Part One: Sticking to sports is not an option
In America, we have the freedom to express our thoughts and opinions whether others agree with them or not.
There are often fans who want athletes to stick to sports. Quite honestly, they really don’t have to. Being a professional athlete is a profession but it does not define who these people are or what they stand for as men and women. They are using their platforms to make a difference in the lives of others. No form of suppression should be imposed on those who speak out on specific issues.
Some don’t want athletes, especially athletes of color, to talk about social issues but have no objection with athletes who give money to charity or organization. My question to those people is: “Hey, I thought you wanted them to stick to sports.” There is very little controversy when athletes pledge money to breast cancer or some other great cause. But let those same athletes speak out against racism, women’s rights or LGBT issues then the same people want them to stick to sports. Well you guys can’t have it both ways!!
In this series, I brought together a diverse group of men to talk about sports activism and politics. The first group of participants are all sports writers: Josh Eberley, Joel Jackson, Will Stovall, Brian Waters and Jack Silverstein.
1) What are your thoughts on athletes who are using their platform to speak out about social issues and politics? What would you say to the stick to sports crowd?
Josh Eberley: Key word for me here is, “their.” It’s their platform. I think everyone should be active and involved in the world around them. Athletes are no exception, they’ve earned the podium that they stand on and should be able to express themselves from it.
Joel Jackson: I do not think that athletes should be required to use their platform to speak out about social issues and politics, but I do believe that athletes have a great platform to speak out/help on a number of issues. At the same time, I would rather an athlete use their platform on an issue if it is something that they truly believe in, instead of providing lip service under some sort of obligation.
As for the “stick to sports” crowd, I certainly understand both sides of the issue. For some, sports is a diversion from real life. But sports can lead itself into the political climate, sometimes intentionally, other times not so much. The Olympic Games history is littered with examples that are often cited in the intersection of sports and politics. What comes to mind of an unintentional moment of sports and social issues mixing is the Dani Alves/thrown banana incident that happened in Spain a few years ago. In the middle of a match, a banana is thrown at Alves, implying that he’s a monkey. He picks up the banana, takes a bite, and proceeds to take the free kick. Sometimes, politics and social issues creep in, but I think sports is better equipped to handle these issues than other entities.
Will Stovall: I don’t waste my time speaking to people who seek to suppress the personal expression of others. This isn’t China. You don’t get to tell me what to think or say.
As for athletes, artists and others who are often told they shouldn’t have a voice in politics, I applaud them for putting their careers on the line to help make participatory democracy work. Government of the people, by the people only works if the people participate by holding elected officials accountable. It’s the lack of participation that gave us Trump.
The best way to fight back is to get involved. The best way to get more people involved is to speak out. That’s why they want you to stick to sports. As George Orwell wrote, “The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”
Brian Waters: I love it. Muhammad Ali did and he sacrificed his career but he created a conversation. I love that these athletes are speaking up because this shows that they do not forget where they come from or who their families are. Michael Jordan did not speak up and that’s why people feel like it is ok for athletes to stick to sports. Do not say stick to sports when it makes you uncomfortable. If JJ Watt stuck to sports, that would be over $30 Million that Houston would not have received.
Jack Silverstein: I support anyone of any profession using any platform they have to speak about social issues and politics. People in a professional capacity need to still handle their responsibilities and respect their profession, and I think a disagreement about what that means within the context of the NFL is a part of the divergent reactions around Colin Kaepernick.
The NFL has no rule requiring players to stand for the National Anthem. So does not standing for the Anthem violate an NFL players professional responsibilities? Does it disrespect the profession? I will answer no to the first and “maybe” to the second, although that’s also the onus of anyone within the NFL, including fans, who would take Kaepernick’s protest as an insult to either themselves, the game, or the flag. Personally, I don’t.
Kaepernick has been clear from the outset about his reasons for protesting and that he does not view himself as “anti-America.” As a fan, I take him at his word, though it’s easier for me to do that because I agree with the substance of his protest, which should not be forgotten here: police accountability around the killing of people of color. (And one’s feelings toward the substance of Kaepernick’s protest is another huge piece dictating the divergent reactions.)
I think the other issue at play when discussing Kaepernick’s protest fits into your second question, which is what to say to the “stick to sports” crowd. I wrote about this at length last year; feel free to read the piece, but it centered on the history around the National Anthem in sports and the current financial relationship between the NFL and the Dept. of Defense.
There are links galore in my story, but the one story I’ll highlight is this 2011 ESPN article detailing the origins of playing the Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events, which was a marketing ploy in the 1918 World Series used as an attendance booster during World War I.
My point here is that beyond the obvious counter-argument to Kaepernick about a player like J.J. Watt who did not stick to sports with his Hurricane Harvey relief actions (and thank goodness!), I think organized sport in general but very specifically the NFL has used patriotism to fuel fandom, and vice versa. By doing things like using field-size flags, hosting flyovers, and involving active and retired military, the NFL has turned the Anthem into a showpiece unto itself.
In doing so, the league brought greater attention to the American contradictions of “all men are created equal” and the data around racial bias in policing and sentencing.
In a league with a player population that is about 70% black, with the league’s most important position typically at least 75% white (we have 8 black quarterbacks set to start this week), and where 31 of 32 teams are owned by white men, with no black owners, those American contradictions are stark. What anti-Kaepernick people should understand is that not everyone views the singing of the National Anthem and the flag itself as politically neutral.
Kaepernick specifically chose to protest during the Anthem because, as he explained, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” I haven’t seen him address this directly, but I wonder if he chose his protest forum not just because of the statement I just quoted, but because he knew the degree to which he would eventually be noticed, considering the level of gravitas and circumstance the league places on the Anthem.
However, in turning the Anthem into a showpiece, the NFL unwittingly hurt itself on the other side of the Kaepernick debate too. We have now seen supporters of the flag and the Anthem feel as if the NFL is telling them off by virtue of allowing the protests to take place. Of course, no league of the so-called “big four” (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) does more to support the military, the flag, and the Anthem, be it economically, culturally, or emotionally. No league is a greater partner to the U.S. armed forces than the NFL.
Yet because the NFL has made such a big show out of the Anthem — including changing their policy in 2009 to have teams on the field its singing, which did not used to happen — they are now creating enemies by giving the impression, however nebulous or inaccurate, that they encourage dissension toward the flag and veterans.
2) Do you think the fear of being “Kaep-ed” is keeping some NFL players from actively speaking out against social injustice and politics?
JE: I absolutely do. I don’t blame them either. If your job is on the line, if you have bills to pay or a family to feed, I understand the tough situation there. But the fact that there are players afraid of being, “Kaep-ed,” just further proves how necessary this is. No one should be afraid to engage in peaceful and respectful conversation.
JJ: Absolutely that fear is there, especially in the NFL. Careers are brief, contracts aren’t fully guaranteed, and the notion of “get the money while you can” does keep some players from expressing their beliefs. Obviously, it doesn’t keep all from speaking out, but it definitely paralyzes some because they are focusing on signing the next contract. The flip side is that NBA players & coaches are not afraid to speak their minds on any subject by and large. Nowadays, if an NBA player is out of the league but still feels like he can still play, he has more options overseas than even 10 years ago with the emergence of the Chinese Basketball Association and increase in pay of Euro-League teams.
WS: Are you kidding? Of course it is. The NFL, unlike the NBA, has not supported its players taking political stands. That Colin Kaepernick does not have a job — given the terrible state of so many NFL franchises at his position — is a completely obvious and chilling signal from ownership to players. Speak out and you’ll be out.
I spent two years as a volunteer media liaison for the MLK March Committee in Atlanta after I was asked to help out by the late Rev. James Orange. In April of 1968, Rev. Orange — one of the organizers of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and a member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal staff — was standing in the parking lot of the Lorraine Motel waiting for Dr. King to join him for lunch when the assassination happened on the balcony overhead.
I bring up Rev. Orange because he was in Memphis with King to help organize a sanitation workers strike. They were trying to help workers negotiate a reasonable wage. The NFL Players Association has done an incredibly poor job of negotiation. NFL players are at far greater risk of injury than NBA players, but enjoy a fraction of the salary guarantees. Since African-Americans can’t seem to break the glass ceiling of NFL ownership, maybe somebody should talk to Ice Cube about starting a black-owned football league.
BW: I do. We can’t forget that Colin Kaepernick has made millions of dollars already. Everyone cannot make that sacrifice. The more you make the more you spend. Everyone else didn’t finish school, so they may not have the degree to fall back on. Now there are some who I feel are more worried about status rather than money. They don’t want to lose endorsements, fans, etc. At the end of the day, I think Kaepernick was the sacrificial lamb and I do not think anyone else who was a star would be black balled for speaking out.
JS: Yes, to a degree. One 49ers player, Aaron Lynch, told The Athletic this year that regarding protesting, “If they are not going to give (Kaepernick) a job, then how are they going to judge me?” — adding: “I wouldn’t do it… The message has definitely been sent.” I suspect there are other players who feel like Lynch, though certainly we’ve seen an increase in the NFL this season among players in public displays of support for Kaepernick, including Anthem kneeling.
Some people who are unsympathetic to Kaepernick use these other NFL player protests as proof that Kaepernick is out of the league based not on his politics but on his football merits. (I’ve debunked the “football merits” argument here.) But Kaepernick is the face of the movement, and the face of any movement — the pioneer and leader — always takes the most heat, especially when that person’s very existence challenges the status quo (in this case, being a black quarterback in the NFL).
3) Are you actively participating in the grassroots campaign #BlackoutNFL? Why or why not? Do you think it has the potential to affect profits for the league?
JE: I have not been participating in the #blackoutNFL movement. I honestly hadn’t heard about it until just now. I think at this point there are people on both sides protesting the NFL and it has never really been about the NFL or the anthem. As Nick Wright of Fox has said, it was the vehicle used to address issues of racial injustice.
JJ: I‘m not participating in it. My freelance work alone makes it prohibitive for me, but I’ve always been more of a college football person than NFL. I’m not sure how such a campaign would affect the NFL’s profits, or even if the campaign would make a dent into the league’s overall bottom line. There are so many revenue streams that the NFL has, and though ratings are down overall the past 2 seasons, NFL is still the ratings king. With streaming services looking for more content, it’s only a matter of time until the NFL will have games widely available to be live on demand. This ability is already available with DirecTV, and companies will pay handsomely for this capability (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Facebook, etc).
WS: I am not. I don’t think it will be effective. If African-American athletes don’t want to have their political speech dictated by white owners, they should start their own league. It’s important to note that professional athletes actively participate in the transfer of wealth from young black men to themselves. In the NBA, this takes the form of the “one and done” rule. Players are required to wait a year after their high school class graduates to make themselves eligible for the NBA Draft.
But NBA players have collectively bargained to keep those 18-year-olds from replacing them. For every player talented enough to be drafted but prevented by the one-and-done rule, that’s an opportunity for an older veteran to cling to the league for one more season and collect more than $1 million at their expense. Professional athletes should stop stealing from 18-year-olds and stop abetting the NCAA plantation system.
BW: No, I am not. I think it would hurt long run should advertisers decide to pull out. I do not think that will happen because NFL is king in this country.
JS: I am not, and I will be very honest about why. First of all, I am a sportswriter by trade with a paid position writing about the Chicago Bears for Windy City Gridiron. I have supported myself and my family to varying degrees off of my work on the NFL. I am good at it and I have no plans to stop.
Secondly, I am still a football fan, even though my ability to enjoy it carefree ended some time between Mike Webster’s death in 2002 and Dave Duerson’s in 2011. However, 2011 was also when I started getting to know current and retired players in my capacity as a reporter, and speaking with them has added nuance to my feelings about the game and its physical toll.
That said, as far as this specific boycott, no, I am not participating, both because I still love professional football and want to enjoy it in whatever form I can, and because I’ve made a portion of my career and livelihood on the game. Whether I should still be watching and/or profiting from the game is a debate for another day.
Do I think these protests have the potential to affect league profits? Maybe. But I would want to see the proof. This past week of NFL football was as contentious politically as I’ve ever seen in my life, and three weeks into this season fans on both sides of the Kaepernick issue are challenging the NFL with boycotts, threats of boycotts, destruction of merchandise, and boos.
Last season, as viewership numbers dipped, there was a lot of speculation that anti-Kaepernick protests were the cause, even though there are other documented factors that were turning people away from the NFL, such as player health, labor disputes (and labor agreements), and the perception that quality of play has diminished (a seemingly ever-present complaint). The impact of the 2016 presidential election on viewership was also explored, and I never saw any data that I thought was conclusive.
This season, we’re hearing a lot about declined attendance, but some of that is due to the new teams in Los Angeles drawing badly this year. Attendance was down slightly in Tampa Bay during the first two weeks of the season, probably because of Hurricane Irma. But Hurricane Harvey has had no effect on attendance in Houston.
We saw a pro-Kaepernick protest outside Soldier Field during the first Bears game of the season, but that was estimated at 250–500 people. Even the protest’s Facebook page only showed about 1,000 people marked as attending. Even if 1,000 people did attend the protest, we don’t know how many of those people would have otherwise attended or even watched football that weekend. Even if it was all of them, 1,000 fans even in paid attendance for one week would be .1% of all fans who attended NFL games that week.
Through two weeks, attendance in the NFL was down a total of 183,421, but just look at Week 1 this year against last year. Attendance is down 107,478, but the Dolphins-Bucs game in Miami was postponed because of the hurricane, and the Rams game in L.A. pulled only 65% of capacity. Based on 2016 averages, those two occurrences cost the NFL 79,505 fans, or about 75% of the attendance difference between 2017 Week 1 and 2016 Week 1.
4) Should NFL coaches speak out and be more vocal about social issues like some of their NBA counterparts?
JE: I won’t condemn anyone for not stepping forward because life is complicated and every situation is different. But they absolutely have the right to speak up and the more voices that choose to do so, the more likely change actually occurring is. So I guess in a backwards way — yes. The more people that step up the better.
JJ: I think that NFL coaches by and large are focused on whatever opponent they have in front of them. I am not sure if the “corporate style” environment affects coaches not speaking out or not.
Outside of the military/patriotism, and especially the platform the league pushes as part of the NFL’s “Salute To Service” campaign, I can only think of a couple of coaches that have spoken about any issue outside of football. Tony Dungy spoke about his Christian faith and fatherhood. Jeff Fisher backed his players in St. Louis a couple of years back when a few ran out of the tunnel during pre-game with their hands in the air in the “Hand Up, Don’t Shoot” pose. Other than that, I can’t really think of examples.
I think you see more coaches speaking out in college football on different issues. Former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen both signed a letter asking to change the state’s flag. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, certainly is not afraid to speak his mind. Of course, there’s the pirate himself, Mike Leach, who is definitely not shy about his opinions on anything.
WS: They should, but they won’t. They received the message loud and clear, just like the players. These coaches should grow a spine and follow the stellar example of Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, who is openly campaigning for the removal of statues of Confederate traitors from Memphis, statues that were raised at the behest of white supremacists. We have a president who reached office after our intelligence community says a hostile foreign power conspired to influence our election. Anyone who doesn’t speak out against treason is colluding.
BW: Coaches should speak out. General managers too. Coaches more importantly because they are father figures. What would happen if the officers in Las Vegas pulled the trigger on Michael Bennett? How would Pete Carroll react then?
JS: Like I said, I support everyone using their platform responsibly in the way they see fit. If there are NFL coaches who are holding back on speaking their minds, then yes, I would hope they would. But for anyone who thinks this would lead to more support for Kaepernick, I see two issues.
First, the NBA is more left-leaning on a whole than the NFL, so there is no guarantee that more NFL coaches speaking out would lead to more support for Kaepernick and other protesters. If Bill Belichick started using his platform to talk about the president, for example, he certainly wouldn't sound like Gregg Popovich.
Second, the NFL is a more ride-the-company-line league than the NBA, so it's possible that the people who climb the ranks in the NFL and reach head coach positions are people who are not inclined to speak out politically in any way that counters the league voice.
5) What are your thoughts on the president’s controversial comments regarding Jemele Hill, NFL players who protest and withdrawing the White House invitation to the Golden State Warriors?
JE: Well, take one: It was hysterical that he uninvited Steph Curry after being well aware Curry had no desire in attending.
Take two: I think it’s abysmal that the man can tweet threats at North Korea and then just call for the firing of an ESPN employee, or uninvite a team from the White House. His Twitter account portrays an unstable individual who is both reactionary and aggressive. I’m not sure that’s a good type of person to have in charge of a book club, let alone a country. Jemele Hill is a heavily respected and beloved influencer who took the words of many people to a bigger stage. I hardly think you can fault her for echoing a sentiment being shared across the internet thousands of times a day.
The nation is heavily divided and his last two weeks appeared to only have strengthened the resolve against him and the hatred that stands behind him. He used inappropriate language to describe NFL players, commanding them to stand, and in response way more players took a knee. How bout them apples?
JJ: I would have been more shocked if the President and/or the White House did not respond to Jemele Hill’s comments. In gambling parlance, that was a lock. But she should not change her social media habits totally because of it. Her & her co-host Michael Smith leveraged social media in the beginning of their “His & Hers Podcast” to their advantage for promotion of their show. There are other ESPN talent that obviously use social media, particularly Twitter, who will probably modify how they use it now. But by now, I’m sure the White House has moved on to other things……
Until the President decided not to move on to other things. The original intent of Kaepernick taking a knee has has gotten way lost in the pissing match between the NFL and Trump. He still does not have a job at this point and prospects to him landing with an NFL team this year are remote at this point. I’d like to think that if Al Davis were still alive, Kaepernick would be a Raider to back up Derek Carr. Davis wanted to win more than anything, and clearly was not averse to being counterculture to the league. The big question going forward is: “What happens now”? The NFL is not going anywhere, even if stadiums for the rest of the year are 1/3 full due to boycotts from seemingly all sides. But what message will be conveyed going forward? Will there be a standard code while the anthem is being played? Guess we will find out.
As for the Warriors invite/uninvite, selfishly I wanted to see them go to the White House. Here is one of the most socially progressive organizations in American sports going to meet with this current administration. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall. But I do remember a conversation I had with my uncle at Thanksgiving last year. We discussed then how the tradition would probably end the minute the next NBA team won a title. Perhaps he was right, but with UNC’s men's basketball team now also stating that they would not attend the White House, sure feels that way.
WS: Trump called then-President Obama a racist. There’s clearly a double standard at work that seems influenced by skin color. Look up the Wikipedia page for Fred Trump. The president’s father was arrested while marching in a KKK rally in New York. Trump has denied it, but the arrest record lists the address where he grew up. Saying Trump is a white supremacist is like saying the sky is blue.
ESPN denied a ThinkProgress report that it asked other African-American hosts to replace Hill on a broadcast last week and they refused. As a former editor for ESPN TrueHoop Network, I have directly observed the sexism and discrimination that is alive and well there. Given the lack of integrity of persons I interacted with at ESPN, I find the ThinkProgress report entirely believable.
Regarding Trump’s Twitter attacks on the NFL and NBA, these are clearly meant to distract from the burgeoning Russia investigation, where interviews with current and former members of the Trump administration are set to begin this week. Although he was unfair to Ray Lewis — who took two knees to pray, not one knee to protest — Shannon Sharpe was otherwise surgical in his takedown of the hypocrisy of NFL ownership. Many NFL owners raised money for the inauguration. They never expressed outrage over Trump’s enormities until he attacked their product.
What’s disappointing is that more athletes haven’t drawn attention to the fact that Americans are dying in Puerto Rico from lack of food, water, and hospitals while Trump tweets about sports. Hopefully, more athletes will become involved in the greatest weapon against Trump: voter participation. Trump’s election was only possible because so many voters stayed home. If athletes begin hammering home the importance of active participation in democracy, it will do more damage to Trump than any Twitter beef ever could.
BW: I think the comments are very irresponsible. I believe if he has a problem with the players he should sit with them and see why they are protesting. I also hate the fact that it seems the NFL players now are protesting because of his comments and NOT because of police brutality. He needs to leave the Warriors alone. He sounds like a guy asking a girl out, getting denied, and saying “you not that fine anyway!
JS: This president is a genius at stoking the flames of culture war, and he has found an appealing and unending target in black people and perceived leftist influence in sports. It goes without saying that these statements and commands are beneath the dignity and responsibility of the office, especially during times of tragic catastrophe when the focus of the commander-in-chief should be elsewhere.
As for his comments about Jemele, it is 100% inappropriate for the White House to suggest that an American in the U.S. be fired for exercising First Amendment rights. Further, loads of journalists and publications have called Trump racist, and the White House hasn’t commented on those. (Though in this case, a reporter asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders for a comment, something I don’t know that happened in those other instances.)
Lastly, regarding his statements last weekend in Alabama about the NFL, they unfortunately turned what was a protest about racial bias in policing and the justice system into a protest about “unity” and, really, about him. I am curious to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. I don’t think we will see the full-team arm-lock much more, but I do think that the players who have knelt will continue, and that that group might even grow.
