Amid #TakeAKnee National Anthem Protests, ADL Forms Sports Council
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League will work with sports leaders and athletes to promote “positive social change” as the controversy over some NFL players not standing for the national anthem rages.
On Thursday, the ADL announced the formation of a Sports Leadership Council, which it said will “work directly with key leaders in the sports world, including professional athletes, team owners, and other industry leaders to increase the sports community’s efforts to build bridges of understanding, unity and respect.”
Among the members already tapped are Robert Epstein, co-owner and managing partner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, and Mark Wilf, the owner and president of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
“This initiative follows a tradition at ADL of partnering with the sports community to combat hate, bullying and discrimination,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.
Professional football players have been under fire in recent weeks for kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against the treatment of blacks by police and other officials. President Donald Trump said last week that players who do not stand should be fired and used the epithet “son of a bitch” to describe them.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
