Robert Kraft and commissioners in all the major sports leagues unify for first-of-its-kind campaign against hate

Commissioners from the biggest leagues in sports have united to spread a new campaign called “#TimeOut Against Hate.”

The first-of-its-kind campaign, launched by New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, is reinterpreting the “timeout” gesture in professional sports to symbolize a fight against intolerance.

To reach as many sports fans as possible, Kraft has teamed up with commissioners Rob Manfred of Major League Baseball; Don Garber of Major League Soccer; Adam Silver of the National Basketball Association; Cathy Engelbert of the Women’s National Basketball Association; Roger Goodell of the National Football League; Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League; Jessica Berman of the National Women’s Soccer League; and Steve Phelps of NASCAR to help create ads featuring leaders and top athletes. Those ads will play across all major leagues through the rest of the year.

Three of the commissioners — Goodell, Silver and Berman — joined Kraft for a sit-down with TODAY’s Craig Melvin about the anti-hate initiative.

Goodell spoke to Craig about a meeting held in January at NFL headquarters to address our divisive nation. 

“Robert asked if we would host it, and we were honored to do it. And the other leagues agreed,” the NFL commissioner recalled. “I think all of us came to learn and be educated on what’s really going on in our society.” 

He said the goal of the meeting was to ask: “How do we use our platform in a way that could help combat the kind of hate that’s going on in our society, in our world?” 

Berman said the meeting highlighted the powerful impact sports can have on our society.

“We, I think, all feel very privileged to work in the sports industry, which we all know has the power to change the world. It’s one of the few things in our social fabric that unite communities. And I think we all share a responsibility to use that platform to bring people together and to help people to understand the humanity that connects us all,” she said. 

Silver added that it was startling to hear multiple speakers in the meeting address the increased amount of hate many communities are facing. 

“While this country of course has made tremendous progress in so many ways, when you line up the data, and whether it’s antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate, anti-Black, anti-LGTBQ, that the data, as Robert is saying, is scary, you know, when you see the direction that this country’s been going in in the last few years,” he said.

The commissioners decided to use the familiar “T” sign for a timeout to represent the call to action. 

In addition to the hashtag, the ads also highlight the message: “Hate is winning.” 

Sports icons Billie Jean King, Shaquille O’Neal, Candace Parker, Jim Harbaugh, Doc Rivers and more will appear in the ads encouraging sports fans to come together and stop the spread of hate. 

The “#TimeOut Against Hate” campaign will premiere during the Oct. 10 Thursday Night Football matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. It will also appear on social media and other digital platforms.

“Why do people call a timeout during a game? They call it because they have to regroup,” Kraft explained to Craig. “They’re not winning. Something bad is going on that has to be corrected or fixed and that was our thinking here.”

Goodell said it is the biggest collaboration he has seen in his nearly 20 years as NFL commissioner. 

“You see the number of incidents going up, that’s an indication that hate is winning,” Goodell said. “That we somehow aren’t appropriately sensitizing each other to the harms that (are caused) through that kind of speech and activity.” 

He continued, “I think that a lot of us, as Americans, we sort of look back historically and say, ‘Well we’re making tremendous progress.’ And we are. But I think the message here from Robert’s organization is that you have to pay attention.”