It has emerged that two players from the St. Louis Rams in the city of St. Louis, Missouri went undercover as homeless people to raise awareness of the homeless situation across the United States.
The players who did this compassionate work have been identified as Chris Long and William Hayes. It is said that they had disguised themselves as homeless men, and spent a night on the streets without money or shelter.
In an interview with ABC News, both players said that one of the worst parts about the experience was the fact that they felt entirely invisible to the rest of the world.
And when they asked people for money outside of even their own stadium, where giant billboards are plastered with their faces, supporters didn’t even recognize them because they didn’t take the time to look at their face once they saw that they were homeless. They say that this shows that society neglects people it believes to have no value.
They also said that as soon as they turned into homeless people, they were constantly harassed by police officers.
In their two-day tour, they assessed the homeless situation on the ground. At a point, they met a homeless couple who were living in an abandoned warehouse that was soon to be demolished. The players offered their help, and paid for their stay in a hotel for two months while they found a new place for them to live permanently.
After their compassionate work, Chris Long summarized their experience in the following on Twitter, explaining what they had learned and what they believe should be the way forward to rectify the situation.
“William Hayes has been an unbelievable presence in our community and the cause that he’s really given most of his time to is homelessness. We were supposed to stay in a shelter after our first night on the streets before our cover was blown. …One thing that blew me away is that there are so many women like Nancy living on the streets alone. She was lucky to find Marty. …I think raising awareness is important on a lot of levels but the thing I took away was the human element of the problem”.
“Awareness can’t fix everything, and just 2 days and a night on the street didn’t give us any answers. It did however give us perspective. I hope that I can give more of my time, energy and resources to the cause in the future. William has been a real champ the last few years. I do regret not being able to stay out longer. A stay in one of St Louis’ shelters would have been very valuable. We were found out day 2. …One thing: I need to find the guy that gave me five bucks!!!! I felt terrible and blown away by his kindness at the same time!”
Activists for the homeless have commended the players, and have said “this type of compassion is exactly what we need more of in this world, especially from people who are in the spotlight, and have a captive audience”.
