NFL finally replaces 'End Racism' message in end zones, but it may be a temporary move

The NFL appeared to have finally ended its on-field anti-racism initiatives that saw the messages of "End Racism" and "It Takes All of Us" painted at the back of each teams' end zones, but a new report suggests it was simply part of a temporary, league-wide initiative.

The messaging began during the George Floyd riots, colloquially known as the 2020 "Summer of Love," which saw billions of dollars in property damage and reports of "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" on outlets like CNN.

The NFL steadily pumped out social justice phrases and platitudes leading up to the start of the season that year.

"We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People," said Commissioner Roger Goodell in a June 5, 2020, post. The commissioner also gave condolences to several victims of police shootings, regardless of the details of each instance.

The league even published poems and shared "stories of victims of systemic racism." This culminated with "End Racism" written right on the field that season.

The league also allowed helmet decals featuring the same or other inspirational phrases, or even commonly cited names from the Black Lives Matter movement.

"The NFL will no longer ‘End Racism’. They will Play Football," one Twitter use wrote, as the league seemingly ended three consecutive seasons of the messaging.

Fans noticed the shift in the words during the final week of preseason games, specifically during the Kansas City Chiefs versus Cleveland Browns broadcast, Bounding into Sports reported.

However, a report from account MLFootball stated that NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said the messages are here to stay.

"McCarthy gave @_MLFootball some clarification regarding the endzone stencils, saying there will be NO change from previous years and the 'It Takes All of Us' and 'End Racism' will remain," the report said.

"'There’s been no change from previous years. Beginning with the regular season, clubs will have in endzones stencils featuring 'It Takes All of Us' and 'End Racism.' 'Play Football' was featured for preseason as part of a league-wide initiative.'"

While the league's overflow of messaging seemingly hurt its 2020 television ratings, which dropped by an average of about 1 million viewers, by 2021 the ratings rebounded with their best numbers since 2016, according to Forbes.

Messages of "systemic racism" and even racist health practices were juxtaposed with the league's biggest star, Tom Brady, changing his helmet messages to "Be Love" and "Inspire Change."

Despite a slight drop in 2022, ratings remained higher than those same 2016 numbers. The NFL also accounted for 82 of the top 100 telecasts in the United States in 2022, up from 75 in 2021.

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