Total Pro Sports
The NFL usually likes to keep the drama on the field. But at times, it spills into the paint of the end zones. After catching heat for ditching its “End Racism” banner during February’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, the league is rolling out its on-field social justice playbook for 2025. And yes, the messages are back.
This year marks the sixth straight NFL season of visible end zone statements. The league says every team can pick from four phrases for their home games: “End Racism,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love,” or “Inspire Change.” The opposite end zone will again read “It Takes All of Us.” Only tweak from last year? “Inspire Change” now replaces “Vote.”
NFL officials made the call months after critics accused them of bowing to political pressure when Donald Trump sat in the stands at the Super Bowl. League leaders pushed back, insisting the decision had nothing to do with the former president’s presence.
The league says it’s leaning into player input. “We’re working hand-in-hand with players, and alongside our clubs, to amplify player voices and underscore what is most important to them,” said Anna Isaacson, the NFL’s senior vice president of social responsibility, via the Associated Press.
Isaacson called the NFL “a unifying force” and said the league takes that responsibility seriously. That includes pairing these slogans with other cause campaigns like Salute to Service and Crucial Catch during select weeks.
Powerful: The NFL will be bringing back end zone social justice messages for its sixth consecutive season.
All 32 teams' endzones must feature:
"End Racism"
"Stop Hate"
"Inspire Change"
"Choose Love"The NFL continues to make a difference 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/xH2S0z9JIN
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 14, 2025
For international games, the NFL will use “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us” in the back of both end zones, keeping last season’s approach. Players can also wear any of the five approved slogans on helmet decals.
The Philadelphia Eagles will debut “Choose Love” in their opener against the Dallas Cowboys on September 4 and rotate the four approved slogans during the season. Buffalo embraced the same phrase after a 2022 mass shooting in the city left ten people dead. Isaacson said “Choose Love” still resonates with players and fans as “a unifying message of healing and hope.”
Since 2017, the NFL has funneled more than $460 million into its Inspire Change initiative. That money has gone to over 650 nonprofits, 2,100 players and alumni, and hundreds of grassroots programs aimed at mentorship, workforce development, and food insecurity.
In other words, the league isn’t just painting the end zones. It’s putting cash behind the cause, hoping to keep the conversation alive.
