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Martin Luther King III and Bill Wachtel – December 7, 2017 Download PDF version

Monday, December 7, 2017

Martin Luther King III and Bill Wachtel

Martin Luther King III:

(Do you have any idea … I saw that everybody on the roster is registered to vote. How many do you think will vote at the next opportunity they have?) – “Well, I don’t know that anyone knows that about any person. The hope is that everyone – America, really – we need to vote, quite frankly. Obviously, we as a nation have a dismal track record. We are No. 138 out of 170 nations – democracies around the world – and 137 countries vote at higher levels than we do. At the end of the day, what our hope is – or my hope personally – is that these players will use their social media platforms to share that it is important to vote and encourage others to vote. That means that more than likely, they themselves will vote.”

(How would you describe the challenge of getting everybody signed up?) – “Let me say this, No. 1: I want to let it be known and say first of all that one of the Miami Dolphins players had begun addressing this issue by trying to encourage his colleagues – his players, his team members – to register to vote over a year ago. That’s Kenny Stills. He certainly should be applauded. When we arrived – the Drum Major Institute, Bill Wachtel, myself and others – the goal was to advance that scenario. Certainly, we believe we did that.”

Bill Wachtel:

“I’d also say that it was a matter of one day at the practice session and every single player was actually not only intrigued by the opportunity but to some degree felt gratified that they were in fact participating in this registration effort. If you ask how difficult it was, it was very easy.”

(What’s next for this program? Is this going to expand to other teams?) – “It has already begun expanding not only to other teams in the NFL but also to the NBA and the other leagues. Martin (Luther King III) has been traveling around the country and Martin might even share with them what happened on Monday. You were out at the L.A. Rams?”

Martin Luther King III:

“Yes, we were at the L.A. Rams training camp and actually, we specifically talked to the rookies. About 18 of the rookies, when I talked about the process of registering to vote, a number of them raised their hand and said ‘We’re registered.’ One of the guys who seems to be in leadership said, when the question was raised, ‘How many of you want to register?’ And he said ‘We’re all going to register.’ This is very positive because I think the climate in this country is sort of dictating, to some degree, that more people be engage. Certainly if athletes and entertainers are engaged, more and more people will want to be engaged because they look at them as role models.”

Bill Wachtel:

(Who are the other teams that you set this goal with?) – “I think that (Director of Player Engagement) Kaleb (Thornhill) or (Senior Vice President of Communications & Community Affairs) Jason (Jenkins) may be able to give you a list but we’re working in conjunction with (Owner) Steve (Ross). Obviously, this is all inspired by Steve Ross. It’s his leadership that has caused this all to happen, and his organization RISE (Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality), has on its board the commissioners of every single sports organization from the PGA to the NFL to the MLB to the NHL, including the USOC (U.S. Olympic Committee). The word is getting out. The word is getting out across all leagues, so hopefully by next year’s national registration date, which I think is September 25th, we’re hoping there is a ground swell of support. (Our) fingers (are) crossed. The fact that September 25th, 2018, that on that day we’ll be able to say that not just the Dolphins are a roster of registered voters but that teams through all leagues (are registered). (Our) fingers (are) crossed.”

(Is this the first team with 100 percent registration?) – “In American history, yes.”

(In the major sports?) – “It’s the first professional sports team in the history of America to have a full roster of registered voters.”

(How do you know that?) – “We know that because we’ve spoken to other teams and because we’ve let it be known that that’s the position we intend to take and no one has suggested otherwise.”

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