The first Black drafted player to ever play in an NFL game was Detroit Lions running back Walley Triplett. In 1949, three black football players became the first black players to be drafted into the National Football League. The first of these draftees to play in an actual game was Detroit Lions running back Wally Triplett. Triplett’s story is not widely told, and movie writers Camille Tucker and Mandy Hart want to change that. They are writing a movie all about Triplett’s life from his days as a student at Penn State to his time on the Detroit Lions.