Moving the Ball Forward: Professional Athletes and Social Change

“Shut up and dribble.” Those words, which were uttered by FOX News host Laura Ingraham when she referred to LeBron James speaking out on social issues such as systemic racism in the United States,  are almost infamous today. However, James is not the first professional athlete to go through the criticism that they should just “shut up and dribble,” and there is a chance that he won’t be the last either. Perhaps part of the reason why fans just want to watch athletes in their craft is because spectators don’t want them to be more than superhumans who display physical abilities that the rest of us could only dream of having. However, that doesn’t make professional athletes any less human.

Though they make far more money than the average middle-class citizen, they can relate with the grassroots workers of all socioeconomic statuses who helped flip states blue this past election. People like Stacey Abrams would have a lot in common with somebody like Colin Kaepernick: they both knew that they had a daunting task in fighting against an oppressive hierarchy, but organized and brought people — a majority of whom were of color — together to force a positive change that would help all Americans. Professional athletes are great examples illustrating how change comes from the bottom-up: they do not just have to be reflectors of the society they live in; rather, they can lead it if they use their platforms to do so. Athletes can be viewed as the workers in the large corporations that are their respective leagues, and they have always been the ones a step ahead of the establishment. 

Athletes are Agents of Change

“The past is not just the past. The past is very much the present,” says Dr. Carolyn Twomey of St. Lawrence University. Dr. Twomey has a Ph.D. in history from Boston College, and her area of expertise is on European History throughout the Middle Ages. Dr. Twomey is also a New England Patriots fan, and as a historian who researches and teaches cultural, religious, and gender issues of the past and present, she has a very contextual understanding of the National Football League regarding race relations with their players. Dr. Twomey conveyed that athletes don’t just reflect the broader populace when it comes to social change; they lead it. One of the most well-known examples of pushing society’s limits was Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Adolf Hitler had to sit and watch a Black American destroy the competition in his own fascist country. Muhammed Ali refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War in 1967 because he felt it was a pointless conflict whose only purpose was to aid white power that dominated, and still dominates, the world. Lastly, as previously stated, Colin Kaepernick is the most iconic representative for professional athletes speaking up for progressive change in society in the 21st century.

“Basketball is coded as a black players’ sport when football is coded as a white players sport with the tall, white quarterback, even though the majority of players in the NFL are black,” says Dr. Twomey, who continued to tell me in our interview how the professional athletes in the NBA and NFL, and every other professional league in the country, “are the ones who are moving the ball (social justice) forward, while the owners and administrators are holding it back.” Think back to when Colin Kaepernick first took a knee to protest police brutality against Black Americans. What happened? The NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, condemned the protest by stating, “We believe very strongly in patriotism in the NFL.” Then-President Trump tweeted, “Get that son of a bitch off the field.” Kaepernick was released by the San Francisco 49ers on March 9th of 2017 and has not played in an NFL game since. 

The Right Way vs. The Wrong Way

So, where are we now? Commissioner Goodell stated this past summer that the league was “wrong in silencing our players for peacefully protesting,” and the NFL’s official website has an “Inspire Change” section devoted to promoting social justice activism with their players.  “I remember Colin Kaepernick before all of the new social justice promotions by the NFL that is advertised today,” says Dr. Carolyn Twomey. “These developments most likely occurred due to the rising popularity of BLM during the 2020 summer protests.” Dr. Twomey is explaining that the current NFL policies on diversity and inclusion are due to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent player protests, even though these protests have been very much present for years now. There is certainly proof in this statement; Goodell never even mentioned Kaepernick in his apology statement. Not only is this hypocritical from the top league official of the NFL, but it is also extremely problematic. They are trying to look as if they are now advocates of BLM and other social justice movements, when in reality they never have been and only are in the present because it would be a PR nightmare if they still were to oppose players kneeling for the national anthem. Essentially the NFL is trying to make it seem like they have moved past what they did to Kaepernick without even apologizing to him directly.

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, is a great counterexample to the approach that Goodell and NFL officials have taken in terms of working with their players on social issues. This past summer at the “Bubble” in Orlando, Florida, many of the NBA players including stars such as Chris Paul, LeBron James, and Jaylen Brown approached the NBA officials, including Silver, about the shooting of Jacob Blake by police officers in front of his children while sitting in his car in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) expressed that they could not leave the Bubble to join peaceful BLM protests after the incident due to COVID restrictions, so they wanted to strike and not play any games for a few days to show solidarity. What did the NBA and Silver do? They agreed, and it showed a form of unity between the players and the league officials. Commissioner Silver did something that Commissioner Goodell has never done: he stood with the players of the league that he represents, and understood they are more than just products. They are human beings.

The Bottom-Up Approach

What can we do to make sure social change is sustainable going forward? My advice would be to finally start taking professional athletes seriously, as Commissioner Adam Silver has done with the players in the NBA. They are more than just people who put their bodies on the line every day for our entertainment; athletes have large platforms that they have been using to promote social justice causes for decades, most recently in support of Black Lives Matter. They prove to be powerful allies to the movements and give them the credit and attention that they deserve.  It is time to finally give athletes like LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, and Megan Rapinoe the credit they deserve in pushing activism to higher levels. They are examples of how real change is done: by the bottom up. Things typically do not change at the corporate level unless the workers join into unions to fight for positive change in the form of livable wages, benefits, etc. Professional athletes demonstrate this, and now is the time to implement what they’ve been doing for decades into our institutions as well. 

Banner image: "People kneeling with Colin Kaepernick on Austin's 4th Street" by Lars Plougmann is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0