Not to brag, but it must be said: there are unique benefits to our position.
Consider the world of the NFL today. An objective view of the landscape would lead anyone to suggest it is a world built on misery. The vast majority of headlines pushed, promoted and shared focus on the negative. It’s a dangerous game that appears to produce dangerous men who seem to produce dangerous events.
In truth, while there are certainly concerns that overwhelm and events of concern that transpire, there is progress. The realities of the league are understood and appreciated by all who take part, more than any other time in the NFL’s history. Fans are enabled in connecting to all aspects of the game and leveling the good with the bad, more than any other time in the NFL’s history.
Teams are enabled (and policed) in prioritizing and providing positive solutions, more than any other time in the NFL’s history. Players are enabled in understanding and leveraging their influence to insure the good gets as much attention as the bad… more than any other time in the NFL’s history.
All of this takes place and moves forward with the advance of technology, and one of the most potent names in the NFL is working to make sure a world without can realize those benefits and advance in the same way he and his league have with the help of technology.
Aaron Rodgers recently sat down with a crowd of 2,000 University of Wisconsin students to do just that, promoting awareness for two challenged initiatives that happen to be joined at the technological hip. The Conflict-Free Campus encourages and educates students about the minerals used in producing tech devices with hopes of encouraging support for corporate responsibility, an effort tied to the Enough Project and the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign.
These groups are fighting to end the war in Congo, a war heavily financed by the sale of the nation’s Coltan (short for columbite-tantalite, a black metallic ore that yields niobium and tantalum, used to manufacture tantalum capacitors), a primary mineral used in the production of tech devices (including smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions). Reports of horrific war crimes – children recruited as soldiers, military corruption, rape and genocide – have streamed throughout the world from this conflict in Congo, and the Enough Project is utilizing a new form of tech campaign to get the next generation’s leaders engaged to find an end.
And now they have one of the NFL’s most recognized leaders working for them.
“I’ve been given a platform based on the success that we’ve had as a team and that I’ve had individually. What am I going to do?,” Rodgers asked. “I have a voice, I have an opportunity to tell people what I care about. And I care about this deeply, I care about making an impact in this world.”
ThinkProgress was there to provide coverage of Rodgers’ meet with one of 150 universities that have signed the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, and they enjoyed the opp to talk to Rodgers and find out how he ended up here. Rodgers talked about his rise to fame and some of the connections he’s made as a result, including a friendly relationship with actress Emmanuelle Chriqui (recently from The Mentalist, more famous for her role as Sloan in HBO’s Entourage).
“We’d always had super interesting conversations and he was always super-intrigued by what I was doing, so I would fill him in, and fill him in and fill him in,” Chriqui said. “And we always said that when the timing was right, we’d do something.”
Rodgers interest was sparked once again when Packers rookie Andy Mulumba, a Congolese linebacker out of Eastern Michigan University, recognized his homeland on a shirt worn by Rodgers. Mulumba and Rodgers connected over the same conversation Chriqui had shared with the QB.
“I never imagined Aaron Rodgers caring about such a cause like caring for Congo. So when I saw my country on that shirt he was wearing, I was amazed,” said Mulumba. “He told me about Raise Hope For Congo and I was inspired by it. Aaron Rodgers was doing something for my country, why wouldn’t I do something about it?”
Thus they all land in Madison, Wisconsin together. “The tech companies aren’t going to listen until we get a loud voice, and we feel like that voice is coming from the college campuses,” Rodgers said. “There’s 150 campuses that have signed up to have chapters, but there’s only 15 that have signed the resolution.”
Having Rodgers there to make the pitch… that should make a difference. While you’re tracking Rodgers effort to bring the Packers to New York on the field, we’ll be tracking his effort to bring the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative straight to Congo when he’s off. His support of this effort could, and should, change the tech business as we know it today.
That would be as innovative as any NFL effort we’ve seen yet.
(You can show your support for Rodgers’ effort via Twitter by hashtagging #Rodgers4Congo as wella as hashtagging #RaiseHope4Congo.)