After years of mounting complaints from millions of fans over its perceived leftist agenda, the NFL appears to have moderated its approach to divisive cultural issues in recent seasons.
That appears evident this week in the form of the league’s decision not to directly post anything to social media recognizing “Pride Month” beginning on Monday.
Fox News provided this report:
The annual June 1 kickoff to Pride Month came and went on Monday and the NFL’s X account that serves over 36 million followers and its Instagram account that serves 32 million followers did not mention the event.
ADVERTISEMENTLet that sink in for a moment.
The league accounts that, in the past years, have told fans that “football is gay,” that “football is lesbian,” that football is queer, transgender, bisexual and, for everyone, were silent on the issue. The National Football League’s social media accounts this year stuck to, well, football.
The league posted about the Myles Garrett trade to the Los Angeles Rams. About the A.J. Brown trade to the New England Patriots. About Odell Beckham signing with the New York Giants. And Raymond Berry dying.
So, this may mean something.
Or nothing.
For conservatives, Christians and others, it is a small victory they hope extends throughout the entire month and eventually to the league’s individual teams, most of which embraced Pride Month on its first day. Nine of the 32 teams did not recognize Pride Month on Monday.
Later in the same article:
Major League Baseball, the NBA and even the NHL recognized the start of Pride Month on Monday. The professional hockey league did so by changing its logo to rainbow colors — a betrayal of its own corporate branding.
To be clear, the NFL did share a number of Pride Month posts from individual franchises, but had not posted one of its own to X as of this writing.
The break from previous years and other leagues fueled some social media discussion:
Awesome. Glad my Cowboys didn’t give in to the fruitcakes. pic.twitter.com/lZ2MCDQPfq
— William T (@WilliamT268238) June 2, 2026
Cool when is Veterans Month? And it’s Men’s mental health awareness month in June not Pride.
— crazyhip (@crazyhiplip) June 2, 2026
One day, there will be 32 teams who don't conform to this bull shit!
— PMN (@hot_takes916) June 2, 2026
Here’s what the league looked like in mid-June of last year, per Outkick:
To kick off gay pride month this year, 22 clubs immediately signaled their embrace of the LGBTQ+ community by posting about their support on X or Instagram or Facebook.
That means 10 teams initially declined to show their public support for gay pride month. But that number soon shrunk to nine teams, then eight and is now at five teams that have not joined the rest of the league in the gay pride month acknowledgment.
The five teams are the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys.
ADVERTISEMENTThose teams have instead celebrated other organizations and events this month.
Here’s some additional commentary on the matter:
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