NFL Funding ‘Social Justice Advocacy’ Training’ for Black College Athletes

As part of its commitment to its protesting players, the NFL has announced funding social justice training for college football players and other students, reports say.

This month, the historically black Morehouse College, announced that the NFL is set to co-host a three-day workshop to teach student-athletes how to be “influencers and community leaders with the mechanics to develop their advocacy platform.”

The new “Advocacy in Sport” workshop is scheduled to be held in February, according to Campus Reform, and is part of the league’s $90 million commitment to a group of protesting pro football players promising to fund so-called “social justice” causes.

“This historic workshop is aimed at training the next generation of athletes who wish to use sport as a powerful platform for advocacy,” the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Troy Vincent, said in an NFL press release.

“Our partnership is designed to equip athletes as influencers and community leaders with the mechanics to develop their advocacy platform,” the NFL added.

Morehouse psychology professor David Wall Rice reportedly developed the program by collaborating with the NFL and its protesting players, as well as others in the social justice field.

“Linking with the NFL and their players in pushing forward social justice agendas that mirror present and past activist foundations of Morehouse College is important work,” Morehouse College President Harold Martin Jr. said. “We take our relationship here and the trust that many of the players have already communicated to Dr. Rice seriously, and we know that the work we do in February and beyond has the capacity to impact lives.”

The National Football League announced its $90 million in funding for social justice causes after two seasons of players protesting against the United States during the playing of the national anthem. The program at Moorehouse is one of the first social justice efforts formally funded by the NFL after a group of players urged the league to divert money from other programs such as breast cancer awareness and aide to military families and to redirect the cash to social justice causes.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.