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The NFL had a Black head coach in 1921. Then in 1934 it quietly banned Black players altogether — no announcement, no rule, nothing written down — and kept them out for TWELVE YEARS. Fritz Pollard. He was an All-American at Brown, the first Black player in the Rose Bowl, and one of the first Black players in the league that became the NFL. In 1921 he was co-head coach of the Akron Pros while still playing for them. He was spat at, piled on after the whistle, and had to dress for games separately because the facilities would not take him. He developed a habit of rolling onto his back after a tackle and kicking his cleats up so nobody could land on him. Then after the 1933 season, Black players simply stopped being signed. Every one of them. There was no rule — the owners just agreed, informally, and the sportswriters did not press it. The ban held until 1946, when the Rams needed a stadium lease in Los Angeles and the city's commissioners said they would not grant it to a segregated team.