American sports commissioners unite for new anti-hate campaign

The commissioners of MLB, MLS, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, the NWSL and the WNBA, as well as the president of NASCAR, are the brainchildren behind a new campaign to curb hate in America.

The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, will back the campaign called “Timeout Against Hate.” Kraft met with the commissioners of the sports leagues this year to discuss a potential campaign, and they are committing $50 million to spread the message.

“Why in sports do you take a timeout?” Kraft asked in an interview. “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.”

The message will mainly be delivered through a television commercial featuring numerous sports personalities — including Shaquille O’Neal, Billie Jean King, Candace Parker and Joe Torre, among others — making the universal “T” symbol for timeout. The spot will premiere during the “Thursday Night Football” game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday.

Kraft started the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019 after a rise in antisemitism that he said reminded him of what was happening “in Germany in the 1930s.” Initially founded in response to antisemitism, the foundation, Kraft said, is against hate in all forms.

Last year, Kraft met with more than 80 sports figures to discuss how sports could be used to combat hate in America. It was then that Kraft had the idea to unite the sports leagues, and he asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell whether they could convene in the league’s New York offices.

The commissioners ultimately gathered in the NFL’s “main conference room,” Kraft said.

“Something like this has never happened before,” he said. “It’s the first time we had a convening like this. They all agreed to do it, and they want to do it.”

Goodell told NBC’s “TODAY” show about the meeting, “I think all of us came to learn and be educated on what’s really going on in our society.”

As for why now is the right time for the message, Kraft cited the election as a possible inflection point.

“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 says. “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.”