The NFL is scrapping its efforts to “End Racism” before Sunday’s Super Bowl and Donald Trump’s plan to make history by being the first sitting president to attend.
This will be the first Super Bowl in which those words have not been painted on an end zone since February 2021.
Instead, the league will display the phrases “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” at the big game.
“We felt it was an appropriate statement for what the country has collectively endured, given recent tragedies, and can serve as an inspiration,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said.
McCarthy claimed the decision was based on sensitivity to the recent terrorist attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter, where an Army veteran drove a truck into a crowd and killed 14 people. The spokesperson also referenced the January wildfires in Los Angeles and the tragic Jan. 29 air collision near Washington, D.C.
Companies across the U.S. are slashing DEI initiatives, and Trump and his minions are blaming tragedies on “DEI hires.” As social media platforms and corporations seem to fall in line with Trump’s racist ideals, the NFL’s change of heart on the end zone message appears to be yet another attempt to appease the president.
However, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stood by DEI principles during Monday’s press briefing and said the league would continue the push for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a news conference, on Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the Super Bowl matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League,” he said. “And we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, we’ve proven it to ourselves—it does make the NFL better.”
The league originally stenciled “End Racism” on the end zones at the height of racial injustice protests.
The NFL became a beacon of social justice messages during the tumult, allowing players to wear decals proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Hate” on their helmets as well. The league became a platform for social justice, but this wasn’t always the case.
The push for social justice originally started in 2016 with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.
Kaepernick and other players who knelt received extreme backlash from fans—including then-President Trump.
“Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired,” Trump tweeted in response to football players kneeling during the anthem in 2017.
Kaepernick left the 49ers and later reached a multimillion-dollar settlement from the NFL.
The NFL continued to amplify Kaepernick’s social justice message despite his removal from the field, and seemingly pushed back against Trump’s rhetoric during his first term.
So much for that.
)
)
English (US) ·