When the NFL celebrates the 50th anniversary of Super Bowl I this coming season, it shouldn’t overlook the cultural storyline that has perhaps had a bigger impact on pro football than the game itself.
Few, if any, talked or wrote about it at the time in a setting where the media atmosphere was infinitely more subdued than it is today and the focus was on the groundbreaking significance of the game. But history now tells us Super Bowl I was the watershed moment in the African-American football player’s long, difficult struggle for acceptance. It was the catalyst for a paradigm shift that has overtaken the sport.