The NFL has asked the Department of Homeland Security to remove a social-media video that paired highlights of Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins with a message about a migrant caravan, league spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed Monday.
DHS posted the clip Sunday on X in reply to another account’s claim that a “huge migrant caravan” was heading for the southern border. The roughly 39-second video shows Dawkins’ pregame entrance chant, “The time has come,” followed by a series of hard hits, under the DHS caption “Our time has come,” according to the Los Angeles Times (opens in new tab) and CBS News/AP; USA TODAY (opens in new tab) said the clip was set to metal rock music. About two hours later, DHS added a still photo of Dawkins captioned “The Border Is Closed,” the Times reported.
Dawkins said Monday that he had not authorized the use. “I have respectfully not given permission to anyone other than those I currently do business with to use my NIL,” he wrote on X, as quoted by CBS News/AP and the Times. In a separate video reported by USA TODAY (opens in new tab), he said he had not given permission for his name, image and likeness to be used by anybody. An Eagles team source told CBS News Philadelphia that neither the team nor the league had approved the footage’s use.
DHS has not said it will remove the posts. DHS general counsel James Percival posted an image of Bugs Bunny saying “No” in reply to a post about the league’s request, Front Office Sports (opens in new tab) reported. In statements to several outlets, the department said it was “playing lockdown defense at the border” and would “use every Weapon at our disposal, from A to X,” a nod to Dawkins’ “Weapon X” nickname. In its statement to the Times, DHS said the Border Patrol was tracking a caravan that left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Sept. 20, and warned that anyone who crosses illegally will be apprehended, prosecuted and removed. Both posts were still online as of early Monday afternoon, the Times reported.
Reaction split along familiar lines. Fox News’ OutKick dismissed the criticism as overblown left-wing outrage, and OutKick host Craig Carton defended DHS’s choice of Dawkins. Critics, including an Athletic reporter cited by OutKick, noted that major leagues routinely say express written consent is required to use their footage.
Dawkins played 16 NFL seasons, 13 of them with Philadelphia and the rest with Denver, before retiring after the 2011 season. A nine-time Pro Bowl selection, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. In March, the White House posted a video of NFL and college football hits, including one by former Eagles cornerback Sheldon Brown, after strikes on Iran, CBS News/AP reported.