Activist Athletes
"He took a knee for us"
POSTED MAY 10, 2018
"He took a knee for us"
"Much has been said about Colin Kaepernick and his kneeling for the national anthem...But the mothers of those for whom Kaepernick has been kneeling – mostly young, unarmed black men killed at the hands of law enforcement – have struggled to find their place in the conversation. But listening to these women speak about their pain and struggle brings Kaepernick's protests into an entirely sharper light. To them, he isn't a locker room distraction or polarizing sports figure or a son of bitch." - NY Daily News, May 10
An opinion piece from Nancy Armour at USA Today Sports. The article has become unavailable in a frame, but this link will bring you to it: "Why stop at NFL allowing teams to decide national anthem protocol?"
NFL Issues Anthem Policy
"This is not patriotism. Don't get it confused."
POSTED 5/25/2018
The NFL issued its new anthem policy Wednesday. It requires players who are on the field to stand for the anthem. Those who do not wish to stand must remain in the locker room. Teams and players that do not comply face disciplinary action. It sounds reasonable but ultimately it's a sop to the Trump base, a strong nod to the corporate bottom line, and a cave-in to a false idea of what the protesting players are actually protesting. Players are not protesting the flag or showing a lack of patriotism. They are protesting the killing of unarmed African-Americans by police. When Colin Kapernick first began his protest, he sat on the bench. Someone told him it would be more respectful if he knelt. So he did. Eagles defensive end Chris Long protested the policy in a statement.
Chris Long's statement:
Matt Rourke/Associated Press Chris Long with Eagle teammates
NBA players, other athletes rally behind LeBron James after Trump tweet
POSTED AUGUST 4, 2018
NBC Sports, August 4 : "The President of the United States, Donald Trump, decided to insult two people with one Tweet Friday night, taking a shot at Don Lemon of CNN, then throwing in a dig at LeBron James‘ intelligence for good measure. Doing so in the wake of LeBron spending more than $40 million from his non-profit to build a school for the most disadvantaged in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, was poor timing. And it rallied athletes — both NBA players and those from other sports — to defend LeBron."
You can read through some more tweets at the link above, but here are two of my favorites.
Don Lemon who did the LeBron interview: "Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages?"
Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves): "So let me get this straight: Flint, MI has dirty water still, but you worried about an interview about a man doing good for education and generations of kids in his hometown? Shut your damn mouth! Stop using them twitter fingers and get stuff done for our country with that pen."
NFL settles with Kaepernick and Reid: the underdogs win
POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2019
We will probably never know the amount the NFL paid out to Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid to settle the collusion case against the two players. It really doesn't matter. The activist players won in a victory for underdogs everywhere as well as a victory for "the inextinguishable message the two players set out deliver."
"Kaepernick and Reid, clear underdogs by every traditional measure, took on North America’s greatest sports league in a case that would have been exceedingly difficult to prove by a legal standard. The heavyweight had a long track record of refusing to give in—and yet, in the form of a confidential financial settlement—that’s what it did.
"This happened after the league’s attempt to quell black voices by way of a so-called “anthem policy” was rendered D.O.A. before the season even began. It happened after the President, who lied about the underdogs in tweets and during political rallies to rile up his lowest-common-denominator supporters, could no longer sustain the manufactured outrage. It happened after it was proven Nike made the right bet (and after one of the schmucks who didn’t went out of business)." - Jonathan Jones, Sports Illustrated [link left]
Athletes step up for social justice
POSTED JUNE 5, 2020
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, athletes are voicing support for the tens of thousands of people demonstrating for social justice and an end to police brutality. This is their response to Trump who called NFL players taking a knee "sons of bitches" and to the right-wing TV host who told LeBron James to "shut up and dribble" for criticizing Trump's policies. Two great stories from Time (below left) and UPROXX (below right).
The Wednesday night boycotts
POSTED AUGUST 29, 2020
Professional athletes joined in the protests against the shooting of Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed after a Kenosha Wisconsin police officer fired seven shots at his back as he was getting into his SUV in front of his three children. "Athletes in the NBA, WNBA, MLS, MLB and professional tennis (among others) all refused to play on Wednesday night (August 26), a mass boycott that left professional leagues scrambling to postpone and reschedule games. What started as a stance from several WNBA teams and the Milwaukee Bucks now has reached across sports." (USA Today)
The unprecedented action to protest police brutality and systemic racism comes in the midst of professional sports seasons already disrupted by the pandemic. Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation and host of the “Edge of Sports” podcast, says the actions constitute “a sports strike wave” for racial justice. “It’s more than a boycott. It’s them withdrawing their labor,” Zirin says. “It’s not just an example for racial justice protesters around the country. I think it’s a challenge to the labor movement as a whole.” (Democracy Now! link below left)
Individual athletes have protested social injustice and racism before but never in such a spontaneous action reaching across multiple sports. Perhaps the most powerful statement was that of the Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream. Members of the Washington Mystics wore shirts that spelled out the name of Jacob Blake. Each of the shirts had seven bullet holes painted on the back, to mark the seven shots were fired at Blake's back. Atlanta Dream center Elizabeth Williams read a statement on TV underscoring the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and the need to vote as well as demonstrate for change.
What we have seen over the last few months, and most recently with the brutal police shooting of Jacob Blake, is overwhelming. And while we hurt for Jacob and his community, we also have an opportunity to keep the focus on the issues and demand change. These moments are why it's important for our fans to stay focused, hear our voices, know our hearts and connect the dots from what we say to what we do. We encourage everyone to go and register to vote. Now. Today. If you truly believe that Black Lives Matter, then vote. Go and complete the 2020 Census now. Don't wait. If we wait, we don't make change. It matters, your voice matters, your vote matters. Do all you can to demand your leaders stop with the empty words and do something.
More Than a Vote, a collective of athletes headlined by LeBron James that is fighting to combat voter suppression, will announce a multimillion-dollar initiative to increase the number of poll workers in Black electoral districts ahead of November’s general election. (NYTimes, Aug 24) More Than a Vote has already pushed for turning sports stadiums and basketball arenas into polling places, On Friday Aug 28, the NBA and NBPA issued a joint statement on Friday announcing that there would be a return to play this weekend, which was contingent on the league’s owners committing to more concrete measures, particularly related to helping Black people in America. The most noteworthy part of the statement, aside from the fact that games would resume, was that the league is making an NBA-wide push to use arenas as polling places, which has been a central goal of LeBron’s ‘More Than A Vote’ non-profit, aimed at making it easier for Black people to access American democracy.
A Time magazine article (link below right) puts some historical background into the role of athletes demonstrating for social justice: “I respect the hell out of them for doing that,” John Carlos, the American sprinter who famously raised his fist along with Tommie Smith, on the medals stand, at the 1968 Olympics. After raising his fist in Mexico City, Carlos received death threats. Athletes participating the in boycott, Carlos says, should expect ugly blowback. “It really brings out the bigotry involved, you understand?” Carlos says. “You get a chance to see what side of the fence people are on.”
Integration, labor rights, social justice: sports have long been part of the warp and woof of America
POSTED NOVEMBER 21, 2020
This summer, professional athletes protested the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake in dramatic fashion - speaking out, boycotting games and having Black Lives Matter on the backs of their jerseys. As football resumed in the fall, college players and their coaches also joined in the support for BLM, sticking BLM logos on their helmets and providing witness such as in Alabama coach Nick Saban leading a racial justice march on campus with his players. In the NFL, "taking a knee" became accepted by the league and the owners.
These demonstrations of social awareness had a cost - with a decline in sports viewership attributed to the protests and with, for example, some West Virginia fans threatening to boycott football games after their Mountaineers marched in Morgantown for racial justice and equality.
It was a reminder that sports are part of the warp and woof of American society. Athletes speaking out for social and racial justice is nothing new. Though Colin Kaepernick is this generation's hero, the tradition goes back to at least the 1968 Olympics. During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".
After World War II, professional sports began to be integrated with black athletes joining white athletes on the playing field. Eight years before Brown v. Board of Education began the end of segregated education and eighteen years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 broke the de jure segregation of the Jim Crow South, professional sports were integrating.
Jackie Robinson famously broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Less well known is that a year earlier, in 1946, the Los Angeles Rams signed running back Kenny Washington and receiver Woody Strode, and the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference signed offensive tackle Bill Willis and running back Marion Motley. The National Basketball Association was in its second year when Jackie Robinson debuted and "a culture of segregation had not yet hardened. But there were still no African-American players in the league when the owners convened for a player draft on April 25, 1950. In the second round, with the 14th pick of the draft, Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown picked Chuck Cooper who had earned All-American honors at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh." [1]
Labor issues have also been part of the sports scene. Today, compensation for and prevention of CTE, the College Athletes' Bill of Rights, and gender pay equality are litigated and arbitrated. But in earlier years, the athlete was completely at the mercy of the owners and the leagues. Since 1922, Major League Baseball has been exempt from anti-trust laws. In a unanimous decision written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Supreme Court held that "the business is giving exhibitions of base ball, which are purely state affairs"; that is, that baseball was not interstate commerce for the purposes of the Sherman Act. In the subsequent century, that ruling has been modified but never overturned.
More than 50 years after the Supreme Court ruling, thanks to the efforts of St. Louis Cardinals' outfielder Curt Flood, the right to "free agency" (the right to sign with other clubs after your contract expired) was finally won in 1976.
It was not easy. Flood began his effort in 1969 when he opposed a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies. "I do not regard myself as a piece of property to be bought or sold," he famously told Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn in a letter in which he requested the right to be a free agent. Kuhn, echoing the court decisions of previous years, replied that he was sympathetic to Flood's feelings but "simply did not see how that applied to Major League Baseball." [2]
In 1972, Flood v. Kuhn reached the Supreme Court where Flood lost the case. In a 5-3 decision, the Court ruled that baseball was interstate commerce but only Congress could remove the anti-trust exemption and that the right to free agency should be attained through collective bargaining.
"That is precisely what happened. Because of the pressure that Flood's suit brought to the baseball owners, Marvin Miller, founder and executive director of the Players Association, and the players union were able to bargain for binding arbitration on grievances. And, finally, in 1976, when pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally agreed to play a season without a contract, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled them free agents. Overnight, the system that Miller had called feudal, the one that had ruled baseball virtually since its professional origins, collapsed." [2]
Actions like those of Flood, Smith and Carlos and Peter Norman, and Kaepernick came with a price. (sidebar) Today's demonstrations for racial justice have aroused passions in the fan base and have encouraged know-nothing tweets by a bigoted president. But at least the official league response has not been to punish the demonstrators. That is an improvement from the September 2016 when Colin Kaepernick first kneeled during the national anthem to send a message about police brutality and social injustice.
References: [1] DailyHistory.org [2] The Atlantic
SI's Sportsperson of the Year: The Activist Athlete
POSTED DECEMBER 11, 2020
Sports Illustrated named the "Activist Athlete" as its Sportsperson of the Year. "If there is brightness in this dark year, it's the leadership - and sorely needed optimism - shown by some of the nation's top athletes in facing down our many challenges. And so our Sportsperson of the Year award goes to five men and women who were champions in every sense of the word: champions on the field and champions for others off it." [link above]
The article on each honoree was written by one of his or her athletic and activist forebears. Some excerpts:
LeBron James "led the Lakers to the NBA title, won his fourth Finals MVP trophy and worked tirelessly to end voter suppression and ensure that everyone - especially Black people - had equal access to the polls."
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "Paul Simon sang that 'every generation sends a hero up the pop chart,' and this generation couldn't do any better in the hero department than LeBron James. What is a hero but someone who stands up for those who can't? Who embodies our cherished ideals of sportsmanship: fair play, hard work and compassion? That pretty much describes the LeBron James I've watched and come to know...LeBron's social activism has made him one of the most controversial athletes in the world..."
Breanna Stewart "returned from a devastating injury to lead her team [Seattle Storm] to the WNBA title and who spoke loudly against racism and for women's equality"
Megan Rapinoe: "Watching Stewie stand in front of everyone before that first game and ask for 26 seco0nds of silence to remember Breonna Taylor, the Black woman who was that age when she was killed by police in her Louisville apartment, was powerful....A lot of players wanted to dedicate the season to Breonna Taylor and BLM, but there's more weight to it when your best player...is pushing for it...She realizes she has an opportunity to be more than what she is on the court - and also, as a white player in a predominantly Black league, to be an ally.."
Patrick Mahomes "the Super Bowl MVP used his platform as the NFL's transcendent star to push the league to recognize the Black Lives Matter movement and players' rights to protest."
Doug Williams: "I was at home when I saw the video on TV: NFL stars, one after another, calling out the names of victims of police brutality and proclaiming 'Black Lives Matter.' A lot of great players voiced their support. But the one who stood out most...was Patrick Mahomes...The video has caused a real change in the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell has publicly acknowledged that try to squash player protests...was wrong, and the league should have done a better job listening to its Black players. As the best player in the NFL, Mahomes...forced people to listen."
Naomi Osaka "the U.S. Open tennis champion embraced her fame and found her voice in the fight against social injustice."
Martina Navratilova: "Just days before the U.S. Open, [Naomi withdrew] from the semifinal of the Cincinnati tournament, in protest of the shooting of Jabob Blake and what she called 'racial injustice and continued police violence...And where Naomi led, tennis followed - all the matches were paused for the day...[Later] by wearing seven masks at the U.S, Open - with a new one for every round, each honoring a different Black victim of police violence or a racist attack - Naomi made an extremely powerful statement...humanizing the enormous problem of police violence against Black people in America."
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif "the Chiefs' lineman became a Super Bowl champion and then left the NFL to join the front lines in the battle against COVID-19"
Dr. Jenny Thompson: "To choose to go back to the front lines, because he's a doctor, and he wants to help people, even if that's performing tasks like changing diapers and dispensing medicine at a long-term care facility just outside of Montreal, it shows how much he cares. Laurent was already a sports hero , But it's like he could see that now, more than ever, our society needs medical heroes...He's ,more of a hero now than he ever would be on the field...His choice was difficult but admirable, in the most staggering way, and he should be celebrated...Well done, doctor."