NFL

The official opening of the National Football League free agency period is now upon us with several players getting rich.

The Chiefs and 49ers stamped their tickets to Super Bowl LVIII following victories in their respective NFL conference championship games.

The National Football League labels the first round of postseason competition “Wild Card Weekend.” There are mixed reviews about how pro football fans digested this year’s wild results.

There was a time, long ago, when the running back was the featured player in all of football. From Pop Warner to the NFL, the boys and men who lugged the pigskin up and down the field were the game’s ultimate stars.

With the recent news of an NFL investigation into players betting legally and illegally, the specter of gambling in sports rears its ugly head again. 

There is a good reason for the euphoria legions of Blacks feel and express about the historic first of two African American quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, facing off in the Superbowl. It’s been a long, agonizing, painful road for them and the NFL to get to that historic point.

Blacks often have difficulty benefitting from industrial plans to compensate them for workplace injuries.

Management of the NFL finally acknowledged responsibility for permanent damage inflicted on players from head injuries and a fund was established to provide settlements to injured players. But as in most beneficial programs, Black former players are being short changed.

Colin Kaepernick’s anti-police-abuse protest, his subsequent blackballing, and the boycott by many Blacks of the NFL didn’t dampen my NFL passion and support. But this did: former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores’ potential landmark lawsuit against the NFL charging the NFL owners and management with systemic racism in its non-hiring of Black head coaches.