In 2017, the Israeli government sponsored free "Holy Land" tours for eleven National Football League players.[26] The Israeli Tourism Minister said that, by visiting Israel, the players would serve as "ambassadors of goodwill" and Strategic Affairs Minister, Gilad Erdan, that "hosting influencers and opinion-formers of international standing in different fields, including sport" was part of the fight against the BDS movement.[26] Six of the eleven players pulled out of the trip.[27] Michael Bennett who was one of the players who refused to go tweeted a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote that he wasn't aware that the purpose of the trip was to make him "in the words of a government official, an 'influencer and opinion-former' who would then be 'an ambassador of good will.'"[26][27]