The Tampa Bay Lightning joined the Rays and Buccaneers in releasing a joint statement regarding their efforts to help move Confederate monument Memoria in Aeterna from downtown Tampa following last weekend’s awful events in Charlottesville, Va.
This effort gained steam as Hillsborough County government officials announced that $150K in private funds would be needed to make the change, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The Go Fund Me drive is currently over $50K as of this writing. If funding goes through, the monument would reportedly move from downtown Tampa Bay to a family cemetery.
Here’s that joint statement:
A joint statement from us, @raysbaseball, & @tbbuccaneers regarding the movement to remove the Confederate monument from downtown Tampa. pic.twitter.com/U87JQsYXO4
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) August 17, 2017
As Shutdown Corner’s Jay Busbee reports, it’s likely that former NFL head coach Tony Dungy brought wider attention to the matter, challenging sports teams to contribute while donating $5K himself.
The Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith reports that Lightning forward J.T. Brown has personally donated $1,500. The donation was inspired in part by the birth of his daughter Lily.
“How would I explain why someone doesn’t like her?” Brown said, via Smith. “Or why is this going on in the world?”
This is what the monument looks like:
#Hillsborough Removal of Confederate Memorial back up for discussion by Board O... https://t.co/IApBYJzPlG helpful? pic.twitter.com/LnqFItxtq7
— Tampa Live (@Tampa_Live) August 15, 2017
This isn’t the only case of NHL teams being connected to those tragic events, as the Detroit Red Wings and NHL announced that they may pursue legal action after the Red Wings’ logo was used by white nationalists during the weekend.
Busbee has more on the Tampa Bay monument situation here.
