Philadelphia Eagles star defensive back Malcolm Jenkins and his advocacy group the Players Coalition, which was co-founded by former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin, has launched The Responsibility Program.
The Responsibility Program highlights victims of police brutality and gun violence and is meant to raise awareness about how injustices impact communities.
“We have a responsibility to use our platforms to unite people and foster positive change in our communities, but we can’t achieve that goal without education,” Jenkins said in a statement. “We want this PSA to generate productive dialogue between people of all backgrounds, so we can start to bridge the communication gap and work together to end these injustices.”
The program will feature a number of PSAs with the first focusing on Danroy “DJ” Henry, a former Pace University football player who was shot and killed by police after leaving a bar. The police officer who fired the fatal shot claimed Henry was driving towards him and feared for his life when he open-fired.
Henry’s family eventually won a $6 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit.
“Never in a million years would we have thought that this would’ve happened to us. And it continues to happen to so many other families. One of the most important things that we can do as a community is to have better communication, better love and better respect for people,” Henry’s mother, Angella Henry said in the video.
“I don’t want to assume that all police officers are bad, and I don’t want people to assume all young black men are bad. I miss him, tremendously.”
You can check out the first of many PSAs below:
About the Players Coalition: “Players Coalition was founded in 2017 by co-founders Anquan Boldin, NFL 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year, and Malcolm Jenkins, 2017 NFLPA Byron “Whizzer” White winner and is governed by a Task Force Board of 12 voting members. We continue to grow in numbers of ambassadors with the collective goal of MAKING AN IMPACT ON SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RACIAL EQUALITY at the federal, state and local levels through advocacy, awareness, education, and allocation of resources. Our members are solution-focused and invest personal time and resources to educate themselves on various issues affecting their communities to identify where their influence can have the greatest impact.”