NFL Social Messaging

Forget About "Stop War" or "Wage Peace"

If you watch too much NFL football, as I do, you may have noticed messages on the back of player helmets. If they choose, players are allowed a select choice of approved NFL social messages. These include “End Racism,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love,” and “Inspire Change.”

I have nothing against these messages. They’re basically feel-good bumper/helmet stickers. What gets me is the limited range of choices for the players. You either go with your team’s name or you select from a few approved messages.

You can well imagine messages that you’ll never see approved by the NFL. Messages like “Stop War” and “Wage Peace” and “End Gun Violence” and the like. The NFL does its best to avoid “politics,” thus vague slogans like “Inspire Change” are advanced. Why not “Help Workers”? “Feed the Hungry”? Or, horror of horrors, “Share the Wealth”?

Of course, the NFL consists of millionaire players and billionaire owners, so the likelihood of truly provocative messages is slim indeed. Still, “End Genocide” should be non-controversial, right? How about “Justice For All”? Or “Equal Rights”?

Well, we shouldn’t expect too much from the NFL. Nevertheless, sports are a potent force in American society and culture. Players are leaders and role models, whether they want to be or not. I wish they had more leeway to express themselves, but the owners have spoken, so to speak, just as our owners (as George Carlin said) basically own us.

This is NOT an approved NFL helmet message