An Open Field To Recovery And Change
Professional sport has an opportunity to help shape how we recover and foster a better culture from this global crisis
The National Rugby League returned this past week in all it’s canned noise glory. I watched on with a grin at professional sports’ return in Australia in the midst of a truly surreal landscape. This after the Bundesliga resumed two weekends before in front of empty stadiums, and with the AFL set to kick back into gear from June 11th. Across the world, professional sporting leagues are figuring out how to restart their competitions, or in the MLB’s case, start at all. Sport has the opportunity to be at the forefront of our collective emotional and cultural recovery. The staggered return of professional competition from the forced dormancy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic can help to provide us with a sense that we are emerging from the dramatic pause of our lives.
What they can provide is not simply a return to normality, but a path to how we as a society and people can be better to each other. To be more inclusive, to celebrate the thrill of competition and the gravity that builds up by having us recognise that we are all part of this. This pandemic has exposed the very best and worst of humanity. Amplifying frequencies of people’s tendencies that have always been visible at the local and intimate level.
And with the protests that have swept across the United States these past few days in response to the systemic prejudice and racism that’s corroded the foundations of the country after the video recorded murder of African American man George Floyd by a police officer — normality in it’s current form is not good enough. Whether this is an actual paradigm shift for much needed change or just another moment in a long line of fights for progress in America is for better minds than mine to explore and dissect. In Australia we have our own sordid and brutal history with indigenous peoples to contend with. Suffice it to say we can’t go on as we used to, that much is now clear.
Where our money is invested, how we work, where we convene, how we approach healthcare — all of this has morphed around us at an alarming rate. Some of the changes have been encouraged to be permanent in one form or another. Sport provides a constant, a throughline, but it also provides how we can shift our perception and priorities in a world that now demands that we do. Look at the protests in America. Athletes and entertainers across all sports are speaking out, protesting, donating and providing an unerring solidarity to these causes. They understand the power they have and the duty and responsibility they have as young men, young black men to not be voiceless or turn a blind eye. The very real, horrific and terrible atrocities that plague our society — which just seem to be increasing at an exponential rate since the pandemic hit — throw into sharp relief the insignificance of everything that we consume as entertainment. The results, the criticism, the ticket sales and box office numbers, the awards and arguments over said awards become moot.
I put it to elite athletes, franchises and leagues that the resumption of play be more than just striving to win a championship and broadcast revenue. For it has become something beyond championships, points, records, endorsements and wins. Make no mistake, it is still all that and continue to strive for the things you’ve always strived for. But now, there is more to it. It’s not an escape from the ills of society we often so willingly desire to ignore (as if it doesn’t affect us but I mean, come on — let’s stop acting like we’re above it), sport can provide an accessible platform to address these issues. Not that it hasn’t done so beforehand. It’s been a fertile ground to enact change over the last century. In the face of what’s happened and what continues to unfold, it exposes how meaningless these games are in terms of results and seedings — but what they represent as cultural touchstones to bring people together is more important than ever.
That is not to say that other cultural institutions like cinema, live music, theatre and comedy are any less relevant or important. On the contrary this crisis has shown how important these institutions are, and how disappointing it has been that some governments around the world have failed to provide adequate (or any) funding and support for the people dependent on these industries for work. These experiences we took for granted will hopefully be a turning point in how the public and consumers view and experience these things. They don’t just happen. There’s a gap in our lives when we can’t go to the movies or a gig. When the grounds of a stadium or arena are silent or the microphones are put away. We lose the richness of ourselves, an opportunity to see and reflect on who we are — the grains and imperfections, the shades of being that make up a person, a community, a country.
No matter how you feel about it, professional sport occupies a higher plane than other entertainment entities. It has an immediacy and reach that you’d be hard pressed to find in other industries. Professional leagues haven’t always acted in good faith, to its fans, to its players, to its cities they’re a part of. The NFL is almost downright evil. And I’m certainly not going to sympathise with millionaire and billionaire owners, conglomerates that have monopolised so many aspects of something that amounts to very, very expertly skilled playtime. But sport is drama at its rawest, the promise of unpredictability and bursts of sudden elation and despair dictated by the bounce of a ball.
For so many kids and young people who face hardship and struggle, sport offers the promise that a person can be more than what their lot in life may provide. While a small percentage do go on to an elite level, sport as a community provides connection and value. A burgeoning of confidence. To be better. Players, coaches, owners and management have the opportunity to show off the positive value of sporting endeavours and cast aside the petty code wars that seem to reside the antiquated realms of shock jocks and a small batch of former players across codes.
And as fans and viewers we are not immune to the responsibility. Distorted expectations of perfection, salivating for the first opportunity to ridicule and tear down players and coaches. We are interwoven into it. If you’re getting enraged about a refereeing call, irrationally angered by a player’s attitude, style or the fashion they wear outside of the field or court, or that they speak up against injustice and don’t shy away from talking about social issues that might make you feel uncomfortable because they’re not conforming to your antiquated expectations, then maybe it’s time to look yourself in the mirror. An athlete is more than a statistic or a salary.
I may be asking for too much. It’s a near certainty that no teams, players or leagues will come across this. Nor do I believe sport and other entertainment and cultural avenues can fix our society with a snap of it’s collective fingers. For all the potential of what life can be like in the future, a grey cloud of how it’s always been done lingers just past the horizon, hidden but present. But we have to try right? The jagged stop-start that is obtaining basic human rights takes on so many different forms. At least with professional sport, and the increasing exposure of athletes taking it upon themselves to be part of that change, we have a chance to find a way out of this mess.
