Athletic activism could change the game
“Believing in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” Those were the words of the new Nike campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick as the face of the company. The tagline has raised a plentiful amount company, to massive amount of support for the company courage to feature him. Everything always relates back to whether athletes should be involved in social commentary and the answer is an astounding yes.
The importance of athlete speaking is very important as we see that sports have been a huge stage for many social issues. Recently, athletes have spoken out against the rising numbers of unarmed African-Americans killed by police officers. The NBA stood in support in 2015 when Michael Brown and Eric Brown when tragically killed by wearing all black shirts reading “I Can’t Breathe.”
The NFL has also shown support after Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem to voice displeasure with state of the country. Since that act, he has been the talking point of one of the biggest controversies in sports in recent memory. The blowback has been so serious that he is yet to get signed as of the day this is being written. Considering the amount of attention gained, it can be rather important in what message you are getting across.
Another factor to take into consideration is that for years, athletes have been getting thrown aside when they have opinions unrelated to the game they play. Even today we see that people still possess that same mindset. Earlier in the year NBA player, Lebron James, was highly critical of President Donald Trump which led to Fox news anchor, Laura Ingraham, to tell him to “shut up and dribble.” Or the other instance of Arizona Cardinals player, Josh Rosen, to be criticized for being too opinionated and not focused enough on football.
Whatever the statement, there is one truth that people have always believed and it is that athletes are dumb jocks who do not know what they are talking about. For one, it is a highly incorrect statement: About 41% of the NFL are college graduates and the players who were not left school early; 21% of NBA players have a college degree and from the outside looking in that looks bad for their credibility , but the NBA requires players to be one year removed from high school or 19 to be eligible to play in the league.
When you take into account that most NBA players went to school for a year. or are 19 year old Europeans, it makes sense. Regardless if players have degrees or not, most are relatively smart or intelligent. The players have shown they are more than knowledgeable about the topic and should not be disregarded as ignorant.
Whatever the problem the players speak on they should always be afforded the chance to speak on the stage that they have made their careers on. These men and women have worked hard for not only themselves, but for organizations to show their athletic ability why not let them show their sense of morality?