SPORTS PLAYED PART IN THE U.S. ELECTION AND IN DEMOCRACY
It turns out that America is not pretending to be great again, it is aspiring to be better
To recycle a phrase from an unstuck world of sports, American democracy staved off elimination during the election. Mere survival has never felt so cathartic.
It should all make sense now, why sports couldn't stick to frivolity, just as any responsible citizen couldn't be lured by the bread and circuses of normal, absent-minded life. U.S. President Donald Trump's endgame, telegraphed for months, was to mount a mendacious attack on the integrity of the people and their vote, to shatter our most sacred right. To hear about it and plan against it before the election was unnerving. To witness Trump actually follow through was terrifying. And if as many eyes as possible weren't open, he may have succeeded. But this is America, still. It's not pretending to be great again. It's aspiring to be better.
The maintenance of liberty is a best-of-infinity series, and so that noble and complicated quest continues. By electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the United States has given conventional governing a mandate to go back to work. And in light of the defeated incumbent president's craven disregard for a democratic system that didn't benefit him, let's do this one special recount: Whose protest stands as more appropriate for who we are as a country?
Is it the athletes' call for racial justice and human decency?
Or is it Trump's unfounded claims that he was robbed? Who actually got fired for wanting the nation to be different?
Rather than remain docile and delight in unconditional diversion, sports intensified a desire to choose a different aim over the past four years. They decided to help hold together the conscience of America. They don't deserve an inordinate amount of credit, but their contributions were meaningful and noticeable, right down to Atlanta voters flocking to State Farm Arena to help decide the election.
In the sports world, the activism started with athletes turning up the volume on denouncing police brutality and calling for racial equality. Then they forged a true partnership with everyone in their realm: coaches, executives, owners and referees were all participants. Later came a universal commitment to educate, empower and energize voters that included everything from transforming athletic facilities to voting centres to raising US$27 million to eliminate the court costs that would have prevented some formerly imprisoned Floridians from voting.
WNBA players such as Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud took the season off to fight for justice. After George Floyd's death, NFL stars produced a video that moved their commissioner, Roger Goodell, to change his tone about protesting players. No longer did the Trumpian admonishments of “stick to sports” and “shut up and dribble” hold power. While not everyone in sports thinks the same, there was unified recognition that this was a time to be more than complacent entertainment.
The building of this motley coalition in sports, one that transcended partisan passion, mirrored what happened throughout the nation. Instead of being frightened by polarity within their diverse fan bases, teams opted to consider their moral responsibility. They had to do so. The players demanded it. And here's the thing that Trump and many others ignored when they disparaged and brushed aside some of the country's greatest icons: They are not disposable. They are singular. They cannot be fired simply for voicing their concerns. And considering our deep love of sports, they cannot be boycotted by large enough numbers, either. Not for pleading for the police to stop killing unarmed Black citizens. Not for encouraging folks to vote.
Critics of the movement have continued to claim this is not the role of sports. In a society that operates the way it should, sports wouldn't have to assume some of that role. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wouldn't have to spend six figures to help make Arrowhead Stadium accessible to voters. WNBA players wouldn't have to wear shirts with seven bullet holes to signify the number of times police shot Jacob Blake in the back in Kenosha, Wis. James wouldn't have to start a More Than a Vote initiative to combat voter suppression.
In the end, the people who saved democracy from Trumpism were the people the president targeted the most with his racist, misogynistic and extremist-wooing rhetoric. They did it because, for all the oppression they have endured, they still love and believe in America. They prefer improvement over chaos.