter is a radical Marxist group and should be avoided altogether."
