NEW YORK -- A fund-raising telethon that featured more than
30 current and former NFL players raised $5 million for the
Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in about 6½ hours.
Monday night's telethon was part of the NFL's "Hurricane Relief
Weekend" and coincided with a special "Monday Night Football"
doubleheader on ABC and ESPN. Players such as John Elway, Donovan
McNabb, Art Shell and Frank Gifford took turns, 12 at a time,
spending between 75 minutes to 2 hours answering telephones and
taking donations.
"We appreciate the tremendous response of our fans and
everything that our teams and players are doing to support the
relief effort," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. "We are
going to stay at it because all of America is going to have to stay
at it."
NFL teams and relief organizations have raised approximately $4
million from fans at stadiums for Hurricane Katrina relief, the
league said, bringing the total generated by the NFL to $21
million.
The doubleheader of the New Orleans Saints against the New York
Giants and the Washington Redskins versus the Dallas Cowboys was
seen in an average of 14.7 million households between 9-11 p.m.