Polling place
With major-league baseball set to resume play July 23, the NBA on July 30 and the NHL on Aug. 1, will there be an uptick in so-called anthem protests? In support of Black Lives Matter or for any other reasons, will we see baseball, basketball and hockey players take knees as the national anthem blares inside mostly empty stadiums and arenas?
And what will be the public reaction to it? In soccer alone, there have been such acts of protest in men’s and women’s professional leagues in the U.S., England and elsewhere. A table-setter for the higher-profile leagues in this country? If and when football arrives, players throughout the NFL and the college game undoubtedly will take knees; football players have led sports’ part in this movement from the start.
In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter
— we asked if kneeling during the national anthem is, essentially, good or bad. The voting speaks loudly.
As the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, among other teams and schools at all levels, reconsider their names and logos, we also asked what the Blackhawks should do about theirs. Finally, we asked if the sports world has gotten too political.
“Have polls gotten dumber?” @randosoxfan commented.
These questions aren’t easy for everybody. “I’d prefer a third option to these questions,” @tunahof wrote. “The answers are worded to be extreme one way or the other.”
It’s a fair point, though playing the middle doesn’t seem to help settle any issues of the day.
On to the polls: ✶