The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and far too many others have forced a conversation long simmering in the background to the forefront of America’s national attention. And while this conversation can, at times, be uncomfortable, it’s essential that we have it.

Racism has touched just about every part of our culture in ways big and small. Even if you haven’t been directly affected by racism, chances are you know someone who has. That’s true for me, and given that the NFL is made up of about 70% black players, I think it’s fair to say it’s also true for most of us as football fans. I may not experience the effects of systemic racism on a day-to-day basis, but many of the players I root for on Sundays do, solely by virtue of their skin color.

Short of immediate systemic change, one of the best things we can do in this current climate is to try to broaden our understanding of what life is like for people whose lives may be shaped by racism in ways we’ll never experience. Unfortunately, the NFL has given us plenty of different things to consider in that area.

Below are a number of resources describing how racism has affected professional football players. This reading guide is broken into three sections, past, present, and further reading. In the past section, you’ll learn about the racial environment in which the NFL came of age as a professional sports league. In the present section, you’ll read about how that early environment developed into the NFL we have today and how its policies affect minority players, coaches, and executives. Then, in further reading, you’ll go deeper on some related issues thanks to some scholarly research in a few academic journals.

This won’t “solve” racism, but attempting to understand what other people are going through is one of the steps on the path toward a less-racist world. But if we can at least try to understand each other, we’ll be in a much better place.

Past

Who was Packers' first African American player?

The Packers had a non-white player much earlier than most NFL teams, but may not have even known it. This article from esteemed Packers historian Cliff Christl explains some of why Walter Jean may have hidden his racial identity.

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

This book isn’t about the NFL and doesn’t really touch on many of the issues affecting early black players in the NFL, but I think it’s a good look at some of the broad strokes of the racial environment in which the NFL was founded.

The NFL was segregated, until Kenny Washington broke the color barrier in Los Angeles

Though players like Walter Jean played in the NFL, the league semi-secretly segregated itself in 1933 and stayed that way until Los Angeles forced a change.

Fifty Years Ago, Last Outpost of Segregation in N.F.L. Fell

The Washington Redskins fought desegregation tooth and nail and had to be forced to integrate. It seems unthinkable that it had to play out that way, but that’s exactly what happened.

Present

Warren Moon Dreamed of Playing in the NFL, but the NFL Didn’t Want Moon. At Least, Not At Quarterback

Moon’s story is hardly unique. And while he eventually overcame (some of) the stigma of being a black man playing a largely white position, many others never did. Moon now works with other young black quarterbacks as they transition into the NFL, even as the stigma surrounding minorities at the position fades slightly (however slowly).

Tony Dungy: Some announcers’ biased language perpetuates black QB stereotypes

This was a tough one for me to read. As an announcer/broadcaster/podcaster/whatever, it’s easy to fall into verbal patterns describing certain players or playing styles. But doing so might be perpetuating stereotypes about players that aren’t even close to accurate. This is something I’ll be watching in the future.

“You’re Going to Have to Run Faster”: How Football Neglects Black Coaches

NFL Owners Have a Problem With Coaches of Color

It’s tough to get a head coaching gig or a general manager position in the NFL. It’s tougher still if you’re a black man. These two articles give good insight on exactly how hard it is.

Grappling with lack of diversity among NFL coaches, GMs

I don’t know how to make it easier for minority candidates to get a shot at a coach or GM job in the NFL, and (spoiler alert) neither does this panel. But talking through potential options is a start, and if you get enough smart people talking about this, sooner or later a solution may present itself.

N.F.L. Team Owners Enhance Rooney Rule, but Stop Short of Incentives

The solution probably isn’t the Rooney Rule, enhanced or not, but that’s not why I share this piece. I share it to show how hard it can be to make substantive change in the NFL, and how big a challenge it is to get people to agree to something that ostensibly will make things better for everyone.

Further Reading

Race, Quarterbacks, and the Media — Testing the Rush Limbaugh Hypothesis

Rush Limbaugh made waves when he suggested the national NFL media covered Donovan McNabb differently — and more positively — because he was black. Is that true? This scholarly paper dives into the data.

Status of Blacks as Major College Football Coaches

This article is from the late 90s, but parts of it sound like they could have been written today: “Nearly 70 percent of the black college coaches surveyed agreed to some extent that their job security and career opportunities are not related to their ability to coach on the football field.”

Use of Native American Team Names

This article is not football-specific but touches on the Washington Redskins’ use of Native American imagery and iconography, an increasingly contentious topic.

Evaluations of Black QBs

Like the Dungy article above, this paper explores the language used to evaluate black players — and how it differs from their white counterparts.