Obama's Historic Campaign Has Energized Apathetic Lockerrooms -- What Took Them So Long?
During the 2007 ESPY awards in Los Angeles, mixing effortlessly with the likes of LeBron James, Maria Sharapova and the ubiquitous rappers was a well-built, nearly-bald black man from South Carolina who wasn't there to claim any crystal.
Rick Wade's background as a former Kennedy Fellow, Harvard grad and seminarian suited him well for his job that night as a political missionary of sorts. He had recently signed on as one of Barack Obama's senior advisers and had come to Tinseltown with one goal -- convince prominent athletes to get off the sidelines and endorse the junior senator from Illinois for president.
By all accounts, the Obama camp has had a stunning success unprecedented in American politics.
Obama's support group of at least 40 current and former NBA and NFL players, owners and coaches -- including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley and (quietly) Michael Jordan -- surpasses any athlete-endorsement efforts by previous presidential candidates and dwarfs the commitments gathered by Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
Some athletes have simply written checks, others have hosted fundraisers and introduced Obama before huge crowds. They include: (from the NBA) Grant Hill, Baron Davis, Greg Oden, Ira Newble, coach Phil Jackson, Shane Battier, Etan Thomas, Adonal Foyle, Chauncey Billups, former Suns guard and Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson and Gary Payton; (from the NFL) Emmitt Smith, Franco Harris, Jerome Bettis, Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, Bears coach Lovie Smith, Warren Moon, Ronnie Lott, and at least 20 other players and coaches.
"At the ESPYS I had so many athletes asking, "How can I help?" "How do I get involved in politics?'," says Wade. "I think it's a result of the state our country is in today, the issues, the candidate, the timing. They want to be engaged."
So what took them so long?
Since the wrenching civil rights and Vietnam era, memorialized in sports by the black-fist protest of sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, most of our nation's high-profile lockerrooms have been filled by complacent incurious millionaires more concerned with marketing their image than in knowing the score.
My epiphany came in 1996 during the Clinton-Dole presidential race, when the handsomely oblivious PGA Tour star, Fred Couples, after walking off the 18th green of Fort Worth's Colonial Country Club, told me with a shrug: "I've never voted in my life. I've never registered to vote."
More will remember when Michael Jordan, in 1990, at the height of his intergalactic fame, declined to support Charlotte's black mayor, Harvey Gantt, in his run for the U.S. Senate against race-baiting demagogue Jesse Helms, infamously explaining, "Republicans buy sneakers too." (In fairness, Jordan later quietly contributed to Gantt, in 1996, and has now given $12,100 to Obama, according to federal campaign contribution records.)
But Obama's candidacy has clearly motivated many athletes to reject the popular notion that political activity by athletes somehow taints them in the marketplace.
"Several athletes at the ESPYS wanted to talk with their attorneys or agents before they committed [to Obama]," says Wade, "but I didn't get a lot of push-back about their fear of consequences."
Even sports agents seem less inclined to think that political activity is the kiss of death for their clients. Casey Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman Media Group, a global sports marketing firm that represents some 500 athletes, says: "I don't see a downside [for our clients]. Sports is still a unifying force in our country, and people really identify with athletes -- far more than with actors or musicians. There's something authentic and accessible about them. You can buy the shoes they wear."
NBA Commissioner David Stern, who has given nearly a million dollars to Democratic candidates since 1984 (including $4,600 for Hillary Clinton in 2007), thinks political activity by NBA athletes may actually enhance their image. "I think it's a good thing and sends a message to our young fans," he told me. "Despite the divided nature of America politically, I think fans will respect our players."
Well, perhaps in the more liberal NBA.
When former Dallas Cowboys icon Emmitt Smith introduced Obama last February at Dallas' Reunion Arena the racially mixed crowd of 17,000 went endzone crazy for their local hero. But within hours, on a Dallas TV station's website, among many Obama raves was this Cowboys fan's reality check: [from "C Rob"] "This really disappoints me. I thought Emmitt was smarter than to get wrapped up in the hype this false promise maker throws out. I have no respect for him any more."
Former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, now a commentator for NBC, publicly endorsed Obama during the heated Pennsylvania primary, but he's not so sure active players should wade too deeply into politics.
"We've all seen the people who got their hands slapped," says Bettis, who also gave $2,000 to Bush-Cheney in 2003. "The Dixie Chicks got ostracized for their anti-Bush comments....After Katrina, should athletes have spoken out more? That could have been career suicide.
"Our window as athletes, as far as earning potential, is very very short," continues Bettis. "The practical thought is...while I'm playing, make sure I'm not ruffling America's feathers. I don't see the corporate sponsors as the issue. It's the fan base. It's not like the corporation says, he's a Democrat, so we won't use him. They're thinking, what's his Q score? If the fans don't like you, you're not very valuable."
Present company excluded, for the vast majority of professional athletes political activism is not even under consideration. Not for fear of retribution, suggests Abdul-Jabbar, but of simply reading beyond the sports section.
"They don't have the same sense within them of a need for change," says the former Los Angeles Times blogger, author and jazz historian. "They're just unaware. They're isolated and very comfortable with where they are.
"I remember on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball that some players, some black players, didn't even know who he was. To me that was shocking, startling, that they would be so ignorant. But if you asked most NBA players today, most wouldn't know that their league was segregated in its first three years of existence."
On most teams, like the Steelers, according to Bettis, the unspoken rule is to not bring up politics. But that attitude usually filters from the top down.
When I approached the San Antonio Spurs, a button-down organization owned by mega-Republican contributor Peter Holt, about interviewing some players for this article, public relations director Tom James got so spooked that he replied: "not going to spring you on anyone without warning them first on a topic like this... I'd need a couple of days to talk to the players/coaches you'd want to interview."
Topic like this? Couple of days?
I was then told not to show up for the Spurs practice session, that James would ask if the players wanted to comment. Unsurprisingly, none were, um....found.
On the Phoenix Suns, however, a veteran team led by a Canadian (Steve Nash) opposed to America's invasion of Iraq, p.r. director Julie Fie had no problem offering up politically-engaged, Duke graduate Grant Hill.
"Most of us were talking about Obama's powerful speech on race today," Hill told me the day of Obama's acclaimed March 18th address. "Our coaches are very outspoken on things like race and politics." But he understands why many athletes are less vocal than they might have been in the Sixties. "Everyone wants to compare our generation to the civil rights era," says Hill. "It's not an excuse, but the times of Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor and Muhammad Ali are not what we've experienced. To demand that today's athletes do what they did is a little much."
For some, requiring anything of athletes beyond their sweat is a little much.
"Many of them are still children, mentally and emotionally," says University of Southern California professor Todd Boyd, author of "Young, Black, Rich and Famous." "I have vehemently disagreed with the notion that they should be role models. It's not an athlete's job to raise your child. I think they've put an unfair burden on them."
Boyd and University of Texas history professor Leonard Moore, both of whom study the intersection of sports, race and culture and have taught college athletes for years, suggest that many athletes' path toward political apathy is almost pre-ordained from middle school.
"Athletes get on a conveyor belt at an early age," says Moore, who once taught African-American history at LSU. "Then they're often isolated from other students at largely-white colleges. They get white handlers. Pretty soon we don't know who they stand for. And what you stand for depends on where you've been sitting."
Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and LeBron James have "for lack of a better word," Moore says, "sold out. I tell my students that if you have a ton of money, you're independently wealthy, and can't speak out, then you're still a slave."
Four athletes who have broken this mold hardly disprove the notion that marketers shy away from political activists. None is a marquee player, nor particularly rich (compared to teammates), nor a familiar face on TV.
John Amaechi, British and gay, played five years in the NBA and came out in his book last year, Man in the Middle. Outspoken Darfur activist Ira Newble, forward for the Lakers last season, once circulated a letter to China president Hu Jintao among his then-Cleveland Cavaliers teammates concerning China's human rights violations. Nike-sponsored LeBron declined to sign. Six-year Washington Wizards center Etan Thomas eloquently opposes the death penalty and the Iraq occupation. And Orlando Magic center Adonal Foyle, from the tiny Caribbean island of Canouan, founded the organization Democracy Matters and lobbies for, of all things, campaign finance reform.
Talk about role models. Why wouldn't Nike or Gatorade leap for these strong, intelligent, witty, international, committed, throw-it-down black guys?
Can't you see 30-second spots -- Foyle's hey-mon island lilt, Newble at the Darfur refugee camps -- riffing off America's historic presidential race and cajoling the hip-hop generation to vote. Call it the "Apathy Sucks" campaign.
The ironic thing here, from the crassly commercial point of view, is that social activism sells these days. Kids love causes. Witness the rise of so-called "conscious rap," in which artists such as Kanye West, Nas, Common and Talib Kweli have gone beyond the misogynistic sewer to address everything from Katrina to Bill O'Reilly.
Yes, Charles Barkley and Professor Boyd have it right, up to a point. No athlete should have to walk on eggshells throughout his life for fear that 12-year-olds will hear an errant f-bomb. But neither should athletes have society's permission to be clueless and disengaged from the world around them simply because they entertain us.
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It might help if we can see the difference between a role model and an inspirational figure. Athletes are the latter, as well as a significant force for good works in and around the "inner" cities of this nation. And any other city such as there are. Either they do or they don't, certainly there are enough who engage in charitable endeavors and anyone paying attention know who some of these athletes are.
Role models have to be consistent and on point everyday. Parents, teachers, extended fam and whoever else might be in that position. When a ball player has a bad game, or slumps for a while, they are certainly charitable for being the hook for our own projections of failure. We boo and talk bad about 'em. They get to do stuff most of us get close to only in fantasy. So who, for real, is not jealous? Not the stuff from which role models are formed.
Don't get it twisted. When a bunch of players show up and spend a day in a school, they are not
role modeling. They are inspiring and maybe one youngster will pick up on it and groove. A bunch of kids will have a day they can talk about for a long time. A brush with greatness. They need a touch of greatness every day. Not just once.
everyone talks about Obama "wasting" money
look at the recipients !!
Small business thriving!!
Sign shops, restaurants, rentacar, etc.
The campaign is spending ALL $$ in USA!!!!!!!
Many years ago, a sports psychologist did an analysis of football players, matching personality traits by positions. It would be interesting to see a study that did something similar with their voting patterns. My guess would be that McCain would be stronger among quarterbacks, who are pretty socially conservative and who also have a greater tendency to hang out with the top rung in the organization -- owners and such -- while Obama would do better with offensive linemen, who are the deep thinkers on the field, as fans will know by the number who have odd, seemingly incongruous outside interests, and would appreciate his articulation of the issues as much as where he falls on the liberal/conservative spectrum. And wide receivers would be all over the place politically, since they are the peacocks on the team but also tend to be pretty intelligent. (Wish I could find that study -- it's been decades and I'm sure my memory of it is faulty)
There was a World Serious played in a swamp, then a lake in SE Pa courtsy of MLB's Commissioner, Bud Selig, aka Crud Bud in SE Pa. Rumor has it that Selig escaped lynching but left Philadelphia by rail, tarred & feathered-tied to a rail. While the World Serios didn't do well on TV ratings-avid baseball fans did show some interest. Sports stars are now free to comment on the election.
I'm surprised that the top tier wealthiest athletes aren't Republicans themselves.
"Talk about role models. Why wouldn't Nike or Gatorade leap for these strong, intelligent, witty, international, committed, throw-it-down black guys?"
The answer to that question is simple. Ultimately Nike and Gatorade are selling sports, not political viewpoints and none of the athletes you listed are particularly good NBA players, in fact they're all journeymen.
Several big name athletes have become more active in community issues and politics in recent years, but there are also several who are reasonably single minded and somewhat in a bubble about the rest of the world. Many would say that the single purpose mindset makes them who they are as athletes.
When an athlete or entertainer goes out of his or her way to educate his or herself and become active in the community I think they should be lauded for it. That said, I don't think that we should take it to a point where fame becomes an obligation. Frankly there are too many people out there using fame to advocate ill formed opinions already.
We should stop deifying these one trick ponies, though.
I am an Obama supporter, and frankly, it is kind of a turn off for me when celebrities, rappers, and athletes closely align themselves with Obama. The appeal of his campaign is that it is driven by regular people. The country has been good to the wealthy and celebrity class. We need it to work for everyone else now.
Good point.
I see signs that the country is moving back toward more liberal views and I read Selcraig's posting as reinforcing this view. I'd like to comment in a somewhat different vein here, having watched Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary just the other night. I was very impressed at how it portrayed Jackie Robinson as such an extraordinary individual, not only in terms of his athletic talent, but also as a man of unmatched character and moral courage. Without these qualities, he could not have succeeded as the first black player in the major leagues, given the prevailing racism of that time, in 1947. Now in the comments of another HuffPo article, by Mike Farrell, someone was bemoaning racism, yet seemed to be also arguing that - as we have heard all too often from the unenlightened segment of the punditocracy - that Obama would not be where he is if he were NOT black. They went on to claim that Obama would be a mediocre president. I would like to suggest just the opposite - that, like Jackie Robinson, Obama would not be anywhere near where he is now - on the verge of making history as our first AA president - if he were not extraordinarily gifted in intelligence, personal character and grace, and in ability to inspire and unite diverse constituencies. Certainly, this conforms what I have observed of him throughout these many months of the campaign. I predict Obama will become one of the most beloved and revered
...presidents in US history.
An exceptionally interesting piece, thank you.
See Karen Russell's Profile
My dad NBA legend Bill Russell co-hosted a fundraiser with NBA Legend Lenny Wilkens. Debby Allen and her husband Norm Nixon came up from Los Angeles. It was wonderful.
As I member of Senator Obama's National Finance Committee, I also had the honor of introducing Maurice Lucas to Senator Obama at a fundraiser in Portland!
I also know that family friend and NFL Legend Jim Brown has done radio spots for Obama too.
It is nice to see the next generation of players following in their footsteps!
Michelle Obama's brother Craig Robinson came to Seattle this week to do an event for the Washington State democrats. I was talking to him and Coach Wilkens. I mentioned to him that my dad ALWAYS talks about this election in basketball terms.
Craig said, "yeah, we're in the fourth quarter, eight points up and we need to make all of our foul shots!"
Coach Wilkens chimed in, "and NO turnovers!"
Here's to no turnovers between now and Tuesday!
Thanks for this wonderful blog!
We greatly appreciate you efforts Ms. Russell.
I appreciate all the activity and physical effort you and yours are putting into this historic campaign. It means a lot to have the active involvement of Americans of such stature.
My only fear is that me still don't get it. I've become so disenchanted lately with the current state of race relations in America. Yes, I recognize that there has been overall improvement. And yes, I understand that all white Americans aren't racist. But what disturbs me is that EVERYONE is not appalled by the ignorance spewing from the McCain/Palin campaign. Racism, ignorance, intolerance of any kind is unacceptable in America and it is everybody's problem.
Just imagine if all Black Americans decided to boycott professional sports. Imagine no Black participants or spectators. How's that affect the economy? It's time Black folks demand some kind of respect and be treated like better than second class citizens. The incidences of attempted voter suppression like threats of arrest, long lines, malfunctioning machines, ACORN allegations, and "foreclosure lists" should all be things of the past but we tolerate it without it receiving its well-deserved, forceful backlash. It's all very sad and I'm angry about it.
As MLK and Malcolm X at last concluded: it's class not race. The fact that your wealthy athletes won't even say who they are voting for is both a testament to that statement and proof that your Black American boycott would never happen.
So great to see you here, Karen. I just looked at some of your previous posts and have no idea why I am only now discovering you.
I am a black woman attorney also so it will be interesting to read your perspectives on the various issues. I look forward to becoming a reader of your blog.
All the best to you and kudos to your Dad.
Thank God for Charles Barkley!
great Post, I too would like to know what took them
so long. With the amount money that Michael Jordan and
Tiger Woods have they should be ashamed of themselves for
not doiing more to help Senator O. As for Mr. James he's
so young and maybe he does not really know what
Black people went through in this country, so that he could
play basketball for a team other than the HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS.
In any case it's good to see them starting to break out and
help Senator O. and the team owners should not bother them
about this either.
LeBron James did come out this past week and endorsed Senator Obama. I was hoping Michael Jordan would campaign with Obama in North Carolina, but looks like it's not going to happen. As for Tiger, most all golfers are republicans. I was hoping Tiger was different.
Tiger has deep family military roots, his dad was an Army lifer
Why should anyone care one bit whether Lebron, Jordan, or Woods endorse Obama? Screw them. I am an Obama supporter, and I'd actually prefer that they kept their mouths shut and stuck to their sports.
George Bush is far worse than John McCain. If those guys didn't come out for Kerry, then they should keep to themselves this time around. Coming out for Obama just looks cynical. And most of us don't give a crap what their political opinions are.
Good to know that they have rediscovered their civic responsibility. I am glad they have come out not only to help Senator Obama but to help us reclaim our Democracy. Good job guys, now go and vote!!!!
cool!
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