Inauguration star Amanda Gorman will present an original poem before the Super Bowl to honor three heroes that the NFL chose as honorary captains for their services during the pandemic.
Gorman, 22, became the country’s youngest laureate poet by reciting her poem The Hill We Climb during the ceremony last week. She received widespread praise – with people like Oprah Winfrey, Stacey Abrams and Lin-Manuel Miranda congratulating her – for addressing the country’s racial history and the progress of social justice as they wait for a better tomorrow.
She will recite a poem before the February 7 confrontation between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to honor Trimaine Davis, an educator, Suzie Dorner, a nurse, and James Martin, a Navy veteran. The trio embodies the NFL message of “it takes us all,” Commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Wednesday.
The NFL has faced a backlash against players who started to kneel during the national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality. The league has since created social justice coalitions and donated to racial equality organizations. Goodell last summer addressed the mistakes the league made, in particular with then-quarterback San Francisco 49ers Kaepernick, who led the protests and was essentially excluded from the sport afterwards.
“I wish I had heard before, Kaep, about what you were kneeling on and what you were trying to get attention for,” he said.
Gorman’s inaugural poem pays homage to the often uncomfortable work done by social justice movements, saying: “We face the belly of the beast / We learn that silence is not always peace / And the norms and notions of what is / It is not always just ice. “
