But that year, in an effort to expand their fortunes, the NFL’s owners agreed to a secret pact to follow baseball’s model, expelling the few black players they had and refusing to sign new ones. This clandestine policy of segregation was rigidly enforced for the next 12 years — until March of 1946, when the L.A. Rams signed African American tailback Kenny Washington to the team’s roster, breaking with other owners and ending football’s apartheid.