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Opinion

Even as Robert Kraft faces the music NFL players are taking a stand against sex trafficking

The NFL should now take the lead on fighting sex trafficking.

In 2014, when a disturbing video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking his then-fiancée unconscious went viral, the National Football League finally began to address violence against women with the seriousness it deserves.

The recent criminal charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft for allegedly soliciting women for sex at a Florida massage parlor that police say was part of a brutal “transnational human-trafficking ring” should be a similar wake-up call for the NFL and its 32 team owners.

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Regardless of Kraft’s guilt or innocence, the league should view his arrest as an opportunity to address the scourge of sex trafficking in our society, raise public awareness and contribute its immense wealth — NFL revenues last season were roughly $15 billion — to stamping out human trafficking once and for all.

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Many NFL players have already joined the fight against human trafficking. In 2014, after working at the NFL Players Association, Jaclynn Willert launched Team Freedom, an International Justice Mission initiative that helps pro athletes "use their platforms in tangible and impactful ways in the fight to bring rescue and justice to those enslaved around the world."

From the onset, there was a “tremendous response,” Willert said in a recent interview. “We now have representation in almost half of the NFL locker rooms,” including more than 30 players and their families. “A couple of key families at the start were Matt and Sarah Hasselbeck and Kirk and Julie Cousins,” who remain “game changers and leaders” in the fight against modern-day slavery, Willert said.

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Human trafficking is a global crime, illicitly generating some $150 billion a year, two-thirds of it from the sex trade. But the crime of selling women and girls — whether they be from Asia (as in the Kraft case), Latin America or the U.S. — takes place locally, in our neighborhood strip malls, truck stops, hotels and homes. Sadly, IJM estimates there are 40 million people held as sex and labor slaves around the world today, more than at any other time in history.

Why are professional athletes important in the fight against modern-day slavery? “Their platform is huge,” explained Willert, “and they’re willing to use it in very powerful and specific ways.” Since 2014, they’ve raised millions of dollars to send IJM representatives into the field and rescue people from slavery, whether it be taking “a little girl out of a brothel” or “a boy from a fishing boat.”

Just as importantly, the pro athletes of Team Freedom, which now includes Major League Baseball players, are “sounding the alarm with IJM, inviting millions of others into the work who previously didn’t even know about the issue,” Willert said. They are also traveling to IJM field offices to spend time with survivors, meet with local officials and raise awareness.

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The New Orleans Saints' Benjamin Watson and his wife Kirsten, for example, led a group of NFL and MLB players from Team Freedom on a 2018 trip to the Dominican Republic, where they met with Vice President Margarita Cedeño de Fernández to discuss strategies to better combat sex trafficking and provide aftercare services for survivors. Above all, Watson says, “We cannot be silent.”

That is perhaps the biggest takeaway for the NFL after the Kraft allegations involving what authorities say was a ruthless sex-trafficking operation where young women were held in inhuman conditions and sold, under the threat of violence, to often wealthy men for sex. The league and owners should follow the lead of players such as Watson, Hasselbeck, Cousins, Trey Burton, Carson Wentz, Zach Ertz, as well as former Dallas Cowboy Tyler Clutts, and make justice and assistance for sex-trafficking survivors a top priority.

“We would welcome the opportunity,” Willert said, referring to possibly meeting with the NFL commissioner and team owners, “if they’re interested in hearing more about how they can be involved and proactive in the fight.”