Stills: Ross looks like hypocrite
Receiver believes owner’s relationship with Trump unsavory
Columnist
If Miami Dolphins receiver Kenny Stills really wanted to make a provocative statement, he should have said there’s no better billionaire to bend President Donald Trump’s ear on race than team owner Steve Ross.
That would have been a truly radical way for Stills to go. He should have demanded if Ross wants to hold a fundraiser for Trump, the Dolphins owner also should tell the president how his words and policies are agents of bigotry and racism.
It wouldn’t just have been a different tact from the manner most people and especially athletes attack Trump. It would have fit Stills’ good work the past four years of opening civil conversations and, hopefully, previously closed minds in our community.
Stills instead went the other, more common way. He wanted to quarantine Trump. He suggested Ross acted hypocritically in holding a fundraiser for Trump while having a sports foundation for racial equality.
“You can’t have a nonprofit with this mission statement then open your doors to Trump,” Stills wrote, following it with the statement of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) to “eliminate racial discrimination, champion social justice and improve race relations.”
This is where we are in America. This side in one corner, that side in the other corner and never the twain will meet, much less talk civilly.
Stills is one of the good guys. He’s stood for what he believes. He’s maintained his dignity while in the storm of kneeling for the national anthem. He’s often in the community, from meeting law enforcement to gay groups to hear all voices.
The sad part here is Stills also knows Ross. He knows Ross didn’t just start RISE five years ago. He knows Ross and team executive Jason Jenkins have the Dolphins helping the community more than any team in South Florida.
He knows Ross hired the most minority-filled team in NFL history, starting at the most powerful and visible positions of general manager and head coach.
Stills also was in the locker room before the Dolphins’ 2016 opener in Seattle when teammate Michael Thomas went to Ross and told of some players’ plans to kneel during the national anthem.
“I’m behind you,” Ross said.
Trump had a field day criticizing the anthem kneelers. Ross supported them. If anything shows they have loud differences amid their common causes, this anthem issue does.
There’s a legitimate issue whether Trump listens to anyone. But the one thing he listens to is money. And Ross has made more money in the same business as Trump. He’s beat Trump so long he’s got to be tired of winning against him. That’s the kind of person Trump might listen to talk.
Now it’s incumbent on Ross to talk to Trump, to bring Stills’ concerns into a conversation.
Next question: Should Ross have not done all this good work because he supports Trump? Should he have not started RISE? Not hired minorities in positions of power? Not have his team brokering talks between law enforcement and minority youth? Do you really want to take all that away?
Those like Stills in sports are forever in a quandary how to use their voice. Take, for instance, championship teams refusing to attend the White House. It’s a commonplace boycott these days.
What if more teams went to the White House and had an eloquent player deliver their message on race relations before Trump and a national audience? Wouldn’t that be a more radical way to go?
What if players demanded more team owners talk to Trump on race relations in manners those around him evidently don’t?
Stills raised the issue of whether Ross is being two-faced in this. But some people view things other than race as their deciding factor in politics. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, for instance, is on record about being on board with Trump because of his full support of Israel.
These mega-billionaires like Ross or Kraft holding fundraisers for Trump are akin to one of us common folk voting for Trump. You can disagree with it. But is everyone who votes for Trump a racist? Is that the litmus test at work in politics today?
If you want to dislike Ross because the Dolphins haven’t won under him, have at it. That’s fair game. But the hope is Stills and Ross get together and talk. They’ve each done good work. They make our community better.
Bill Clinton gives a speech where he talks best about the deep impasse in America today. The biggest problem isn’t between liberals and conservatives, rich and poor, old and young, black and white, he says.
“The biggest difference is between those who agree with you and those who don’t agree,” he says.
Stills made a loud statement saying Ross shouldn’t be helping Trump. He would have made a profound one by saying he knows no better billionaire to have Trump’s ear.