To be “trumped” is to be outdone by a decisive or advantageous move, resource or action.
That’s exactly what President Donald Trump did when he went off script during a speech that was ostensibly to convince Alabama voters that Senator Luther Strong is more electable than his opponent Roy Moore. Sport has a history as a bridge builder and the power of sport has proved useful in combating violence, discrimination and disadvantage. However, in a single tweet, the President trumped the injustices and inequities in society and turned the conversation to the patriotism.
There is, after all, a growing sentiment – exploited by right-wing media – that White Americans lost out under former President Obama, and that white identity and culture (supposedly the de facto “American way”) is being threatened by the move towards a more open, inclusive and diverse society. That is, America as some people know it is changing, quickly – and for the worse – as women, minorities, gay people and others are being promoted, affirmed and championed at the expense of White people.
In Trump’s world, it would be great if NFL owners cut players who disrespect the flag. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired.’” What I heard Trump say was that the NFL should clean its own house before its players, or the league weigh in on the lingering and persistent injustices in society.
The response of NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell, who presides over a league whose owners are mostly Republican, was swift and predictable: “Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the N.F.L., our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”
If you believe the NFL, Roger Goddell or NFL team owners are “uniting” with players because they want to see the type of change the players are speaking about, I have some land to sell you in Puerto Rico.
Do players have a right to protest inequality and injustice. Absolutely. Should they? No doubt. The current involvement, precipitated by Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee, is a great start. However, if NFL owners truly opposed injustice and inequality, wouldn’t Kaepernick be on an NFL team? After all, Kaepernick finished the 2016 with a passer rating better than 50 players at the position.
If pro athletes and their owners are so united on equal opportunity, fairness and justice, then why the NFL’s historic crusade to mask the dangers of head trauma in the face of player dissent? Why is the league vigorously defending against the CTE lawsuit filed by the family of 27-year old Aaron Hernandez after an autopsy revealed that the former NFL star suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative disease linked to bruising hits on the football field?
If NFL owners and Black players are truly unified, and if economic opportunity is the new civil rights struggle, then why are owners complicit in strategies reminiscent to the “good old boy network” that are effectively locking out Black construction professionals from the carnival of arena and stadium construction financed in part by our own tax dollars?
How do you reconcile a lack of 3rd party spending with Black business if owners truly support the goals for which Black players are protesting? Supplier diversity has become an important management practice at corporations around the nation, and Fortune 500 companies spend upwards of $100 billion per year with minority vendors. As far as I know, the “supplier diversity” of the NBA and NFL center on the All-Star Game and Super Bowl snapshots in annual spending.
What about NFLPA and the NBPA spending of union funds. Are those funds spent in furtherance of equality and justice? Does union spending reflect the priorities of their majority Black membership?
The lack of Black coaches is lingering and persistent disparity at the college and professional levels? Over half of all FBS players are Black but only 14 schools have a Black head coach. No organized resistance from players. College basketball is no better, where 99% of the stars are Black and yet 80% of the coaches are White. Ninety percent of the nation’s athletic directors are White. Not a peep. The NFL opened the 2017 season with 7 Black head coaches, the most since 2011. Still, Black coaches do not participate in the revolving door that would have the likes of Eric Mangini being hired by the Browns (back to back 5-11 seasons) after going 4-12 with the Jets. Where is Lovie Smith?
Who’s marketing the multi-media rights of college sports, whose stars are 99% Black? Learfield (2 Blacks among their 53-person leadership team) and IMG. Why not rally around opportunity for Black marketing firms to participate in the bonanza that is big-time college sports? After all, Black folk take the hit when it comes to the “win at all cost” culture that exploits our youngsters.
Consider the lingering and persistent disparity in academic achievement highlighted in the 2013 University of Pennsylvania study on Black Male Student-Athletes and Racial Inequities in NCAA Division I College Sports, the 2016 follow up. The lack of college preparedness overwhelmingly affects Black athletes and precipitates the academic fraud that is committed against Black athletes most recently uncovered at UNC , Syracuse , SMU , Notre Dame and even lightly regarded CSUN. Now is the time to hold the NCAA accountable for placing winning above the well-being of Black athletes.
The current stances of the league and its owners is, in my opinion, nothing more than a public relations maneuver that owners will lean on in collective bargaining with players. How will players effectively challenge Goddell’s role as judge, jury and executioner and other touch issues after owners have locked arms with players in opposition to President Trump?
In a response to Trump’s tweet and a later tweet that appeared to disinvite the NBA champion Warriors to the White House, Stephen Curry of the Warriors stated flatly: “I don’t want to go” and “not going will hopefully make a statement about what we tolerate, what is accepted, what we turn a blind eye to.” The reaction from many athletes was immediate and impassioned, with Dolphins defensive back Michael Thomas urging fellow players not to back down. “Continue to use your voices and your platforms for racial equality and to stop injustices in our communities.”
How many Blacks are employed by Steph Curry’s agency Octagon? Is it okay for the firm that represent so many Black star athletes to employ so few Black professionals? What about at CAA, which boasts that it has represented more than 100 first-round picks in the past 16 years, more than three times the next closest competitor, and 24 players selected to the 2017 Pro Bowl? The majority of 1st round picks in the past 16 years, and the majority of 2017 Pro Bowlers were Black. How much business does either firm do with Black professionals/vendors? Do they work with Black accountants, event planners, finance professionals, insurance, marketing/public relations professionals or real estate agents?
According to folk I know, Richard Williams insisted that IMG hire Black folk as part of his agreement to have tennis prodigies Venus and Serena represented by IMG. While they have thrived and prospered, most Black players continue to cast their lot with White agents/firms. And this despite the fact that media reports place the success rate after sports at staggering low rates. The folk at CAA, Octagon and the other majority White firms have been conspicuously silent as the debate has boiled over.
For far too long, Black folk have looked to Whites to save us, an ugly vestige of slavery. Hasn’t happened. Won’t happen. The current debate is no exception.
Now that pro athletes feel emboldened when it comes to weighing in on issues at the intersection of race, sports & money, why not tackle the manifestations of the issues of inequality and injustice that exist (and persist) in sport? My point is not that it is the job or role of pro athletes to fix all that ails society. Now that they have injected themselves into the debate….
Pro athletes have a wonderful opportunity to be the catalyst for change within the Black community beyond the symbolic. Instead of using sport to combat discrimination and injustice, to get White folk to feel our pain or sympathize with our struggles, why not use it to build bridges within our own community and propel us to unprecedented heights.
If pro athletes led such a charge, it would bring about the type of economic shift that flowed from the formation of OPEC by oil producing countries. It would also unite the Black community. And such a development would trump all the noise and conversation about the flag.