Charlie Kirk
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Conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s slaying, the NFL chose to require the Green Bay Packers to hold a moment of silence for the murdered activist at their Thursday Night Football game against the Washington Commanders.
A conservative political organizer and podcaster, Kirk was tragically slain by a sniper on September 10, during a speaking appearance on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah. He was 31 years old.
16 of 32 NFL Teams Hold Kirk Memorials
After the Thursday night game, the NFL announced that teams would be permitted to make their own individual decisions as to whether to hold moments of silence for Kirk or not.
Of the 13 home teams in the NFL’s Week Two Sunday games, all but six chose to acknowledge Kirk with the “moment of silence” tributes.
According to Heavy.com reporter Drake Bentley, those teams were the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings. The Steelers did, however, fly flags at Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) at half-staff, as the White House had requested.
In the first of two Monday Night Football games the following day, the Houston Texans — hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — held a moment of silence for “all victims of violence and natural disaster,” without singling out Kirk for any special tribute. In the second Monday game, the Las Vegas Raiders did not hold a moment of silence in their game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Hostility Toward NFL Teams That Did Not Acknowledge Kirk
The decisions by those eight NFL teams not to directly acknowledge Kirk have “incurred hostile coverage from right-wing media including The New York Post, Breitbart, and Fox News, which dutifully covered these programming choices as an insult to a great patriot,” according to a report by Rolling Stone magazine.
The decisions have also sparked outrage online.
MLB Spared Strong Response From Fans Over Kirk
At the same time, Major League Baseball has played 93 games since Kirk’s slaying, with all 30 teams hosting at least one home game, but only two have chosen to hold moments of silence for Kirk.
The absence of Kirk tributes in MLB appears to have gone largely without strong reactions from fans of any political stripe.
The New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs were the only MLB teams to publicly acknowledge Kirk’s death with in-stadium tributes. The Yankees hosted a game against the Detroit Tigers on the evening of September 10, just hours after Kirk’s death, and used the occasion to pay homage to the conservative activist.
Before tonight's game we held a moment of silence in memoriam of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk founded the youth activist group “Turning Point USA” and had become a fixture on college campuses. Charlie Kirk, a husband and father of two children, was 31 years old. pic.twitter.com/Fz5xPlmdu0
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 10, 2025
Cubs Hold ‘Moment of Reflection’
Kirk, a native of Prospect Heights, Illinois was a “lifelong” Cubs fan, his wife Erika Kirk said in her first public statements after his death. On September 12, the Cubs held what the team called a “moment of reflection” before a game at Wrigley Field against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.
The team used the occasion to call for an end to acts of political violence.
“May all of us as Americans come together in solidarity to strengthen our nation, end these senseless acts and turn to civil discourse to discuss our differences,” the team said in an in-stadium announcement, as reported by Heavy.com writer Alyssa Polczynski. “On Wednesday, political activist Charlie Kirk, a lifelong Cubs fan and Chicago-area native was killed at a public gathering in Utah, leaving behind his wife and two young children.”