An under-reported angle in the public, and at times painful, fight for social justice by many NFL players:
The criticism they get from within their own community is often as searing as that outside of it.
Take, for example, Ricardo Allen. Not long ago, the Atlanta Falcons safety appeared at a public event with Troy Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of football operations. Allen took some withering criticism from members of the audience for working with NFL owners, who are overwhelmingly white, to address issues in the black community.
“You heard, ‘Well, they shouldn’t be taking anything,’” Vincent said Thursday, as a panelist of a town hall on race hosted by Stephen Ross’ RISE foundation.