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Speaker 1: Welcome to Playmakers. I'm Heale Ellwood and joining me today

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Speaker 1: is Tracy Odie Blunt. Tracy is a senior vice president

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Speaker 1: of corporate Communications for the NFL, where one of her

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Speaker 1: many duties is leading communications strategies across a lot of

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Speaker 1: different areas, one of them being current affairs. And with

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Speaker 1: election day right around the corner and so much happening

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Speaker 1: with social justice, timing couldn't be more perfect than to

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Speaker 1: talk with Tracy than right now. So Tracy, thank you

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Speaker 1: for coming on. How are you. I am doing well, Haley,

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Speaker 1: thank you for having me, and I'm really looking forward

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Speaker 1: to the conversation today. Yeah. I had had Sam Rappaport

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Speaker 1: on earlier this season, and when everything kind of started

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Speaker 1: coming out with NFL votes and social justice with the league,

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Speaker 1: I asked from like who could I talk to, and

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Speaker 1: she recommended you. And I'm so excited that we were

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Speaker 1: able to connect because she's so great. But I know

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Speaker 1: you do amazing work for the league and I can't

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Speaker 1: get kind of can't wait to get into what's going

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Speaker 1: on this year. Yeah, I know this is great and Sam,

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Speaker 1: we work very closely together. One of the other areas

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Speaker 1: I help support is around our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

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Speaker 1: So Sam and I have an opportunity to work quite

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Speaker 1: a bit together. So it's um, it's it's never a

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Speaker 1: dull moment. So that is that is accurate, especially here

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. So okay, by the time this airs,

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Speaker 1: we will be less than a week away from election day,

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Speaker 1: the presidential election of twenty twenty. What was the genesis

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Speaker 1: behind the NFL Votes initiative? So interestingly, it is something

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Speaker 1: that the players brought to our attention. Um, you you

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Speaker 1: mentioned at the top, just uh, we're about just our

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Speaker 1: overall initiatives that we've got. NFL Votes is similar part

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Speaker 1: of our Inspire Change initiative, and our Inspire Change initiative

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Speaker 1: is focused on social justice efforts. And so with you know,

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Speaker 1: we were in the in the height of COVID, we

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Speaker 1: have seen a lot of social unrest over the summer,

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Speaker 1: and so with this being an election year, a lot

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Speaker 1: of the vote because than what players brought to the

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Speaker 1: Commissioner and working very closely with the Players Association and

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Speaker 1: the Players Coalition, was how could we as an organization

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Speaker 1: inspire the NFL family and inspire NFL fans to exercise

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Speaker 1: their civic duty and participate in the civic engagement process.

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Speaker 1: And so we launched NFL Votes. So it launched over

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Speaker 1: the summer. So this will be my fourth presidential election

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Speaker 1: that I will be voting in. Haven't voted yet. We're

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Speaker 1: going to do that early this weekend. I've kind of

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Speaker 1: always been politically aware. My parents worked in TV news,

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Speaker 1: so elections were always sort of talked about. But I

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Speaker 1: do feel like there's been more of an emphasis on

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Speaker 1: the get out the vote initiative more than ever in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. And why do you think that is? I

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Speaker 1: think part of you know, just if you just look

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Speaker 1: at this entire year. So in the first quarter, so

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Speaker 1: in March, we were all affected by the pandemic that

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Speaker 1: has you know, has plagued the country in the world

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Speaker 1: for that for that matter. And during that time, you know,

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Speaker 1: you saw a lot of the disparities between you know,

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Speaker 1: healthcare and communities that you know had more resources than others.

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Speaker 1: And then in the spring you started to see a

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Speaker 1: lot of what happens in the black community and in

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Speaker 1: brown communities with uh, you know, relationships with some bad law.

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Speaker 1: So you know, this is not this is not anything

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Speaker 1: against law enforcement as a whole. But there have been

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Speaker 1: some bad actors within the law enforcement community, UM, and

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Speaker 1: we saw a lot of that play out this spring.

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Speaker 1: So I think when you think about the election process,

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Speaker 1: I think most people, you know, just focus on the

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Speaker 1: presidential election. But as you've got the mid term, so

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Speaker 1: every two years, you know, you have an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: elect someone in Congress, and then there's the whole down

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Speaker 1: tip and so and I you know that's from the

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Speaker 1: presidential office all the way down to the school uh,

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Speaker 1: school board advisor, city council and all of these laws

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Speaker 1: that if you look at what happened with with with

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Speaker 1: healthcare and what we're seeing in a lot of the

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Speaker 1: laws that are around UM law enforcement. UM. That happens

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Speaker 1: at the local level. And so this is an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to educate you know, the player population as well as

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Speaker 1: our fans and and and staff and all of our

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Speaker 1: club personnel about everything that that voting uh bring. So

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Speaker 1: it not it is not just focused on this presidential

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Speaker 1: It just so happens that this is the time and

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Speaker 1: so why not, uh, you know, educate people and this

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Speaker 1: is this is the time to do it. Why was

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Speaker 1: it important for clubs as well as the league office

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Speaker 1: to be closed on November third, So we really wanted

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Speaker 1: to give the entire you know, staffed and player comunity

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Speaker 1: the chance to get out there and vote. So when

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Speaker 1: we talk about what and if votes brings. We launched

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Speaker 1: on August six, which was the fifty fifth anniversary of

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Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, and so

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Speaker 1: you know that that act allowed people of color to

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Speaker 1: be able to vote without being discriminated against. And so

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Speaker 1: there was there were three phases to this campaign. There's

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Speaker 1: an education phase, there was a registration phase, and we're

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Speaker 1: now in the activation phase. And so this summer, all

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Speaker 1: of the clubs, all thirty two clubs, during training camp,

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Speaker 1: there was a mandatory training session. So we partnered with

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Speaker 1: three nonpartisan organizations, I Am a Voter, Rise to Vote,

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Speaker 1: and Rock the Vote to educate the entire NFL family

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Speaker 1: about what it needs, what we need to do to

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Speaker 1: get to election day and and and the like. So

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Speaker 1: it is it has been a an exciting three months

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Speaker 1: because we've had just through this initiative, we've had over

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Speaker 1: nine hundred players register, so I was nine out of

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Speaker 1: ten of the players have been registered. In other word,

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Speaker 1: those that were registered already, but just from this initiative,

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Speaker 1: we've gotten over nine hundred voters from the player population

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Speaker 1: to register to vote. How encouraging is that to see that?

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Speaker 1: It's it is very encouraging because I think I've had

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Speaker 1: just a career career on and off, working in and

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Speaker 1: out of campaigns, and so to be at campaign sites,

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Speaker 1: to be at polling sites on various election days and

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Speaker 1: to hear people say, oh, well, I'm going to lead

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Speaker 1: the lines too long, my vote doesn't count when it

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Speaker 1: actually does. And so the impact that people's votes have

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Speaker 1: make the difference in communities. And that's so when we

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Speaker 1: go back and we talk about what's happening again with

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Speaker 1: the COVID crisis, the civil unarrest, all of all of

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Speaker 1: these issues, there's there is a direct tie into you

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Speaker 1: exercising your vote. So it is really exciting and it's

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Speaker 1: important that people get out there. Though, so at least

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Speaker 1: half of NFL clubs will be utilizing their facilities or

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Speaker 1: stadiums for election related activities. The Chargers one of them,

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Speaker 1: so I Fi Stadium will be used along with the

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Speaker 1: LA Rams as it's their home as well. But what

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Speaker 1: kind of impact do you see that having in the

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Speaker 1: local communities. Well, but I love about the fact that

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Speaker 1: we've had over half of the clubs that able to

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Speaker 1: use their their their site, because all thirty two clubs

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Speaker 1: were interested. But you know, this is all dictated by

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Speaker 1: either the Secretaries of the states or the local local government,

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Speaker 1: so some facilities were not needed, um so, but for

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Speaker 1: the sixteen that have engaged, this is an opportunity just

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Speaker 1: to bring community into the stadium and so that there's

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Speaker 1: a correlation with what the work that you guys are

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Speaker 1: already doing in communities and and tying that in and

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Speaker 1: so I know that at you know, the various clubs,

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Speaker 1: there have been you know psays that have been put

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Speaker 1: out by the chargers, there have been you know, microsites

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Speaker 1: on your website, right, so just to get the community

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Speaker 1: involved and engaged, and just to show that, you know,

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Speaker 1: through the NFL and through the clubs, we bring community together.

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Speaker 1: Our sport brings community together. So why not emphasize the

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Speaker 1: importance of voting and bringing that bridge together. So there's

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Speaker 1: a great commercial spot that usually runs during games that

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Speaker 1: emphasizes how only sixty percent of registered voters voted in

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Speaker 1: the last election. I love it because you hear coaches

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Speaker 1: talking about, well, what if I only coach sixty percent

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Speaker 1: of a game or players playing sixty percent of it,

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Speaker 1: what was it like getting them involved in that campaign

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Speaker 1: and putting them sort of at the forefront of it. Again,

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Speaker 1: they they they've always wanted it. So it wasn't we

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Speaker 1: didn't have to say, you know, we really need you

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Speaker 1: to do this. We've seen this across all of the clubs.

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Speaker 1: But that particular spot about you know, that was our

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Speaker 1: our education phase and really letting people know that in

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Speaker 1: the last presidential election, only sixty percent of eligible voters

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Speaker 1: and that is you know that your right to vote

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Speaker 1: is your most basic tool. That is like, that's something

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Speaker 1: that you can just do. You don't have to ask

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Speaker 1: permission to do that. And so to get the coaches

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Speaker 1: and the players to be involved is great and our

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Speaker 1: and the next PSA that we've got UH is about

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Speaker 1: getting your game plan together and so you'll you'll be

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Speaker 1: seeing that out and then we're getting ready to do

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Speaker 1: one last push UM that we'll be coming out probably

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Speaker 1: this week. So we're trying to do education registration activation

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Speaker 1: and make sure that we are doing a full surround sound.

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Speaker 1: And what I will say is after November third. As

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Speaker 1: I just talked about, you know, the the midterms elections,

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Speaker 1: I don't think that NFL votes is going to go

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Speaker 1: away in the sense that it's like, oh, we will

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Speaker 1: you know, you will hear from us for another four years.

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Speaker 1: I think we want to continue educating and keeping people

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Speaker 1: informed about, you know, their right to exercise their civic

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Speaker 1: their civic duty, and so you know, we're not turning

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Speaker 1: it off on November fourth. Players use their platforms for

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Speaker 1: a lot of different things, a lot of different causes

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Speaker 1: and initiatives. But just how good is it to see

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Speaker 1: them set this example for I would argue some of

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Speaker 1: the youngest voters who are probably eligible for the first

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Speaker 1: time here in twenty twenty, who watched these games on Sundays.

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Speaker 1: So I just think, I mean just the voice of

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Speaker 1: the player and the platform that they have. Again, you've got,

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Speaker 1: you know, some of the star players that are some

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Speaker 1: of the youngest players. Yeah, we always have to remember

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Speaker 1: they don't live on the field. They actually come from

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Speaker 1: communities and they you know, are either living in their

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Speaker 1: club market, but they still have you know, family and

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Speaker 1: friends and a community that they came from. And so

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Speaker 1: I think being able to ignite and excite the fans

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Speaker 1: that for the club that they're playing for and that

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Speaker 1: community as well as as at home. I think that

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Speaker 1: that just gives people just an excitement of wanting to

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Speaker 1: PARTICU pain when you see, you know, somebody that is busy,

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Speaker 1: like a lot of people, but they could be using

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Speaker 1: their platform in so many other ways, but know that

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Speaker 1: this is something important and again came from the players.

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Speaker 1: This is definitely something that they wanted to do. I

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Speaker 1: love it. I love that it was driven by them

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Speaker 1: in that sense. So getting back to clubs for a minute,

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Speaker 1: we talk about the Chargers. I got my vote t

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Speaker 1: shirt on. They are partnering with Pachonga for their initiative

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Speaker 1: both the Vote Up, which encourages voter turnout. They're also

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Speaker 1: working with Liberty Hill, a social justice organization, on a

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Speaker 1: bunch of different initiatives and education topics, one of them

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Speaker 1: being voter education. What do you recommend for people who

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Speaker 1: might want to get involved in this again about a

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Speaker 1: week out a little less than a week away, who

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Speaker 1: are seeing clubs do these things as well. So one

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Speaker 1: of the things with the three partner organizations that we

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Speaker 1: worked with on each their websites and even the club

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Speaker 1: respective club websites. There are ways that people and that

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Speaker 1: that people can participate on election day. Another organization that

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Speaker 1: we're working really closely with is the Civic Alliance, and

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Speaker 1: the reason the clubs and league are closed on November

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Speaker 1: thirty is because we want people to do Connection Day

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Speaker 1: of Service. And one of the things that that people

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Speaker 1: can do if you you know, think we're in in

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Speaker 1: a COVID state right now, so a lot of our

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Speaker 1: poll workers fall in that category of those that would

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Speaker 1: uh you know, would be um I hate to say older,

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Speaker 1: but they would be uh, you know, considered at RID.

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Speaker 1: And so we're encouraging people if there is an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get out and assist at the polls or pass

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Speaker 1: out water or drive people to the polls. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: there are there are many ways that people can get involved,

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Speaker 1: even if it's you know, holding up you know, that

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Speaker 1: sign on that on the corner, but to just to

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Speaker 1: get people involved and engaged in the process, and so

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Speaker 1: um you can look at the NFL's website, it's NFL

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Speaker 1: dot com, slash votes or obviously on the charger sites

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Speaker 1: and then if you know, all of the club sites

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Speaker 1: will direct you to two ways that you can participate. Yep,

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Speaker 1: any local Chargers fans listening that site as Chargers dot

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Speaker 1: com slash vote where you can find all of our initiatives,

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Speaker 1: ballot measures, voter education there as well. So getting to

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Speaker 1: social justice in regard to the joint social justice initiatives

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Speaker 1: with the NFLPA, I believe you joined the NFL in

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, but how have you seen those initiatives grow

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Speaker 1: since you arrived in the league. So it's interesting A

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Speaker 1: lot of people think that because of the events of

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Speaker 1: the summer that the NFL just started their social justice efforts,

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Speaker 1: and it actually started in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, so

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Speaker 1: a lot of players were doing things in their communities

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Speaker 1: that fell within the social justice pillars, and and our

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Speaker 1: pillars are education, economic advancement, community police relations, and criminal

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Speaker 1: justice reform. And so players have been doing things in

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Speaker 1: the community. And so when I started in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: that January, we officially launched what was it's called Inspired

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Speaker 1: Change and it's it's focused on these social justice efforts.

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Speaker 1: And so through the work and working very closely with

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Speaker 1: the players coalition that was started by Anko Golden and

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Speaker 1: Malcolm Jenkins. They put this at the forefront, and so

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Speaker 1: a lot of the players from all of the clubs.

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Speaker 1: Each of the clubs there's a social justice committee, and

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Speaker 1: so everybody that is interested in wanting to see change

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Speaker 1: is working in their communities and with their clubs on

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Speaker 1: social justice issues. And I think one of the issues

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Speaker 1: that when I talk about that the people think that

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Speaker 1: the league that just artist is because after the George

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Speaker 1: Floyd incident um or you know, his unfortunate uh death

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Speaker 1: on television, the players, we had several players that came

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Speaker 1: out and and you know, basically asked the league to

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Speaker 1: to to make a statement, and the commissioner did just that.

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Speaker 1: I remember he saw he saw the player video and

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Speaker 1: his words were, I need to respond. And so the

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Speaker 1: you know, we've been working very closely together, very closely

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Speaker 1: with the PA, very closely with PC, and um, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's just continuing to to get stronger. I think, yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I think you bring up a good point that

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Speaker 1: that it does feel like twenty twenty that that it

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Speaker 1: just sort of started from here, But yeah, it inspire

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Speaker 1: change has been around. We've so this year alone, we've

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Speaker 1: seen the players speak out, coaches Roger Goodell had a statement,

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Speaker 1: There's been so much that's happened this year, so much

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Speaker 1: it's hard you can't ignore it. I mean, we had

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Speaker 1: another incident in Philadelphia just this week as well, But

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Speaker 1: really was it the players that sort of, I don't

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Speaker 1: want to say forced the league's hand, but made it

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Speaker 1: it important for the league to officially take a stand

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Speaker 1: this year and do things we might have not have

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Speaker 1: seen four years ago, like the end racism and the

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Speaker 1: end zones and things of that nature. Yeah, and I,

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Speaker 1: like you said, I started in twenty eighteen, so I

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Speaker 1: wasn't here then, but I think I think all of

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Speaker 1: the events of twenty twenty have put a spotlight on this.

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Speaker 1: And this is an example that I that I use

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Speaker 1: often is, you know, several years ago when you know,

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Speaker 1: name a person who who who died a systemic racism

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Speaker 1: and at the hands of law enforcement. After we saw

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Speaker 1: that on the news, it was you know, I may

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Speaker 1: have gone to the grocery store, you may have gone

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Speaker 1: out to dinner with some friends, and so we saw

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Speaker 1: it and it was like, wow, that's terrible, and then

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Speaker 1: we move on did our own thing. We didn't have

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Speaker 1: that opportunity this year. Like we all sat there, we

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Speaker 1: all watched it. We watched it over and over again,

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Speaker 1: and it sparked a movement, but not just in the

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Speaker 1: United States, around the world. I mean this was it

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Speaker 1: drew attention and so I think that you know, with

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Speaker 1: with everything that's happened, it is put a spotlight on

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Speaker 1: here and we have we have no choice but to

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Speaker 1: to to do something about it. And again, the league

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Speaker 1: and the players have been doing things, um, but it

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Speaker 1: feels like it's it's more front and center. I will say.

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Speaker 1: The one other thing is that when you look at

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Speaker 1: a lot of our our cause initiatives at the league,

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Speaker 1: you you know, we do different weeks throughout the season,

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Speaker 1: so you'll see something around crucial Catch, which you know

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Speaker 1: is our some cancer. Uh. We are doing NFL votes

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Speaker 1: in weeks seven and eight, h Weeks nine, ten and

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Speaker 1: eleven are salute to service. But you never saw inspired

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Speaker 1: change on the field, and so we have turned that on.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's now a three sixty five thing. And

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Speaker 1: so one of the other things that was done, you know,

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Speaker 1: kickoff you it takes all of this as are thematic

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Speaker 1: for for the overall season. But end racism is definitely

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Speaker 1: something that we want to focus on. Players also had

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to select names of victims of systemic racism

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Speaker 1: or police brutality or those that that led in the

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Speaker 1: in the civil rights space. UM. And so you see

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Speaker 1: helmet stickers that you know everybody had on if they

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Speaker 1: if they opted to to participate during the first UH

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Speaker 1: kickoff week, but you still see see that on on

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Speaker 1: helmets and coaches hats and officials hats. So there is

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Speaker 1: definitely a tension that is being drawn to it, but

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Speaker 1: it's not something that we're turning off. And I will

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Speaker 1: say that at the end of this you know, this

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Speaker 1: week leading into election, you'll starts also seeing inspired change

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Speaker 1: spots that are gonna gonna start area. Yeah, and you

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Speaker 1: lead me right into my last question. We know that

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Speaker 1: the fight for social justice it's not going to end

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Speaker 1: any time soon. But what is the league's part in

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Speaker 1: that in moving forward? As you say, it is a

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Speaker 1: three sixty five day effort all year round. But what's next?

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Speaker 1: Where does the league go from here? So what we're doing,

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Speaker 1: and it's really interesting because we've got national grant partners,

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Speaker 1: but then they're also grantees that you know, through our

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Speaker 1: our players, through our Foundation, and so there's funding. So

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Speaker 1: the league in June announced in additional two hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars over the next ten years to commit

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Speaker 1: to social justice social justice efforts. What is critical now

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Speaker 1: is what's that action. So the funding is is wonderful,

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Speaker 1: it makes a difference in people's lives, but we want

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Speaker 1: to see, you know, how how the funds, how you know,

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Speaker 1: the work and so the players and what's happening with

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Speaker 1: our grant partners is impacting the community. So I think

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Speaker 1: the next thing is not that we weren't doing action,

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Speaker 1: but it's here the action steps and what are the

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Speaker 1: results from from from those actions. And so we're really

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Speaker 1: you know, committed. The players are committed, the leagues committed,

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Speaker 1: the clubs are committed. Um, So we're we're looking to

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Speaker 1: move forward and working very closely with the Players Coalition

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Speaker 1: and the NFLPA to to bring these efforts to bear.

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Speaker 1: And I think, you know, you'll just start continuing to

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Speaker 1: see more around our social justice efforts because this is

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Speaker 1: a long term commitment and is definitely one that the

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Speaker 1: players have had for for a long time. Well, we

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Speaker 1: look forward to that. We look forward to all the

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Speaker 1: spots though as well that we'll see over this next

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Speaker 1: coming week. And Tracy, thank you so much, not only

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Speaker 1: for coming on, but for all that you're doing at

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Speaker 1: the league office, for everything that the NFL is doing.

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Speaker 1: This is a year unlike any other. There's been so

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Speaker 1: much that's happened, but but it is good to have

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Speaker 1: these conversations and I really appreciate it. Well, thank you

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Speaker 1: for having me on. And as you know, everything is

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Speaker 1: team efforts, so I really appreciate it. So thank you.