San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Protest of Pac12, Kaepernick have this in common
These are tough times for social justice advocates in sports.
The world does not always greet them and their best good intentions with open arms. Two Bay Area examples: Lou Richie, boys basketball coach at Bishop O’DowdOakland, went to Las Vegas last week to stage a peaceful protest at the Pac12 men’s basketball tournament. Richie was shown the door by security, like a guy caught counting cards at the blackjack table. Colin Kaepernick’s name resurfaced in the rumor/speculation mill, but so far, it’s all talk and no action. He remains the best unemployed quarterback in football.
First, Lou Richie. During the yearlong COVID shutdown, Richie helped revive the dormant Black Coaches Association. He got the idea to venture to Las Vegas to stage an informational picket/ protest last week outside the Pac12 men’s basketball tournament at TMobile Center.
On behalf of the BCA, Richie hoped to bring attention to the fact that there are no Black head coaches in Pac12 men’s basketball.
He arrived Wednesday and chatted up the head of security at MGM Resorts, which owns and shares the TMobile Arena property. The man, Richie said, was not keen on the planned peaceful protest.
Nevertheless, he persisted. Thursday, Richie showed up at the arena with two other coaches: Denard Wilson and Jason Dillard, from Sacramento.
The three were met at the arena by three security people with those talktothemothership sleeve microphones. Richie hadn’t come all that way to give up, so he tried to reason with the men. They held fast. Basically: This is private property. Leave or we will evict you. By the way, that street is ours, too.
An arrest would have made headlines, shining light on the BCA’s cause, but that’s not Richie’s style. When charm and diplomacy didn’t work, he and his two friends left peacefully.
The trip wasn’t a total loss. It was a de facto honeymoon for Lou and Ashley Ash Richie, who were married in October. They had a romantic dinner Wednesday, and Friday took in some Pac12 basketball games.
Richie said he was encouraged by the strong support shown by friends, coaches, former players and socialmedia types. He feels he took an important first step.
“It’s not over,” Richie said Friday. “I can even see next year, people coming and picketing at the women’s and men’s tournaments.”
Unless between now and then the Pac12 gets woke.
Speaking of the unwoke, all 32 NFL teams continue to not employ Colin Kaepernick.
Am I beating a dead horse, as many insist? No, the horse is alive — and champing at the bit to return to the chalklined NFL pasture.
Kaepernick’s name came up last Sunday, when Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote about the Seattle Seahawks’ options if Russell Wilson is traded.
Florio wrote that the Seahawks “could finally give Colin Kaepernick (who is only one year older than Wilson) a full and fair workout, undeterred by the possibility that Kaepernick would divide the locker room on the question of whether he or Wilson should play. (In 2017, given the lingering presence of veterans who resented Wilson, that was a very real possibility.)”
OK, that’s legit speculation. But let’s take a look at the ongoing spread of questionable info. Lindsey Wisniewski, writing on NBC Sports Northwest, noted Florio’s suggestion and added that when the Seahawks had Kaepernick in for a visit in 2017, they chose not to sign him “because the parties were too far apart on money.”
Who says? The quote above from Wisniewski’s story was hyperlinked to a 2017 tweet by NFL Network reporter Mike Garafolo, referring to Kaepernick and the Seahawks:
“They’re apart on money.” However, that commonly uttered “fact” — that the Seahawks and other teams have been scared off by Kaepernick’s salary demands — is disputable. I have heard the opposite from a source close to Kaepernick, that he and the Seahawks never got to that point, nor did Kaepernick with any other team.
Where is the truth? You judge. But the salary thing has become one of the antiKaepernick talking points, which range from easily debunkable to laughable. It’s the latest fad: Say something enough times and it becomes the truth.
I know this: If an NFL team signed Kaepernick, there would be backlash by some fans who disliked his protests and the cut of his jib. But that team would gain millions of fans instantly. They could pay Kaepernick’s salary out of jersey sales.
In 1947, the Dodgers took a lot of heat but did not go broke after they signed a player considered by many to be a disruptive force — bad for the team, the sport and society.
Well, the Dodgers survived. In fact, they continue to reap dividends — financial and cosmic — from that move. Integrity isn’t always bad for business.