According to cbssports.com, the Los Angeles Rams All pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald has ended his marketing deal with Kanye West’s Donda Sports on Tuesday. His decision came after West made recent anti-Semitic comments that resulted in him being dropped be several major companies. Back in May Donald announced he had joined Donda Sports, which West had founded and named after his mother. Donda Sports represented Donald only in his marketing deals.
The statement from Donald and his wife read, “Our family has made the decision to part ways with Donda Sports. The recent comments and displays of hate and antisemitism are the exact opposite of how we choose to live our lives and raise our children. We find them to be irresponsible and go against everything we believe in as a family. As parents and members of society, we felt a responsibility to send a clear message that hateful words and actions have consequences and that we must do better as human beings. We do not feel our beliefs, voices and actions belong anywhere near a space that misrepresents and oppresses people of any background, ethnicity or race. We’ve had the pleasure of working with many incredible people along the way and hope to continue to use our platform to uplift and support other families, children and communities through positive outreach.”
The Boston Celtics guard, Jaylen Brown also announced Tuesday he was ending his deals with Donda Sports. Although, Donald was the only known active NFL player to sign with Donda, free agent Antonio Brown was named president of Donda Sports in February.
Kanye wrote on Twitter earlier on this month that he would go “death [sic] con 3” on Jewish people, and on Tuesday, Adidas dropped him over his comments. The end of the deal could lose the brand up to $246 million. Adidas stated that, “Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech, Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
In an interview with Piers Morgan last week, West said “When I sit down with the people who write out the contracts for the NBA, and for the NFL, and for professional music and for acting contracts, We need to go to the top lawyers, the top execs, the owners of the stadiums, the owners of the football teams and the owners of the record labels, and we’re gonna put them all in one room. And we’re going to read every… go top-10 in each one of these categories. Let’s read Michael B. Jordan’s contract. Let’s read Aaron Donald’s contract…” Before being cut off by Morgan before the pair shouted back and forth. West went on to say that he wanted to compare and contrast the top contracts in the NFL, NBA, and music industry on a live platform with a high level legal team.
He went on to state that, “After that moment happens, then I will say I’m sorry.”
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