When DK Metcalf is in the box for Week 1 of the NFL season, he will do so with a reminder of one of the darkest moments in his home in sight.
According to Gregg Bell of The News Tribune, the general public will wear a sticker on the helmet this season in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in 1955 after allegedly flirting with a white woman in a Mississippi store.
Born in Chicago, Till visited his family circle in Money, Mississippi, when his murder helped draw attention to the civil rights motion of the 1950s and 1960s.
Metcalf is from Oxford, Mississippi, about 90 minutes after Till’s death.
Now playing football across the country, former Ole Miss will be able to honor the 65th anniversary of Till’s death after the NFL’s resolve to allow players to demonstrate stickers with the names of victims of police brutality and systemic racism.
Bell notes that the Seahawks will honor many victims this season, but not always with helmet changes, adding Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake, Ahmaud Arbery, Fred Hampton, Marsha P. Johnson, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott and Sandra Bland.