The Canadian Football League launched a "Diversity Is Strength" campaign this week in response to heightened racial unrest in America, a rare step into large-scale social advocacy for a North American sports league.
The league distributed T-shirts emblazoned with the "Diversity Is Strength" slogan on the front to players and staff at last Sunday's game between the British Columbia Lions and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The back of the shirt displays the names of 32 ethnically and racially diverse CFL players.
The campaign originally was scheduled to be unveiled this fall as part of Canada's 150th birthday celebration, but commissioner Randy Ambrosie accelerated its debut after watching news coverage last Saturday of white supremacy marches and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"We thought that maybe it's a good time to remind everybody about the power of diversity," Ambrosie said Tuesday by phone, "and how big a role it's played in the success of our league over the years."
Each CFL team is permitted to have up to 20 international players on its game-day roster, plus three quarterbacks. Overall, about 50 percent of CFL players are non-Canadians, mostly Americans. Ambrosie, a Canadian-born former CFL player who was hired earlier this year, stressed that the league is not making a "political" statement. But Ambrosie said he believed last weekend was the "right time to remind people of what our core values are as a league."
The CFL has a long history of diversity. Most notably to Americans, it welcomed Warren Moon in 1978 when no NFL team would offer him a job at quarterback. Moon played in Canada for five years before joining the NFL's Houston Oilers in 1983. In 2006, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Warren Moon came here and not only became a Canadian hero but also had one of the greatest quarterbacking careers of all time," Ambrosie said. "We're proud of those things. When people come to our shores, we welcome them in. Like so many other Canadians, they've done well and they contribute to our country's success.
"For us, it's a reminder of who we are and what we stand for. It's like a lighthouse on a distant shore, helping to guide us, and it's a positive way of framing an argument that can sometimes be negative. It's a reminder of who we are, and it seems to have taken on some additional value [based on recent events], and I guess we can say we're awfully proud of that."
The shirts have been distributed to all CFL players and staff, and Ambrosie said they will be on "mass display" in Week 9 games that start Thursday night. The league is donating a shirt to charity for each one it sells at its CFLshop.ca website. Proceeds from the sales will also be donated, according to Ambrosie.