Athletes like Kaepernick make difference
The man that killed George Floyd was found guilty of that crime on Tuesday.
That is not something to celebrate or applaud.
But that is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee. Why WNBA players have made their voices heard.
And why Black Americans and allies have risked their lives marching the streets in protest for decades.
We have been saying Black lives matter long before there was a named cause or a social media hashtag.
Not just since the Civil Rights movement. All the way back to abolitionists.
So often, these killers have gone unpunished because the lives they took didn’t matter enough to prosecutors, jurors, fellow Americans.
What does this have to do with sports?
Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem at NFL games nearly five years ago, and thousands of professional, collegiate and high school athletes joined in protests around the country last summer because they wanted justice for the George Floyds of the world.
Kaepernick lost his career for standing on a principle.
NFL teams decided they would rather employ less
talented players, than have a quarterback potentially alienate fans by kneeling for justice. Had he knelt for cancer awareness, Kaepernick would still be on an NFL roster.
As often as the story has been told, I still hear from people who have no idea that Kaepernick knelt during the anthem on the advice of Army Green Beret Nate Boyer.
Boyer, who played football at Texas as a 29year-old freshman after his service to the country, told Kaepernick that taking a knee during the song would be a more respectful form of protest.
Obviously, Kaepernick’s action had nothing to do with the military. It was about racial inequality, police brutality, sickening staples of American history.
Because he was a star, who had led his team to
the Super Bowl, Kaepernick had power.
Athletes can have an impact off the field, away from the court.
They aren’t required to become involved and you aren’t obligated to listen, but it is never wrong to
stand, or kneel, for what is right.
The myriad of athlete protests we have seen haven’t ruined any sport. It’s not like players are stopping in the middle of game action to make statements.
In one of the great moments in sports history, John Carlos and Tommie Smith first ran their race, then raised their fists.
Sport is big business. Because so many of us dedicate so much time to watching athletes play
games, they have a collective power.
Stick to sports? Yeah, right.
Athletes and charitable causes are a natural fit. And so it is with social justice.
Politicians have long recognized the messagespreading potential of sporting events. That is why we have grand national anthem presentations and field-length flags on the field before games.
It is why Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed the foolish and unnecessary, not to mention unconstitutional, requirement that sports franchises play the national anthem prior to every game.
Those clowns in the Senate of the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas didn’t even have the decency to play the anthem before they passed S.B. 4 a couple weeks ago.
Incredibly, the bill claims sports franchises have used the national anthem as a dividing
force.
Kaepernick didn’t divide America. Athletes being activists haven’t separated us.
One could argue they have brought more of us together.
I haven’t seen the video of Floyd’s death. I stopped watching such clips after the Tamir Rice murder. The image of that child, that little Black boy, being senselessly gunned down, brought a level of trauma that I don’t care to experience again.
Sadly, justice has never been served in Tamir’s case.
Justice for Floyd, in the form of his murderer’s guilty verdict, came in part because of the actions of athletes. Their participation in protests brought a heightened level of awareness. They made a difference. That is worthy of applause.