Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Bill Willis, and Maryam Motley.

Ever heard of them?

Most people haven't, or at least don't know their stories.

They are the Jackie Robinson's of professional football, the men who broke the color barrier.

A year before, Jackie played his first major league baseball game.

So why have they been forgotten?

In the 1930s, NFL owners stopped signing black players.

Rumors, common knowledge, really, are that they made a secret pact to segregate the NFL,

to keep black players out.

It's a dark history, one that has been kept under wraps for the past century, and one that

helps explain the modern NFL's complicated relationship with race today.

Concapernick took a knee and never played in the NFL again.

Countless black head coaching candidates sit through interviews for jobs that are earmarked

for other people.

The whole point of learning history is to try to avoid making the same mistakes, time

and time again.

But what happens when that history has been buried?

From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Chelsea Serk James.

I am hosting a new miniseries podcast called BlackBall.

In this podcast, my co-reporter, Let's Prior and I, will tell you the story of how Kenny,

Woody, Bill, and Maryam, they've forgotten for, integrated pro football.

And what their story tells us about the NFL today.

...