Giants legend Amani urges people to vote
Amani Toomer has a message for Giants and NFL fans everywhere:
Vote.
The Giants’ all-time leader in receptions, receiving touchdowns, and receiving yards wants you to know that your voice and your vote count — both locally and nationally in this general election.
That is why the Super Bowl XLII champion and Ring of Honor member has joined the league’s NFL Votes campaign to spread the word.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh my voice, my vote doesn’t count,’” Toomer,
46, told the Daily News by phone Tuesday. “And
I say well if your voice doesn’t count, you’re just giving your voice to somebody else and making their voice count twice as much. So if you want this to be the country you want it to be — that we all want it to be, fair and equal — you’ve got to fight for it.”
Toomer, ironically, isn’t even living in the United States right now. He’s living with his family and working in Denmark, doing NFL commentary and a weekly show for TV3.
He has a workers’ permit and described his family as “basically COVID refugees.”
Toomer and his family live in Weehawken, N.J., where he voted via absentee ballot. But his wife is Danish. So during the pandemic they first started traveling, then decided to temporarily relocate to Denmark so their children could go to school normally and safely.
The kids speak Danish fluently and have dual citizenship.
“Stuff started getting so bad in the U.S. that we just decided it would be best,” Toomer said. “The kids are the reason why, because the schools are open, so the kids can just go to school, and they speak Danish, so it’s easy for them. It’s just an opportunity. Instead of looking at it as a negative, we viewed it as a positive.”
From afar, Toomer is proud of the NFL’s players and the league for leveraging their platform to promote voter education, registration and activation — especially because, let’s be honest, promoting voter activation in this climate is viewed as partisan.
Encouraging voting in this election is viewed as not supporting the White House’s incumbent, who is supported both financially and politically by numerous NFL owners.
“They didn’t have to,” Toomer said of the league throwing its support behind this cause anyway. “I think that they, the NFL, are an organization that tries to be neutral. But in today’s climate you really can’t be neutral, just because of the way things are. And for them to basically go against — a lot of the guys to go against their interest — I thought it was pretty good.”
The “NFL Votes” campaign was born out of players speaking up amid a year of turmoil, unrest and injustice in this county, and Commissioner Roger Goodell prioritizing and incorporating this meaningful message into the NFL’s “Inspire Change” initiatives.
The league partnered with three non-profit, non-partisan organizations: I am a voter., RISE, and Rock the Vote. The website nfl.com/votes contains a wealth of information and gateways to key dates and facts, registration processes, and an ID requirement check. And it promotes voters’ options for both researching and casting their ballots, including Early Voting during a year when fears and evidence of voter suppression have never been greater.
Every active NFL player received voter education, access to voter information, and support before the start of this season. The league estimates about 90% of its active players are registered to vote for this election, with several teams reporting 100% player registrations.
The Giants coordinated with RISE to Vote, for example, attended a registration seminar during training camp, and then on National Voter Registration Day (Sept. 22), there were stations set up at Quest Diagnostics Training Center for players to register.
All 32 teams are promoting “NFL Votes,” and half of the clubs are using their stadiums or facilities for election-related activities, including as polling sites — the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington both doing so in division. It is believed the remote nature of MetLife Stadium ruled it out as a practical polling site.
Back in Denmark, Toomer promised on Tuesday that he and his family are going to return to the United States, depending when schools open safely and consistently.
For now, though, he wanted to use his voice to reach as many Giants and football fans as possible: that a democracy isn’t just about “united we stand.”
“It’s divided we fall,” Toomer said. “That’s why it’s so important to me to get the vote out there. Apathy is what kills a democracy. If you just sit back and let things happen, you get people who have their best interests and not the best interest of everyone. And you get the people who don’t really represent the American dream you believe in. So to fight for the American dream you believe in, this is what you have to do. You have to vote, especially at this time, because so many things can turn if it goes the way it has been going.”