Will A Rise In Pro-Trump Athletes Put An End to ‘Stick to Sports’?
In this week’s roundtable, the GSC panel discusses a pro boxer’s controversial clothing choice and what this means for the “Stick to Sports” movement.
In a match against Mexican boxer Francisco Vargas this month, U.S. boxer Rod Salka donned shorts reading “America 1st” which had a brick wall design, obviously referencing President Trump’s desire to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. This is one of the few instances we’ve seen of an athlete who’s clearly in support of Trump openly expressing his views. Since the “Stick the Sports” movement is greatly made up of Trump supporters, could a rise in pro-Trump athletes mean an end to the “Stick to Sports” narrative?
Gord Randall: I’m not sure. I tend to think that this may have been a bit of an outlier… just a fighter being antagonistic to his Mexican opponent. That being said, the logical pushback to the very vocal opposition to Trump and other conservative institutions in sports will inevitably come, and it may very well look like this. We can’t forget that there are a lot of stereotypical right-winger types represented in pro sports as well, even though they are likely in the minority due largely to racial diversity, and at some point, we’re going to see pushback. This may just be example one, and boy was it ever deliciously symbolic that Salka got his ass handed to him. Score one for the Latinos!
Kyle McLaren: 100% outlier. In four of five North American professional leagues (the outlier being the NHL), the majority of players are a visible minority. People are not going to risk alienating their teammates with this behavior. In solo sports, sure it’s possible, but same deal — most solo sports are populated with non-Americans, and most non-Americans think he’s an idiot. Why risk alienating your trainers, coaches and training partners?
Brandon Anderson: I’m quite certain baseball is still a majority-white sport as well, but point taken. I’m not too sure what Rod Salka was thinking here. Why in the world would you purposely wear shorts like that against a Mexican boxer in a fight that takes place in Indio, California, about two hours from the border? What exactly did Salka think he was proving? Doesn’t seem like the best strategy in the world to piss off a dude who is legally allowed to beat the crap out of you in front of a raucous crowd. Is this the end of Stick to Sports? No. Both sides want to Stick to Sports, whenever it’s convenient for them. People will find a way.
Micah Wimmer: Conservatives are not really known for their intellectual consistency, so I do not expect any of them to decry Salka not sticking to sports in this instance. There is no reason to expect athletes to stick to sports anyway, considering the very long history of athletes using their prominent place in society to stand against injustice. Really, Salka, and the lack of conservative backlash to him, just shows that the stick to sports rhetoric is not really about the conservatives’ belief in the purity of sports as a separate sphere from the political one, but is rooted in a desire to not hear left-of-center ideas coming from people they like.
Additionally, there is, I believe, a desire to see athletes as objects who are supposed to entertain, rather than as actual persons with convictions and vulnerabilities and beliefs, which also plays a large role here. All of that said, I do not see this signifying the fall of the stick to sports ideal, as it was never about sticking to sports in the first place, but about conservatives just wanting people of color to shut up and dribble unless what they have to say validated their atavistic worldview.
‘The Junction’ is edited by Sandy Mui, who is the Facilitator of Special Projects for Grandstand Central. She takes pride in being a “multi-platform journalist” and has covered more than just sports: features, opinions, entertainment… you name it. You can follow her on Twitter here.
