As part of its Black History Month celebration, NFL Network broadcast a brilliant documentary last week titled “Third and Long: The history of African Americans in the NFL from 1946 to 1989.”

It was a time of rejection and bitter disappointment, then startling success, nothing like the bleakness of the preceding 23 years, when black athletes were completely banned from the NFL.

The names Fritz Pollard and Paul Robeson, who were considered the first blacks to play in the NFL, are known to many football fans.

I wasn’t aware that Pittsburgh’s Ray Kemp and the Cardinals Joe Lillard were the last blacks to play in the NFL before the ban in 1933, which many point to as the league’s official start.

The man behind the racist policy was Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall. To call him a fierce racist would be a mindless understatement.

The Redskins were the last team to integrate, and that only happened when Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall insisted the Redskins have a black presence if they wanted a new stadium to be built on government property.

Marshall swung a deal in 1961 with the Cleveland Browns for the dynamic Bobby Mitchell in exchange for Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, who died of leukemia before ever playing a down in the pros.

Mitchell was every bit as elusive as Gale Sayers was in the open field and is quite instrumental in the piece.

He said believes he he was headed to the front office before the untimely death of head coach Vince Lombardi.

The integration started in 1946 with L.A. Rams owner Dan Reeves bringing aboard UCLA teammates Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who were included in the same Bruins backfield as baseball’s Jackie Robinson.

The film establishes the fact that Washington and Strode broke the barrier a year before Robinson did in baseball.

Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown added Hall of Famers Bill Willis and Marion Motley and his team became a juggernaut, which caused other owners to seek untapped talent playing in black schools.

The film’s strongest part is the captivating, often heartbreaking interviews with the players, many of whom reached the Hall of Fame. They include: Lenny Moore, Wally Triplett, Charlie Sanders, Emerson Boozer, Art Shell, Tony Dungy, James “Shack” Harris, Rosey Grier and Doug Williams.

Deacon Jones and John Wooten delivered tour de force performances.

Ron Grillo