In order to fully understand the relationship between sports and politics, it is essential to understand the relationship between sports and society. Within a society, sport is seen as being part of a community. Hence, it has been used as a catalyst for elections to gain votes (Cohen, 2020). Whether it is President Obama’s charisma and youthfulness with a basketball or Bill Clinton’s act of sitting with the locals with a hotdog during a baseball game, sports creates a sense of similarity between the public and the elected president.
As sports and athletes are in the public domain, it has also been used by athletes to confront the government regarding social concerns. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Marcus Rashford, an England football player, raised the issue of ‘free school meals’ being denied to kids from underprivileged families. The issue was then backed by the media and the public leading to the UK government providing free meals to underprivileged student’s families (Butler, 2021).
On the other hand, professional athletes have also used their fame to back social protests concerning race. The protest of ‘black lives matter’ is an excellent example for when athletes have used their professional sports platform to raise social concerns and protests regarding race including Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Richard Sherman (McCleary, 2019). LeBron James has protested against Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (Say Their Names!) with hoodies and T-shirts saying the words ‘I can’t breathe’ which were the victim’s last words(Zillgitt, 2021; Osaka, 2020). However, stand for a social cause by professional athletes have heard backlash from news reporters and politicians in the United States of America. Fox News’ reporter Laura Ingraham commented on Lebron James and Kevin Durant’s actions by saying ‘shut up and dribble’. In another news, Donald Trump stated that professional athletes are ‘out of touch millionaires’ (Guardian Sport, 2018).
It is said that actions of athletes will depend on their political beliefs, however, there is no politics involved in them voicing their opinion. There is no limit to when the freedom of speech and freedom of opinion comes to a halt. Even if there was political belief involved, it shouldn’t be subjected to backlash from either the politicians or the news reporters. If politicians deny the use of platforms to not voice their opinions on political influence by everyone having a large platform on either social media or in their artistic field such as musicians, actors and celebrities, it would follow a trend of backlash. However, having celebrities and athletes endorsing politicians in the US and voicing their opinions is admirable when it is in their political belief (Brett Farve, former NFL player, endorsing Donald Trump for 2020 elections) (Prakash, N and Rodriquez, B., 2020), but sports athletes doing the same to raise awareness about racism or even to voice what they stand for is a cause of concern?
If celebrities and athletes’ popularity can be used to endorse politicians then professional athletes can also raise voices against racism within the country regardless of their ‘political beliefs’. Hence, sports athletes are not just ‘out of touch millionaires’ who should ‘shut up and dribble’ but are people with the same rights, facts and opinions as the rest of the public. After all, athletes who are ‘out of touch millionaires’ who exceptionally well know how to dribble also exceptionally well know what they stand for. Both politicians and news reporters; and sports athletes commence immense power with having a large platform to influence and bring about change for the greater good and as said by Uncle Ben ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Alas! At least one of the two is using it for the greater good.
References:
Butler, P. (2021) ‘Rashford demands a ‘meal a day’ for all school pupils’ (The Guardian) [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/20/rashford-demands-a-meal-a-day-for-all-school-pupils-in-need#:~:text=The%20footballer%20Marcus%20Rashford%20has,%E2%80%9Cmillion%20miles%20to%20go%E2%80%9D. [Accessed: 4 February, 2021]
Cohen, K. (2020) ‘The forgotten origins of politics in sports’ [online] Available at: https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/167870 [Accessed: 16 January, 2021]
Evelyn, K. (2020) ‘From Ariana Grande to Donald Glover: the celebrities endorsing Democrats for President’ [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/31/democrats-2020-election-celebrity-endorsements-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren [Accessed: 3 February, 2021]
Guardian Sport (2018) ‘Trump: protesting athletes are out-of-touch millionaires who should stick to sports’ [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jun/15/trump-criticizes-rich-athletes-15-million [Accessed: 3 January, 2021]
McCleary, M. (2019) ‘Politics and Sports: A long and complicated relationship’ [online] Available at: https://www.nupoliticalreview.com/2019/02/26/politics-and-sports-a-long-and-complicated-relationship/ [Accessed: 2 January, 2021]
Osaka, N. (2020) ‘Naomi Osaka: Athletes Speak Up’ (The New York Times) [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/opinion/naomi-osaka-lebron-james-racism.html [Accessed: 2 January, 2021]
Prakash, N. and Rodriquez, B. (2020) ‘Who Celebrities Are Endorsing In the 2020 Presidential Election’ (Marie Claire) [online] Available at: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/g33798127/celebrity-endorsements-2020-presidential-election/?slide=3 [Accessed: 2 February, 2021]
Zillgitt, J. (2021) ‘LeBron James found his voice on social issues following Trayvon Martin’s shooting death.’ (USA Today) [online] Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/columnist/jeff-zillgitt/2021/02/26/lebron-james-social-racial-issues-trayvon-martin/4561041001/ [Accessed: 2 February, 2021]
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