NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell assists in Stolpersteine cleaning tradition ahead of first Berlin Game

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2025-11-16

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Ahead of the league’s first regular-season game in Berlin on November 9, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell participated in one of the city’s newest traditions.

Goodell, alongside journalism students from the Axel Springer Free Tech Academy in Berlin, helped clean and polish the 95 Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) that commemorate those who fled the Nazis or were murdered by the Germans.

The 95 brass plaques are scattered throughout the stone sidewalks of Mitte, a borough in Berlin. Since the stones were laid in 2020, the tradition of polishing has been observed twice a year: on January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and on November 9, the anniversary of Kristallnacht — a Nazi‑led attack on Jewish citizens in 1938 also known as the “Night of Broken Glass.”

“It’s impressive and important how the memory is kept alive,” Goodell told Bild, a German publication, on Nov. 9.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, Jewish communities across Germany were set ablaze in a coordinated attack led by the Nazis. Some 400 people were murdered or driven to their deaths. The academy’s commemoration ceremony goes hand in hand with a commitment from the school to fight antisemitism and promote freedom. These commemorations mark the tragic events that signaled widespread anti‑Jewish violence across Germany and Austria.

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“Each stone bears a name, each gleam represents a fate,” the Bild’s Sven Kuschel and Hans-Wilhelm Saure wrote.

Gideon Kantor, a 100-year-old U.S. veteran of World War II, also attended Sunday’s special occasion — eight decades after fleeing Vienna as a Jewish boy in 1938. Kantor was a member of the legendary U.S. military unit composed largely of Jewish refugees that helped liberate Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Thuringia, Germany.

Sunday’s game was the NFL’s inaugural matchup in Berlin, where the Atlanta Falcons faced the Indianapolis Colts at historic Olympic Stadium. The game ended in a dramatic finish, with Indianapolis securing a 31–25 overtime victory. The stadium itself carries deep historical significance as the site where Jesse Owens won four gold medals in 1936, undermining Adolf Hitler’s attempt to use the Games as a showcase for Nazi propaganda.

NFL alumni also took part in the ceremony. Joining Commissioner Goodell was former NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards, who founded the “Best Defense Foundation” in support of United States military veterans.

Stateside, the U.S. celebrated Veteran’s Day on November 11, with NFL teams across the league donning their Salute to Service gear on the sidelines to commemorate the those who have served in the U.S. military.