As the masses prepare sports-holiday feasts and prep the media shrine for gridiron glory this Super Bowl Sunday, it seems the only newsworthy events of the weekend will be the final score, the halftime show, and the genius commercials in between. Unfortunately, there’s another side of the Super Bowl that rarely makes headlines. While multitudes gorge themselves on pizza and hot wings, guzzle beer by the gallon, and allow the highs and lows of the game to govern their emotional well-being, there are slaves waiting fearfully in the wings, knowing that at the close of the show they will be devoured as some sports-themed commodity.

We may think Sunday’s event is all about two teams battling for hard-earned victory. The fact is, many of our sports “heroes” will participate in what has been called “the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.” Those fans in the stands? Some are there for the sheer enjoyment of the game. But too many have other plans for post-game “entertainment” that involves the degrading of innocent human beings. 

Does the thought make you shudder? Or would we rather don our sports gear, snuggle under a cozy blanket, and pretend our favorite pastime is not a nightmare to thousands of teens abducted and trafficked each year?

Yes, it is a fact. The Super Bowl is an insidious magnet for the trafficking industry—an industry that notoriously victimizes hundreds of thousands of our precious children.

How is it that we boycott everything that infringes on our own comforts and preferences yet turn a blind eye when the rights of our nations youth are squandered in the name of athletic triumph? Victory on the field is fleeting. Each year, there will be a new winner and a new loser. But there is NEVER a winner when we stand silent while the next generation stands in chains. 

I couldn’t care less who wins this Sunday. What I do care about is the fact that children are enslaved to the evil desires of men while our justice system stands strangely silent on their behalf. As long as the Super Bowl remains the primary draw for human trafficking rings, there are NO victors on the field or off.

Until we do all that it takes to put an end to this tragedy, we aren’t doing enough.