68% of the players in the NFL are
Black. But professional football had to start with one man. That man
was Charles W. Follis. Born in 1879 in Cloverdale, Virginia, Follis
was the third of seven children. While in college he declined playing
for his school and instead played for an athletic club. In 1901 he
joined the Shelby Blues who were a part of the APFA which is now the
NFL. After five years of playing he was injured and his career was
over. He also managed to play baseball in the Negro Leagues as a
catcher as well as a power hitter because boredom is a bitch. This was during the crazy time of football where the helmets had no guards and were made of leather.
Follis
died in 1910 from pneumonia at the age of 31 because back then if you
sneezed you started writing your will. It wasn't even until 1975 that
it was widely discovered that he even played by finding old newspaper clippings and seeing that he had signed with a team. Nowadays if you turned
on a game and saw zero Black guys you'd think you were in an
alternate dimension. Imagine being the first Black man on a football
field. That shit would've been terrifying.
Click here for previous Famous Black Firsts.
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