All season long, NFL teams have sported messages supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and other mantras for social justice.
Raiders tackle Trent Brown took it a step further in the Week 14 pregame warmups on Sunday, wearing a custom helmet facemask featuring a raised fist.
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Brown should be commended for using his platform to make statements during such a tumultuous year. And he did it with style, too.
The NFL has prohibited the use of custom facemasks since 2013, so Brown had to revert to a standard facemask for the game. The hulking, highly-paid Brown played in all 68 of his team’s offensive snaps against the Indianapolis Colts. It marked his first game action since Week 5 after a stint on the reserve/COVID-19 and a Week 8 scare with a pregame IV that sent him to the hospital.
The BLM-inspired facemask design, produced by a company called Badass Masks, also was worn by Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills earlier this year in an effort to promote a message of equality and unity.
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Badass Masks also made this amazing spider-themed mask for Carolina Panthers linebacker Brian Burns, and has done some custom facemasks for other players, including 49ers defensive lineman D.J. Jones.
But in the words of former Colts linebacker Robert Mathis, it’s too bad NFL players are stuck wearing “run of the mill grills” in the actual contest itself. Just imagine how much cooler the game would look if the No Fun League stopped hating on custom grills.