NEW ORLEANS — At his annual news conference Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed strong support for the league’s policies designed to promote diversity at the club-employment level and indicated that those endeavors will continue.

“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League,” Goodell said. “And we’re going to continue those efforts, because we’ve not only convinced ourselves we’ve proven it to ourselves — it does make the NFL better.”

On Super Sunday, however, the NFL might be making another kind of statement. According to two league sources, Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will mark the first time since February 2021 that “End Racism” is not included as a message in the back of a Super Bowl end zone. Instead, “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” will be stenciled onto the back of the end zones at the Caesars Superdome.

The switch, conveyed internally to high-level employees earlier this week, could be perceived as a nod to the current political climate. Following the lead of recently inaugurated President Donald Trump and his administration, many corporations and institutions are abandoning their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. While Goodell said Monday he was “proud” of the league’s diversity efforts, the decision to do away with “End Racism” as a slogan led at least one high-ranking league official to express concern in light of Trump’s divisive words on the subject.

However, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy indicated that the decision was based on sensitivity to recent tragedies, including the terrorist attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter in January, the deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles area and the fatal air collision near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

“We felt it was an appropriate statement for what the country has collectively endured, given recent tragedies, and can serve as an inspiration,” said McCarthy, who noted that “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” also appeared in the end zones for this year’s AFC Championship Game in Kansas City. The NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia included “End Racism” as an end-zone slogan.

League sources also indicated that Trump is expected to attend Sunday’s game as a guest of New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson.

The NFL launched its “Inspire Change” platform in 2018. Two years later, slogans such as “End Racism,” “It Takes All of Us,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love” and “Vote” began appearing on end-zone borders, part of a broader, multi-pronged effort to promote diversity and inclusion. In an internal memo at the time, the messages were said to demonstrate “how football and the NFL brings people together to work as one and use our example and our actions to help conquer racism.”

The changes were initiated in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality. The issue had risen to the forefront of the NFL community four years earlier, when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem, and other players around the league soon followed.

On Monday, Goodell was also asked about the future of the Rooney Rule, which mandates that outside minority candidates be interviewed for head coach, coordinator and general manager openings. The current cycle is expected to include only one minority head coaching hire (Aaron Glenn to the New York Jets) out of seven openings, and several teams met with minority candidates in interviews that appeared to be conducted only to fulfill the requirement.

“Anytime you go through a good process, the Rooney Rule is a part of that process, and an important part of that process,” Goodell told reporters. “There’s more to it. That’s only one aspect of our (hiring) policies. But I think going through that is obviously a very positive step.”

(Photo: Ryan Kang / Getty Images)