JEFF JACOBS
On Trump vs. LeBron: Prez should stick to politics
Mr. President, stay in your lane. Resign your part- time job as Sports Troll- in- Chief.
You are too dangerous to play in our games.
Lost in the recent launch of LeBron James’ I Promise School in his hometown of Akron — certainly lost in Donald Trump’s pitiful, poisonous tweet about the intelligence of Don Lemon and James — were some powerful words by the NBA star.
James told the CNN anchor that Trump is using sports to divide us and that he can’t sit back and say nothing. He talked about how playing sports was the first time he’d ever been around white people and how this gave him an opportunity to learn about them, and they got an opportunity to learn about him.
“I was like, ‘ Oh, wow,’” James told Lemon. “All because of sports.”
Asked what he’d say if he were seated across from the president, James answered he’d never sit with Trump … and we were off. Trump tweeted, “LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike.”
That’s the president of the United States talking, the man who holds the position of Jefferson and Lincoln. Assigning labels to a human being is treacherous business, and “racist” is among the most treacherous. Yet the way Trump has routinely disparaged the IQ of prominent black Americans, it is impossible to argue he hasn’t reached deep into the historical cesspool of false stereotype.
It’s ridiculous to defend the intelligence of Lemon or James. Their IQ is not on trial. What should be on trial in our nation’s sports pages and sports networks is Trump’s total lack of care for the contemporaneous nature of sports. Like nothing else in 21st- century America, sports simultaneously are what bring us together and what divide us.
When Vince McMahon introduced Trump at his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013, he called Trump “a WrestleMania institution.” He is. The menacing truth is Trump’s sports tweets read like a weekly script from WWE. He didn’t get the memo from humanity that real sports and pro wrestling are different. Real sport isn’t narcissism from the top ropes.
Sports fandom is easily inflamed and it can get ugly coast to coast in a heartbeat. At the same time, great performances and the resilience to overcome great obstacles by athletes of all faiths and colors can unite us like nothing else. Yes, it is only sports, and sports are all of us in microcosm.
When it comes to the NFL protests and players taking a knee during the national anthem, the president is using his vitriolic tweets to stoke his base with his brand of jingoism. In a sworn deposition, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Trump told him, “This is a very winning, strong issue for me. Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.” For Trump, this isn’t about lifting us with solutions about the treatment of young black men and
women in the justice system. This is about looking for the big W.
So he goes on tweeting. Inviting, disinviting teams to the White House like a rich kid toying with school mates. Warriors and Steph Curry? You’re out. Eagles? You’re out. Good grief, even Terrell Owens doesn’t display this much ego. Even Trump’s wife, Melania, and Michael Jordan took up for LeBron and it didn’t seem to bother him a lick.
Yet it is Trump’s doubling and tripling down on the NFL protests that is the most harrowing part of his relationship with athletics. After two years, here was Trump tweeting last month, “Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $ 40 million Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/ no pay!”
The NFL players weren’t even mandated to be on the field for the anthem until 2009, and in 2016 the NFL affirmed while it encourages the players they are not required to stand during “The Star- Spangled Banner.”
On Friday, Trump tweeted after preseason openers: “The NFL players are at it again — taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their “outrage” at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love ...
“Be happy, be cool! A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!”
Fact: NFL players receive no more than 48.5 percent of the money. Yet Trump says the real outrage is that most players are unable to define what they’re protesting and should just be happy and cool.
Again, it smacks of Trump calling black athletes stupid. At this point, it’s obvious they know exactly what they’re protesting. Be happy and cool? Yeah, stick to the sports and entertainment world and stay in your lane, Mr. Bojangles.
When Colin Kaepernick first protested in 2016, I argued he was throwing too large a historical blanket over something so immediate, vital and specific as police relations with the black community. I thought James and others were making progress in that area. Look, I don’t like turning your back on the flag. But all the focus went to “disrespecting the anthem,” “spitting in the face of veterans.” It never was about that, but Trump made it all about that and he never let go.
Even as the NFL bungled things by not working with the players association on an anthem solution, even as the sides recommitted to doing exactly that, Trump couldn’t stop himself. He doesn’t want a solution. The WrestleMania institution wants the W.
Look, I’m sick of the military- industrial complex foisting its brand of patriotism on sports. We don’t need flyovers that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. We don’t need giant flags that fill an entire field and multimillion- dollar recruiting stars. We certainly didn’t need the military paying the NFL millions for pregame ceremonies to honor — get this — the military. Thank God, a real American hero named John McCain helped put a stop to that a few years ago.
I am for grassroots patriotism, something you’d think a populist like Trump would be for, too. Wouldn’t it be grand if local elementary school kids sang the anthem at all NFL games? If the vets from the nearby VFW always carried the flag on the field? I love it at games when those who have served stand and be recognized. The best of us know the anthem is partly about our men and women who fought and died, but wholly about the freedoms we enjoy because of them.
This is not a liberal- vs.conservative argument here. This is not Democrat vs. Republican. This is about the love of sports vs. Donald Trump’s love of himself. He sends out so many conflicting messages like about Charlottesville, about prison reform with Kim Kardashian, etc. He’s mercurial. He’s unpredictable. In the volatile world of sports, that makes him too dangerous.
Stick with politics, Mr. President.
Our games are too precious.