Top pro sports league commissioners have joined a new anti-hate campaign led by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft‘s foundation. The campaign, launched by Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, has released an ad titled “Time Out Against Hate” in collaboration with various sports leagues, including NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NASCAR. The ad, featuring sports legends like Billie Jean King, Shaquille O’Neal, and Candace Parker, will debut on Thursday night as part of Amazon Prime Video’s football programming during the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks match.
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The “Timeout Against Hate” campaign, supported by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, is aimed at curbing hate in America.The campaign, which includes commissioners of various sports leagues, is led by the president of NASCAR and has been committed to $50 million by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who met with the commissioners earlier this year. “Why in sports do you take a timeout?” Kraft told NBC News. “You do when you want to regroup, you want to make adjustments, you want to win. We hope that this campaign will recalibrate the momentum in the country against hate.”
A television commercial featuring sports personalities like Shaquille O’Neal, Billie Jean King, Candace Parker, and Joe Torre will promote timeout using the universal “T” symbol. The spot will premiere during the “Thursday Night Football” game between Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. Kraft founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019 to combat hate in America. Inspired by a rise in antisemitism, Kraft met with over 80 sports figures to discuss using sports to combat hate.
He proposed uniting sports leagues and asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to convene in the league’s New York offices. “I hope people will stop and just think for a moment as timeout indicates, and think about other people’s perspective,” Goodell told TODAY. The commissioners ultimately gathered in the NFL’s main conference room. “Something like this has never happened before,” Kraft said. “It’s the first time we had a convening like this. They all agreed to do it, and they want to do it.”
Kraft cited the election as a potential inflection point for the message to be sent at the current time. “I realized that no matter what happens in the election, the hate that’s going to come post-election — and I hope I’m wrong — but I believe it’s going to be terrible,” Kraft said. “Doing this campaign roughly a month before the election and carrying it through the end of the year, I hope it will ameliorate the negativity, the hate that I see happening in that period.”
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