The NFL premiered their latest installment of the Say Their Stories series on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The story detailed the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 after he was accused of offending a white woman in her family’s grocery store.
The murder of Till became a pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement and the new piece is narrated by Seattle Seahawks’ wide receiver D.K. Metcalf. Metcalf, who has worn Till’s name on the back of his helmet throughout the season, grew up in Oxford, M.I. – Just an hour and a half away from the town of Money, M.I. where Till was murdered.
“When people are angry at what’s going on in the world, it’s nothing new in my eyes, coming from Mississippi. I’ve been around it my whole life,” Metcalf said. “Till’s life means awareness. Emmett Till is really like a backstory of how cutthroat the world really is; How racism has been going on for numerous years, and people think it just went on in the South. Racism is going on across the United States.”
Say Their Stories is a season-long NFL initiative that highlights social justice, works to raise awareness of systemic racism that has resonated throughout the nation and enact fundamental change by amplifying the names and stories of victims of police brutality through player voices to drive the narrative forward.
