Greg's Corner

Don’t forget about human trafficking after the Super Bowl

With the Super Bowl approaching this weekend, you’ll probably see a number of news reports about the increased presence of human trafficking surrounding the event. Now the numbers of how many traffickers and victims being brought to the area around the Super Bowl are largely debated, that doesn’t change the fact that human trafficking does happen around large events like this. Some anti-human trafficking groups are even heading to Minneapolis this weekend to offer assistance to the victims of trafficking.

While this is a great opportunity to not only bring awareness to the human trafficking problem in our country, it also does a disservice to the victims of human trafficking. Once the confetti has fallen and the winning team takes their trophy and goes home, human trafficking doesn’t magically cease to exist. What does cease to exist is the attention the media gives to human trafficking. Once the Super Bowl is over, the media spotlight on trafficking is all but gone.

In football terms human trafficking not only happens during the Super Bowl, but it happens during the pre-season, the regular season, and the off-season. It’s also not confined to cities that have pro football teams as it happens every day all over the country. So when you see one of these reports on your local news, please don’t forget about the women and children being trafficked against their wills once the big game is over.