The NFL is planning to make a huge statement when the season kicks off ... with the league reportedly deciding to play the Black national anthem before every Week 1 game.
"Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing" -- which is often referred to as the black national anthem -- will be played before the "Star-Spangled Banner" prior to every game in the first week of the season, according to ESPN.
It was originally written as a poem by African-American civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson in 1899 -- and later set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson.