With opener looming, Seahawks cancel practice--so they can all be registered to vote
Quandre Diggs has been old enough to vote for almost a full decade.
This Election Day—after a week of renewed momentum among the Seahawks and the sports world to advance the Black Lives Matter movement for racial equality into tangible action—Seattle’s veteran safety is going to vote for the first time.
“This is the first year I’m actually registered to vote myself,” said Diggs, who turns 28 in January. “I will have to do an absentee ballot.”
Diggs isn’t waiting around to mail his ballot. Not with widespread concern across the country that recent funding and productivity reductions in the United States Postal Service ordered by the Trump Administration will jeopardize mail-in balloting for the presidential election Nov. 3.
“I’m actually getting that printed out today,” he said of his absentee ballot, “so I can ship mine and get mine out early.”
That was on Friday. On Saturday, Diggs initiative became his entire team’s.
In an act unprecedented for the franchise, the Seahawks players met on the grass berm next to their practice field for more than 90 minutes late Saturday morning and chose not to practice that afternoon. Instead, they devoted that practice time to a voter-registration drive.
Yes, a voter-registration drive. At their team facility.
Two weeks and one day before the Seattle’s opening game at Atlanta, every player who was not yet registered in his home state got the forms and time to do that at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
It’s the Seahawks’ first, unified act of this 2020 season to forge change in America toward racial equality: vote into local, state and national offices people who vow action toward racial equality.
“Here’s one point: what can we do? Well, we’ve got 60 days,” coach Pete Carroll said of the time until Election Day Nov. 3.
“The March on Washington (in 1963, to galvanize the Civil Rights movement, plus a virtual one this week) was all about commitment. Well, why not take these 60 days and make a commitment to vote, and march together to get everybody in this country to vote?
“So that everybody has the voice, and everybody that needs to speak out gets heard. And we don’t let anybody squelch any aspect of the voting potential. Not one, frickin’ vote. And we need to start now. We need to start voting, start the process. Register. Get voted.
“All of our players will be officially registered today.”
Carroll shrugged.
“That’s a start,” he said.
“Sixty days to march, a commitment to vote. Can we get that done?”
The veteran coach knows the Seahawks can. They just did.
He thinks all 330 million Americans can, too.
“We can. We can do that,” he said. “At least that’s proactive, right now, because that’s the hardest part is, what do you do? How do you help?
“Well, first we get educated. We start working on ourselves and understand really what’s happening.
“My guys have taught...it’s unequivocal. There’s no question what’s happened. They’re living scared to death. ...
“Now that we see so vividly what’s going on, we have. To. Get. It. Stopped. Now.”
His team’s activism for voting and registration started before Saturday.
The Seahawks announced Aug. 1 their home stadium, CenturyLink Field in downtown Seattle, is an official King County Vote Center for this month’s primary elections and the general election Nov. 3. Local citizens will be able to register to vote, get a replacement ballot and receive voting assistance from King County Elections staff at the Seahawks’ stadium.
The team began its partnership with King County Elections at the stadium during select game days during the 2019 season.
This month, the NFL joined the cause. The league announced an “NFL Votes” initiative to target voter registration, education and activation league- and nation-wide.
“Voting is one of the very foundations of our democracy and one of the simplest ways to make your voice heard,” David Young, Seahawks Senior Vice President of Business Operations and General Manager of CenturyLink Field, said this month. “We could not pass up another opportunity to share with our fans and residents how critical it is to get registered, cast your ballot, and stand up for what you believe in—no matter what that might be.”
The Seahawks players made clear Saturday, by halting practice and registering to vote to forge change, what they stand for an believe in.
“It’s crazy times in this world,” Diggs said. “At some point, as athletes, as entertainers, it’s our job to let people know we are more than entertainers. We are more than athletes. We have families outside of this. ...
“As a league, as an NFL, we’ve got to come together and figure out what our message is going to be, and continue to keep the voices going and keep the movement going—and don’t let our voices not be heard.”
