“If you're black or white, you're a part of the family. We make no issue over a man's color. I just won't tolerate anybody in this organization making it an issue. We respect every man's dignity, black or white.”
These are the famed words of Green Bay Packer's legendary head coach, Vince Lombardi, from 1968. The same year, the civil rights movement was thwarted by the assassination of Martin Luther King, at a time Lombardi was fighting to integrate his Black players into a world that wasn't designed for them.
“He wanted to overcome obstacles, regardless of race, creed, background, or sexual orientation," explains Julie Haddon, NFL's senior vice-president, global brand and consumer marketing. “He deplored prejudice of any kind, he would not tolerate bigotry in the 60s.”
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