 Follis, a two-sport athlete, was paid for his work beginning in 1899.From its inception in as a loose coalition of various regional teams, the American Professional Football Association had comparatively few African-American players; a total of nine black people suited up for NFL teams between 1920 and 1926, including future attorney, black activist, and internationally acclaimed artist Paul Robeson, as well as famed race record producer J. Mayo Williams.Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first black players in what is now the NFL in 1920.