Earlier this month it took 70 seconds and a dozen African American football stars to bend the NFL’s will. One after another, some of the league’s most prominent players looked into their smartphones and read from a powerful and carefully written script, challenging the NFL to address issues that have simmered for years. First posted by Giants running back Saquon Barkley on June 4, the online video has now been viewed more than 3.6 million times in the past two weeks — on Barkley’s Twitter feed alone. Less than 24 hours after the video went viral, its most important target responded when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell posted a video message that featured his first full-throated embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement and, for the first time, an admission of fault for silencing previous peaceful protests by NFL players.
The story behind the viral video — with a Mizzou connection — that called out the NFL
