Policy is more important than NFL’s ‘end racism’ decision

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Social media is awash with fury over the National Football League’s decision to remove the words “End Racism” from the end zones for this weekend’s Super Bowl LIX game in New Orleans. The message was stenciled on football fields in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd and has been prominent on the world’s television screens every time a touchdown was scored in each of the last three Super Bowls. Now, in a different political moment, the slogan is to be replaced by “Choose Love.”

I understand the anger, and the lords of the sport have every reason to be embarrassed by a contretemps they could have avoided. Certainly, the NFL’s insistence that the change had nothing to do with the shifting direction of the cultural and ideological winds doesn’t pass the giggle test. (President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday and would be the first sitting president to do so.)

At the same time, I wonder whether even for those committed to the fight against racial injustice there might be less at stake than meets the eye.

To be sure, I come to the discussion with a bias. My late father hated slogans. Absolutely hated them. Although he was a prominent Democrat who labored near the heart of several national political campaigns, he never allowed bumper stickers on our cars. Nobody in the family wore the candidate buttons or hats so popular in the day. I asked Dad once why he hated bumper stickers so. “Because they’re on the back of the car,” he grumbled. Back then I didn’t understand. But in later years I came to see his point. He was a serious man who revered reason and argument. Slogans in general, and bumper stickers in particular, invited no argument. They announced a position, and as much as told everyone else “I don’t care what you think” — an implied message my father despised.

In short, a dislike for sloganeering is in my blood.

So, if the NFL banned all on-field slogans, I’d be singing huzzahs. But that isn’t what’s happening. The league is selecting among slogans. The lords of the sport are not making a decision that’s neutral as to content. Quite the contrary. They’re discarding their controversial message in favor of one so plain vanilla and unremarkable as to stir neither thought nor emotion in anyone who happens to view it. (Does any group nowadays believe itself to be choosing hate?)

Those who are upset worry that the league is in retreat.

Certainly, symbols matter — but substance matters more.

I suspect the owners know this. So, while the right hand waves away on-field slogans, let’s see what the left hand is doing. For one thing, even in the wake of Trumpian upheaval, the NFL seems determined not to back down from its DEI commitments. In particular, the league plans to stick with what’s known as the “Rooney Rule,” which mandates that teams hiring for certain high-level positions (including head coach) must interview minority candidates.

That’s to the good. Critics tell us that the Rooney Rule has fallen short of what proponents hoped to accomplish. On the other hand, research suggests that over time the rule’s existence tends to decrease implicit bias. Small wonder that some version of the rule exists in many companies. Even opponents of race-conscious hiring should applaud a voluntary choice by an employer to take pains to consider candidates it fears might otherwise be overlooked.

As a fan of football and a believer in the imperative to combat racism in its many insidious forms, I’m less concerned with what signs the league posts than what policies it propounds.

Call it my father’s influence.

We’re not going to end racism by encouraging people to put up signs. It’s long work, a long haul, a long battle to defeat a constantly mutating creature that’s been around a long time.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.” This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.