NFL have been left divided after the league announced plans to honor Martin Luther King Jr throughout all of the upcoming divisional round playoff games.
With MLK Day just around the corner, the NFL have confirmed plans to have ‘Choose Love’ displayed in the end zones and helmet decals for all the games this weekend.
The league also confirmed that ‘Choose Love’ and ‘It Takes All of Us’ will be displayed in the opposing end zones at the Super Bowl next month.
The NFL has used on-field social justice messaging over the past six seasons and their latest plans are just a continuation of that.
However, after the news was announced, fans were left divided by the messaging.
Taking to X, some fans voiced their support. One fan wrote: ‘Classy move by the NFL’.
The NFL have confirmed plans to have ‘Choose Love’ in the end zones across this weekend
Players will also have ‘Choose Love’ decals on the back of their helmets for their games
‘Amazing!! Should be year round!,’ another said.
‘i speak for everyone when i say we support this,’ one wrote.
However, others were not as supportive as they reacted to the announcement.
‘Can we just play the game?,’ one disgruntled fan wrote online.
Another said: ‘How about we get rid of all messaging on the back of helmets and end zones, it’s unnecessary’.
Sarcastically, one fan said: ‘This changes everything. I was going to choose violence and hate, now I’m doing to full 180’.
The plans to honor Martin Luther King Jr were confirmed via a statement from NFL’s senior vice president of social responsibility, Anna Isaacson.
She said: ‘Dr. King’s message continues to guide how we show up in meaningful moments across the league.
”Choose Love’ has become an important and widely embraced message for our teams because it reflects the values Dr. King championed – dignity, empathy, and a commitment to our shared humanity. Bringing it forward in the Divisional Round and again at Super Bowl LX reflects that continued relevance.’
Back in February, Bill Maher labeled the NFL’s ‘End Racism’ slogan as ‘stupid’ in a blistering attack on the long-running campaign.
Some fans were full of support for the initiative after it was confirmed on Saturday afternoon
However, some disgruntled NFL fans questioned the initiative and labelled it ‘unnecessary’
In a strong message on his ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ show, he said: ‘I noticed that at the Super Bowl, they’re, for the first time in, I think, four years now, the Trump administration is making them take away “End Racism”, which they had written in the end zone.’
His guest, Tara Palmeri then claimed it ‘seems silly’ for the NFL to make that decision, asking Maher: ‘Why get rid of it?’
Maher then responded: ‘Oh, I could tell you why. Because it was stupid to begin with.
‘But let me ask you, who is it for? And if you’re a racist and you see “End Racism” in the end zone, you’re gonna stop being a racist?’
