In lieu of the excitement September usually brings as friends reunite and America’s favorite sport returns, this year has taken on a much darker tone with the dual-storm of the pandemic and cries for racial justice that have fallen on deaf government ears.
The shadow cast over the U.S. by these two events has significantly hampered my ability to enjoy sports, even as the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League have been putting on a show in their respective bubbles.
How can I invest myself in sports when approximately 1,000 Americans succumb to the virus each day? How can we play sports when Black Americans’ pain is ignored by the government?
Despite not being fully invested in sports this year, I have been encouraged by athletes’ recent actions to bring attention to social justice movements. The Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to strike — not boycott, as many in the media have called it — and not play their game against the Orlando Magic on Aug. 27 was a breakthrough moment for players.
This strike came almost four years after the exact date Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the national anthem. The Bucks’ actions sent a shockwave across the entire sports world as several teams in different leagues refused to take the court or field.
Some may cast this strike as pointless, but it had tangible results. Team owners around the NBA agreed to work with local election officials to open their arenas as voting facilities for the November election.
Despite the NBA and NHL being in the middle of their playoffs, televisions across America will undoubtedly be set on the National Football League as it begins its season Thursday. No sport garners more viewers than the NFL, and others don’t even come close. NFL games comprised 47 of 2019’s the 50 most-watched television broadcasts in the U.S.
So, what can football players and the league as whole do to create actual change?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted the league did not listen to Kaepernick’s protest in 2016, but has reversed course and encourages its players to peacefully protest. Before every game in Week 1, the league plans to play the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is known as the Black national anthem.
Playing the Black anthem might be a sign of the NFL acknowledging that a large portion of its players are Black, but it needs to do more than just recognize its demographics.
Since Goodell’s June 5 video statement, the league has reposted several player statements on its official Twitter account — a move that is usually done only a few times a year. A memo released Sept. 1 outlined the NFL’s plans to work with law enforcement and other officials to improve community relations.
These are good first steps, but what if the league is unwilling to go further than that?
If the league proves it doesn’t want to move further in pushing for change, then players should take a page out of the Bucks’ playbook and protest their games. It took just more than a day for NBA administration to listen to player demands: the players hit their billionaire owners where it hurt — their wallets.
It’s an unfortunate reality in this world, but money is one of the great motivators. If players refuse to take the field on Sundays, the league will hemorrhage some money and owners will be forced to act in a way that will appease their players. Money may not be a vital part of fighting racial injustice in America, but it surely can’t hurt to have funds available for influential programs.
It’s unclear how the season will progress this year as the virus continues to spread across the country, but expect a heavy emphasis on social justice from the league’s players.
