Taylor Rapp: NFT market is a great opportunity to help my ’suffering Asian community’

Taylor Rapp, Los Angeles Rams Defensive Back, joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss the NFL player launching an NFT to fight anti-Asian hate.

Video Transcript

- We are sadly seeing a rise in anti-Asian hate and attacks. And here in New York, a man was arrested after his brutal attack of a Filipino woman was caught on camera. Now, our next guest hopes to do something about it using NFT's to fight racism against Asians.

We're joined now by LA Rams safety Taylor Rapp. So Taylor, you're launching these NFT's tomorrow and will donate a portion of the proceeds to organizations as a part of this GoFundMe to stop Asian hate. Why did you decide to go this route, selling end of tees instead of just making a donation or publicizing the campaign?

TAYLOR RAPP: Yeah, I mean, I think we've all seen the NFT craze, especially in these past few weeks, kind of blow up, and it's the next big thing. In my opinion, I think NFT's are-- they're very interesting. They're so cool to wrap your head around the idea of, basically, if you're buying a Taylor Rapp NFT, you're buying a stock into Taylor Rapp. And say, I go out next year, and I have a great year. And I make a Pro Bowl.

That Taylor Rapp NFT appreciates, just like a stock. So I think it's a very cool idea and a cool way to connect with your fans, a cool and innovative way to connect with your fans. But you know, just going back to-- just seeing all the rise in anti-Asian hate crime, really, it's been going on for over a year now ever since COVID-19. But for some reason, now, they're really getting brought to light in the national spotlight, which deservingly so. It needs to be brought into that spotlight and that much awareness. You know, I just thought it would be a great opportunity to get in on the NFT marketplace and a great cause behind it, great meaning behind it to try to raise some money to help out my suffering Asian community.

- Now, Taylor, I know you're one of just a handful of Asian-Americans currently in the NFL. Have you yourself over the past year or longer experienced racism in your own personal life?

TAYLOR RAPP: Yeah, I mean, not so much in person. I'd say more-- you can see more on social media, people hiding behind their keyboards, and their phones, and stuff. But it's certainly there, you know? It's even-- sometimes, even some of my good buddies, they'll just crack a little Asian joke, and it's partly my fault. Because I'm never one to tell them, hey, that's not cool or something like that.

But like it's definitely there, you know? What's so sad and heartbreaking about all of this rise in anti-Asian hate crimes that, really, all the victims are old, elderly, grandmas, and grandpas that can't defend themselves, are the most helpless, innocent, vulnerable people out there. So it just breaks my heart. It seems like there's a new video every day that gets leaked on online that we see of these brutal attacks.

- You know, that is such a really important point, but I think a lot of minorities have really been indoctrinated to making other people feel comfortable for making jokes and comments at our expense. So that definitely resonated with me. I hope you never ever, however, blame yourself for anyone levying those kinds of comments against you. You know, the NFL has a history of not just racial divides, but also, not for really standing up in support of the players who do want to use their voices for activism. I know that these NFT's were not done in conjunction with the NFL. I'm curious to know, however, if you think that through doing this, you could get the NFL, other players, other teams on board with what you're pushing for here.

TAYLOR RAPP: Yeah, I mean, not only do I want to be able to raise funds to donate directly to the AAPI community. Excuse me, but my effort is-- or my plan and my vision is to really try to bring more awareness about this anti-Asian hate crimes happening around the country. Because, honestly, I still think, even though it is bringing more to the national spotlight, I still think the awareness isn't where it should be.

Everybody should be knowing about what's happening. And when I post about it on my social media, I get a lot of people not even knowing what's going on and asking me, oh, why are they attacking her? Like why are they attacking him? So really, I'm just trying to bring as much awareness as I can to this topic and just try to spread awareness. I hope everyone sees. I hope the NFL sees why. Not only of this NFT collection, but the reason and the motivation behind wanting to do this collection.

- Now, the collection is called a year of the ox, and one of the things that you're offering is a meet and greet with you, two tickets to a game during this season, lots of cool stuff. Talk to me about why you think NFT's are the future of sports memorabilia and trading cards.

TAYLOR RAPP: Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, crypto has been around for a while now, but what I really think is interesting about NFT's is like the point I brought up earlier about buying a stock in a player or a celebrity, whether their name, and their likeness, and their brand goes up and appreciates. Then that NFT that you buy of them will also go up, so I think that's such a cool idea to wrap your head around. But also, it's such a cool and innovative way to connect with your fans as well.

And honestly, I think the NFT market and the NFT world could take on and take over the sports trading card world. And I wouldn't be surprised in three to five years, if every player in the NFL, every player in all major professional sports has their own NFT collection. So I'm a true believer in NFT's, and I think this is just the start.

- All right, we only have about 45 seconds left with you here. I wanted to ask you really quickly. One, would you want to get paid in cryptocurrency, and two, are you investing in that space?

TAYLOR RAPP: Yes, so I've been-- I got my feet wet a little bit back in 2017 in crypto. And a lot of the pay, like a lot of the platform on open sea, you need crypto, or you need Ethereum. And I have my portfolio in crypto is mainly Ethereum, so I think I might just leave it in Ethereum, the rest of the percentage that I'm not donating.

And I saw Russell Coon's story about him getting paid in Bitcoin, and how much more money he's made because of Bitcoin appreciating. So that's something that I'm going to talk to my agent. And I'm going to call him and make sure the second contract, that that's something that we're definitely looking into.

- All right, Taylor Rapp, LA Rams safety, thank you so much for joining us for this really important conversation.