Black Players in American Professional Football

Details of the history of black players in American professional football depend on the professional football league considered: the National Football League (NFL), which evolved from the first professional league, the American Professional Football Association, or the American Football League, (AFL), a rival league from 1960 through 1969, which eventually merged with the NFL.

Read more about Black Players In American Professional Football:  Early Years, 1927 Through 1933, 1934 To 1945, Reintegration, American Football League Influence, Racial Issues Today

Famous quotes containing the words professional football, black, players, american, professional and/or football:

    Smoking ... is downright dangerous. Most people who smoke will eventually contract a fatal disease and die. But they don’t brag about it, do they? Most people who ski, play professional football or drive race cars, will not die—at least not in the act—and yet they are the ones with the glamorous images, the expensive equipment and the mythic proportions. Why this should be I cannot say, unless it is simply that the average American does not know a daredevil when he sees one.
    Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)

    Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women.... Their arms were all of gold.
    —For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    I do not like football, which I think of as a game in which two tractors approach each other from opposite directions and collide. Besides, I have contempt for a game in which players have to wear so much equipment. Men play basketball in their underwear, which seems just right to me.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.
    Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)

    ... a supportive husband is an absolute requirement for professional women.... He is something she looks for, and when she finds him, she marries him.
    Alice S. Rossi (b. 1922)

    ... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?
    Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)