This year, they’ve announced that they will celebrate Juneteenth as an official league holiday.
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League commissioner Roger Goodell, who earlier this month announced his support for the league’s 75% of African-American players in a video proclaiming that Black Lives Matter, announced the move today in an internal memo, reports Forbes.
“This year, as we work together as a family and in our communities to combat the racial injustices that remain deeply rooted into the fabric of our society, the NFL will observe Juneteenth on Friday, June 19th as a recognized holiday and our league offices will be closed,” Goodell said in the memo.
In the wake of George Floyd‘s death in Minneapolis along with the deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia players asked Goodell to declare that ‘Black Lives Matter’ and that he was in support of the league and its African-American players, who make up 75% of the league.
Earlier this year, the league also made attempts to strengthen the Rooney Rule which was created to generate the hiring of more Black head coaches.
