Athlete Activism

Lecture outline:

Intro: mixed sentiments amongst athletes towards activism

  • Jordan vs. LeBron on activism

    • LeBron: social activist, takes an interest in politics (leadership role in boycotting games after death of George Floyd)

    • Jordan: not at all an activist (when asked to endorse democrat in NC, replied “Republicans buy sneakers too”)

  • Mixed feelings about athlete activism, especially amongst non-athletes

  • No consensus amongst athletes on activism, yet many are forced to take some role in politics

Part 1: Sport’s bubble of isolation bursts

  • Phil-Pitt Steagles

    • During WWII, so many NFL players were drafted or decided to serve that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles decided to merge for one season due to the lack of players

    • Sets a precedent for how sports are impacted by world events and politics

    • The world of sports, once viewed as a kind of bubble that was immune from the impacts of the outside world, is shown to be just as exposed as any other facet of American life

Part 2: Athletes to activists

  • Muhammad Ali’s Vietnam protests

    • In 1967, legendary boxer Muhammad Ali labeled himself a consciencous objector to the draft for the Vietman War and refused enlistment into the US army. He famously said “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”

    • Ali was sentenced to five years in prison with bail and was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing title. However, with the support of the likes of MLK, he stayed true to his convictions

    • Set a precedent for athletes being activists, and paved the way for others to make similar demonstrations

    • Ali’s protest continues to have an impact today, as many modern athletes credited their desire to help with social issues to the inspiration Ali gave them

  • 1968 Olympic Human Rights Salute

    • During the medal ceremony for the 200m race, Americans Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) each raised a black-gloved fist in protests of human right violations everywhere, especially those against the black community in the US

    • This political statement was shocking to many, as the Olympics had been a largely apolitical affair to that point

    • Smith and Carlos’s bravery in making such a statement paved the way for other black athletes to make their voices heard regarding the injustices facing their community

  • Jackie Robinson

    • In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball, starting at first base for the Dodgers

    • Robinson was a six time all-star and boasted a career batting average of .311

    • Robinson became a social activist in his time in the Major Leagues, testifying in favor of racial integration in America before the House of Representatives

    • After his retirement, Jackie became the first black vice president of a major American corporation

    • His bravery in ignoring the threats and hate from fans that came with being the first black man to play for a MLB team paved the way for future black athletes to follow in his footsteps

Part 3: Female empowerment

  • AAGPBL

    • Many prominent professional baseball players were drafted into WWII, so to help fill the seats of professional stadiums the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

    • Gave women the opportunity to compete professionally in a manner that they had previously been unable to

    • The AAGPBL was a pioneering force in women’s athletics, and its success paved the way for the prominence of professional women’s athletics

  • Battle of the Sexes

    • Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in straight sets, and wins recognition and respect for women’s tennis in doing so

    • King fully understood the importance of the match for women’s tennis and the women’s liberation movement as a whole, and felt that if she lost she’d set the sport and the movement back decades

    • King was active after the match, speaking out about the pay gap between men’s and women’s tennis pros. She would start the women’s tennis organization that would eventually become the WTA

Conclusion:

  • Athletics as a platform for activism

  • Despite criticism of athlete activists, they persevere

  • Due to the events above, sports and activism are now intertwined



Film Summary:

The film that accompanies this material is Norman Jewison’s 1975 Rollerball. The film is set in the then-distant future year of 2018, where corporations have replaced nations as the arbiters of international society and technology has advanced significantly. Rollerball is a 1984-esque science fiction sports film that depicts a world without wars, where poverty is erased, and there is no violence or crime. James Caan stars as Jonathan E., a seasoned player of the fabricated sport rollerball that begins to question the benevolence of corporate interests when he begins to be forced into retirement for seemingly no reason. What follows is Jonathan’s journey in using the influence he has built across his career as a well-known sports figure to undermine the all-consuming influence of his corporate sponsors.

The film pits individualism against authoritarian control and uses Jonathan as the champion of the former. He begins the film utterly at the mercy of these corporations; his livelihood is dependent on his sponsors at the Energy Corporation in Houston, the information he has access to throughout the film is edited by and provided at corporate locations, and even his wife is taken from him in order to satisfy the lust of a corporate executive. Jonathan spends the film rallying against these corporate interests in the only way he can; he defies the corporations by continuing to play despite their continued insistence that he retire for the sake of the game. It’s this incessant defiance that allows him to prove his value as an athlete, and an individual human being.

“You better do as you’re told, Jonathan. That’s all I have to say,” The protagonist is warned before he plays in the final rollerball game in the film, to which he replies with “Don’t be here when I come back.”

The sport of rollerball itself is explained as having been created to “demonstrate the futility of individual effort.” While the grounds for this claim are dubious within the film, with it explicitly acting as a controlled release of the violence that had been eradicated in the film’s futuristic society (akin to films like The Purge). With the citizens within the population satisfying their naturally violent instincts through the sport, corporations can preserve their control and prevent unrest. This collectivist status quo is a clear foil to the power Jonathan holds throughout the film as a well-known figure in sports. He represents a player of sport uncorrupted by the overarching vision of his sponsors. Jonathan’s refusal to conform to the corporations’ desires expose the fragility of the existing power structure, prompting the corporations to remove Jonathan from the public eye.

Desperate to eliminate the threat posed by Jonathan’s actions, the corporations increasingly loosen the rules to rollerball to force Jonathan’s retirement by devolving the game into a direct contest of bloodshed. While other players of the sport fully play into the sport’s descent into senseless bloodshed, Jonathan continues to act as a champion of justice that acts outside corporate interests and is supported by the people. The final moments of the film are a direct rebuke of corporate suppression, with Jonathan sparing the life of an opponent that he was allowed and even encouraged by the new rules of rollerball to kill and instead winning the game the traditional way. When a bruised and battered Jonathan makes this decision in front of a roaring crowd, it is a direct statement against the values of the ruling corporations. Like a gladiator who refuses to kill for an unjust emperor, Jonathan acts according to his own morality through the end. The corporate influence over his life and the peer pressure of the masses fail to change who he is as an individual athlete. The film ends with the approving crowd chanting his name; since the crowd was shown to be unsettled with the violent direction the sport was headed in long before Jonathan’s display of defiance, the film reflects the notion that an athlete’s platform is incredibly useful in advancing a social agenda and frames them as a strong ally to the people rather than an enemy of the integrity of the sport.

Section Written By: Ben Lenox, Rant Huggins, and Faadil