Raiders Can Show Commitment To Excellence Off Field By Launching Road Safety Campaign In Las Vegas
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Raiders are trying to be good neighbors in Las Vegas.
They doled out free haircuts to kids heading back to school. They donated $100,000 to the LGBTQ community to prevent suicides. They honored teachers. Mark Davis’ Raiders even held a social justice roundtable at their stadium.
And only three days ago at Allegiant Stadium, the NFL team gave an award to a small, woman-owned Las Vegas business. The Raiders gave $100,000 worth of advertising assets like radio ads and digital promos on the team’s website to RGD Construction for winning what the team called its “Small Business Showcase Contest.”
These are all admirable contributions to the community. LVSportsBiz.com says, thank you.
Keep in mind the public policy backdrop for these commendable donations: the $750 million in public money from Southern Nevada that helped build the Raiders’ domed venue a 15-minute walk from the Strip. The $750 million is an NFL stadium subsidy record and Southern Nevada will be raising more than $1 billion during a 30-year debt repayment period to pay off the $750 million contribution for the $1.4 billion stadium construction bill. (The cost of the entire stadium project including land purchases, professional fees etc. is just under $2 billion, the number typically used.)
But not everyone in Las Vegas is a sports fan.
And there are many in this growing metro area who see the Raiders as a generic sports team that employed a former player who recklessly drove his Corvette on a local road at more than 150 mph and killed an innocent young woman less than a year ago. Henry Ruggs III was charged with DUI resulting in death in connection with the death of 23-year-old Tina Tintor on Nov. 2.
It was a horrifying fiery fatal crash at 3:39 AM near the intersection of Rainbow Boulevard and Spring Valley Parkway not even 10 month ago. The Raiders released Ruggs later that day after the former Alabama receiver was the first-ever player drafted by the Raiders as a Las Vegas-based franchise.
Tintor was burned to death in her car after Ruggs drove his Corvette into Tintor’s vehicle. Tintor’s dog also was killed in the crash.
Davis attended Tintor’s funeral. By NFL owner standards, Davis is among the most progressive-minded, down-to-earth team owners in the league. And he received high marks for hiring two Black women as presidents of his teams — Nikki Fargas at the WNBA Las Vegas Aces and Sandra Douglass Morgan at the Raiders.
That’s why LVSportsBiz.com is suggesting to Davis and the Raiders that the NFL team flex its influencer muscles and launch an anti-road violence campaign deploying players, social media, game messages, stadium signs, rallies and PSAs to end the road carnage we see in Las Vegas on a daily basis.
Raiders, want to make a difference? Use the Raiders’ clout to convince motorists to slow down, stop running red lights, never drink and drive, drop the cell phones and curb the angry, impatient, reckless and dangerous driving. Have road safety rallies at the stadium before events. Have Raiders players and alums show up at high schools to spread the road safety message.
My first two Raiders players to sound the call for safer driving? Running back Josh Jacobs and cornerback Nate Hobbs. Both players have had run-ins with police while driving and how about these two guys sounding the call to not drive impaired on our local roads and highways?
Commitment to excellence is the Raiders’ slogan. So, if the team wants to live up to such a lofty aspiration, then use its vast resources to tackle a daily public safety problem in its host city.
Just last year, the state of Nevada suffered the most deaths on its roads — 382 — in 15 years. That’s up 18 percent from 2020, up 21 percent from 2019 and up 37 percent from 2009.
You don’t need spiraling numbers to show there’s a public safety danger on our roads.
If you’re on the streets of metro Las Vegas, then you see the reckless, dangerous and speeding driving that has become routine. And regrettably, we accept these deaths and injuries as the price of doing business in a growing region. But LVSportsBiz.com argues this collateral damage on our streets is wrong and unacceptable.
Arriving alive whether you walk, drive a bicycle or operate a motorized vehicle is apolitical. Everyone is for safer roads.
The Raiders organization dealt with this city’s most high-profile road fatality when Ruggs killed an innocent woman in a car in early November and left a family and friends to grieve over a painful loss. A social media reminder of the raw emotions at the time when Tintor was killed:
The Raiders can’t bring Tintor back. But they can take public service action to try and prevent these horrible road deaths from happening again.
Hey, giving free back-to-school haircuts, honoring teachers and giving tours to police at your stadium is commitment to good. But Raiders, you say you’re committed to excellence.
Show us what you got. Let’s save some lives on our roads.
