Had this NFL season played out a little differently, the Titans’ Delanie Walker and Raiders’ DeAndre Washington would have met tomorrow after their game in Oakland to talk about their common cause and to show off their cleats. Each year, through the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats,” players have the chance to wear cleats of their own design to raise awareness for a cause close to their hearts. Walker, who was placed on injured reserve two weeks ago, will miss the rest of the season but he, Washington, Shareef Miller of the Eagles, and Diontae Spencer of the Broncos, will all use their platforms to push for an end to gun violence.
Both Walker and Washington are founding members of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Athletic Council and their My Cause My Cleats efforts are part of a larger effort to affect cultural and legislative change on an issue that is responsible for 100 deaths a day. Delanie is a gun-owner with encyclopedic knowledge of regulations in Tennessee and his home state of California. At his football camp last summer, he gave away gun locks to parents and talked with them about safe storage.
The cleats Delanie would have worn on Sunday honor the memories of seven gun violence victims from around the country. He explained, “Gun violence impacts all of us, all over the country. I’m honoring seven people on my cleats from Tennessee to California to Pittsburgh to Annapolis who were taken from us because of gun violence. The names I choose are names of victims that might not be famous or well-known, but they deserve to be remembered and it’s an honor to represent them on my cleats.”
Among the names are DeVontae Ziegler, a 15 year old from Nashville who was killed outside of his home by a friend playing with a family gun; Ronique Gardner-Williams who was in her 2nd year at the College of Marin and was killed in a drive-by shooting in Richmond; and Cecil and David Rosenthal, brothers who were killed at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Delanie continued, “We must all work together to end gun violence and promote gun safety, and I hope that through continuing to raise awareness we can keep this issue and the people we’ve lost top of mind.”
DeAndre Washington became an advocate for gun safety after his sister, Taiesha Watkins, was killed when she was on vacation in New Orleans last year. The shooter was someone she didn’t know, who fired into the crowd. Taiesha’s name and image grace Washington’s orange cleats, the color worn by hunters and adopted by gun safety advocates all over the country.
DeAndre shared, “Taiesha was a mother, a daughter, and a friend to many. Her life was taken last year by a senseless act of violence while on vacation. Similar to Taiesha, many other lives have been taken from people irresponsibly using guns. I want to bring awareness to these victims, in the hope that gun owners will make better decisions before they use them.”
Tragedy runs through the lives of the Diontae Spencer and Shareef Miller, too. Both will wear orange “End Gun Violence” cleats this weekend. Diontae’s father was shot and killed in Louisiana in 2010. Shareef’s cleats have a picture of his brother Mikal on them; Mikal was killed in their hometown of Philadelphia in 2015. Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of firearm homicide among peer cities in the United States.
Shareef explained, “I think about my brother every day, and the toll that this terrible violence takes on Philadelphia is awful. We are losing our loved ones every day, and this is a chance for me to use my platform and to say that this all has to end now.”
While Delanie Walker has made the point with his cleats that gun violence affects all of us, the tragedies that DeAndre Washington, Diontae Spencer, and Shareef Miller live with are examples of how this epidemic disproportionately impacts people of color. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the population, but 56 percent of gun homicide victims. 7,000 African-Americans die from gun homicides every year.
As NFL players raise awareness this weekend, it is hard not to wonder what the response would be if 36,000 Americans were killed every year by terrorists or a virus. Our political leaders would be run from office if they didn’t come up with a policy solution. If it was a virus, our culture would demand some change of norms to prevent its spread. Yet, it has been more than 280 days since the House passed reforms for universal background checks and red-flag laws, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell single-handily keeps that legislation from being voted on in the Senate.
The orange cleats aren’t just a call for action among our elected leaders, though. As these players point out, our culture has to change – from demanding that gun owners store their ammunition and guns safely to figuring out how to support organizations teaching young people to de-escalate situations of violence to funding initiatives that provide opportunities and pathways for those same young people to achieve success. And while we continue to demand action from Washington and in state houses across the country, these players’ advocacy is a reminder that each of us can play a part in preventing gun violence through our own deeds.
Benjamin Orbach is the CEO of The Ascendant Athlete.
