Polling place
With steve greenberg
It happened in the NBA and the WNBA. It happened in the NHL and in MLB, too. Across much of the sports world earlier this week, professional athletes sat out games — in some cases, playoff games — in support of Black lives as attention homed in on Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Jacob Blake was shot by police.
Actions were taken not only by individuals, but by entire teams. In basketball and hockey, entire days’ slates of games were postponed.
In 2020, sports fans have known nothing but disruption to their usual rooting routines. This time, though, it had nothing to do with the coronavirus.
Where do you stand on pros choosing not to work as a form of protest? That was the lead question in this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Chicago Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter.
“You mean professional humans, right?” @RockstadSarah commented. “Glad I could clear that up for you.”
Yes, humans. Flesh, blood, hearts, minds, feelings. We get it. It’s kind of why we posed the question in the first place.
“As long as they don’t go overboard,” @outlawbooster wrote.
Put Outlaw in the I-feel-you-until-I-reallywant-to-watch-some-ball camp.
Also this week, we asked about the upcoming NFL season — scheduled to start Sept. 10, with the Bears opening in Detroit on Sept. 13 — and the right-around-the-corner baseball playoffs. Will pandemic football work? Should baseball hit the bubble?
“No teams have to play minus key players [who] are out with COVID-19 and, of course, it’s much safer for the players and their families,” commented @brandon_hughes_, clearly in favor of a baseball bubble — and he had a lot of company among fellow voters.
On to the polls: