VICE Sports Q&A: Justin Forsett On NFL Players' Flint Water Crisis Relief Efforts

Editor's note: Welcome to our new VICE Sports Q and A, where we'll talk to authors, directors and other interesting people about interesting sports things. Think of it as a podcast, only with words on a screen instead of noises in your earbuds.

The situation in Flint, Michigan has turned dire, with the federal government declaring a state of emergency in the Detroit suburb on January 16 in response to the city's water supply being contaminated with toxic amounts of lead. The sports world has taken notice: On Thursday, Detroit Pistons owner and Flint native Tom Gores pledged $10 million toward relief efforts.

Some NFL players are responding in similar fashion, largely thanks to Justin Forsett. The 30-year-old Baltimore Ravens running back has assembled a coalition of 22 players including Marshawn Lynch, Steve Smith and Haloti Ngata to donate $100,000 worth of supplies to relief efforts. In addition to water and baby wipes, Forsett will donate body wipes from the company he co-founded with two college teammates, ShowerPill. The United Way of Genesee County will distribute the supplies on February 4, and Forsett and 49ers receiver Torrey Smith will arrive in Flint the week afterward to directly assist with volunteer efforts.

VICE Sports spoke with Forsett on Thursday to discuss the origins of his interest in Flint, how he organized the project and the state of activism among today's athletes.

VICE Sports: When did you become aware of what was happening in Flint and how serious the problem has become?

Forsett: I have a friend who is from Flint that briefly had talked to me before it blew up in the news. I was like, "OK, let's see if there's any way I can help out." After that conversation, a couple days went by and then the news really blew up. I saw that these people are really hurting in Flint. I've been trying to figure out ways that I could help and that's how it all began.

When did it hit you that you needed to be the one to really do something about this?

I knew that, for one, as a man, as a husband, as a father, I'm thinking about what it would be like if I lived in those circumstances with my family. It would hurt. It would be crazy. I couldn't imagine being in that situation. I know I'm here for reasons bigger than football, so why not just make an impact there and try to help somebody other than myself? I'm blessed to have enough to be able to provide for my family and help others, so it was really a no-brainer. I started getting guys together to see what we can do. I know for the stuff that we donated, I own a company so I figured out what we can do, how we tie in and what we can do. So that's how it started.

So tell me about your company, and what you donated to help the cause.

It's called ShowerPill Athletic Body Wipes and it's an anti-bacterial wipes for people that need to clean up, whether they're coming from the gym or going camping or whatnot. I was reading stories—one article, specifically—that people were using water bottles to bathe and drink and cook and stuff like that. I was like, 'Man, I have these wipes, maybe they'll be of some use.' Then I saw some people who were using wipes to get clean and I know my company, when we first started, we did this so we can help people who are serving, whether in military, whether that's in low-income, poverty-stricken areas—we can be of some assistance. I reached out to my partners and it was a no-brainer for us. Let's help out as much as we can. We partnered up and were able to get some stuff done.

You recruited quite a list of players to help you out. Who did you talk to first and how did it start taking off to where so many guys have gotten involved?

First, I saw some guys who were sending bottled waters and things like that, from some other teams. I saw one of my best friends, Torrey Smith, he was tweeting that we needed to do something. This was the day after I was trying out what I was going to do and I was like, "Man, let's do something together." I talked to him-he was all about it. He was excited about being able to help out. It started with him and I started calling out to some other guys around the league that I knew would have the heart for this kind of thing, that have the heart to serve, and do some good.

You spoke about how you have this sense of responsibility as an athlete to help. What do you think the responsibility of the athlete is today to be involved in broader social causes?

We have this platform for a reason and it's a small window. This thing closes pretty quickly. While we have this platform, I think it's up to us to be able to go out and use it the right way, to bring awareness to causes such as this. Those people that are still hurting, they've got a lot of water now so we didn't send a ton of water to Flint. We sent a lot of wipes and baby wipes and ShowerPill wipes.

One thing that I did, I should note, is that I called people. I started making phone calls to organizations to people on the ground to presidents of school boards. I started reaching out to people to find out what these guys need. I don't just want to send stuff they don't need. Once I was talking to them and figuring out what they need, [I found out] they were really overwhelmed with water anyway—they have tons of water. So we didn't send much of that. We sent wipes because we read stories about high school athletes there that they couldn't shower after gym or at practice or after games because of the water. Their families were doing the same thing. So this was the plan, now it's time to get guys together to raise some funds and send some special stuff out there for them so we can help. That was the idea behind it.

There are so many causes and people that need help. What about Flint spoke to you the most as a situation that made you take action?

Because usually you see things like this in other countries. You don't see this in America. I've haven't seen on the news a water crisis like there is in Flint, where these people are really hurting and struggling just to get simple things that we take for granted like clean water. So, I put myself in this situation thinking about trying to bathe my two boys—who are babies—in the water that's contaminated. And, already they're splashing stuff around, and I'm cautious not to get the water in their mouths. I thought I really needed to do something and think of something fast.

Like you said, the platform you have as an athlete only lasts so long. From your perspective as an athlete, do you believe players use it as much as they should or do you feel like there is room to do a lot more than has been done?

People really don't get to see all the good things the players are doing, because it doesn't really get in the media like that. A lot of negativity gets a lot of attention. But there are guys that do a lot of good stuff with the platform and help a lot of people. Sure, we could be doing more. I know one thing that really overwhelmed me was just the response I got calling the guys. This thing is bigger than me. This is bigger than my company. Just the love that was shown talking to the guys with the heart that they have, talking to Marshawn Lynch, Steve Smith, Torrey Smith. Those guys have a heart to give and serve the community. I was blown away. A couple of us are going to Flint to go serve the community and see what we could do to help, maybe volunteer sometime in a couple weeks. I plan on being out there the week after the Super Bowl.

When you were calling guys up to help, how many were aware of it already versus you making them aware of the problem and something needing to be done?

Most guys knew. I was filling them in with more of the specifics of how we can help. I targeted who I wanted to help—I wanted to help the youth and kids in the community, for sure. There are also some retirement homes we wanted to help because a lot of times in our community, the elderly get left out. We heard the elderly in Flint were still struggling a bit and needed some assistance. So I wanted to target this community and I want to target the youth. That's what we wanted to do and who we wanted to reach.

What are your goals for when you get there and start working on the ground level?

I want to make sure these people have access to something where they can get clean and have for daily use. But also helping out for the long term. We don't just want to put a bandaid on the situation. We want to see what we can do to help in the long term. So I know with ShowerPill, our company, we're going to donate a percentage of our proceeds to the community fund in Flint. We're going to try to help raise money and see if we can help in the long term, because there's a lot of money that they're going to need to repair the damage that's been done.