A time, place for social issues in sports
NEW HAVEN — Like fans everywhere, many among the 44,989 danced to stadium standards during the first half of the YaleHarvard game on Saturday. Still their enjoyment, silly and unrestrained, had tickled my funny bone.
“Watching kids who got 1500 on the SATs doing the macarena and YMCA gives me hope for America.”
It was a halftime joke. After the marching bands had performed, I had stepped away from the November chill of the openair press box at the Yale Bowl for a few minutes of warmth in an enclosed area near the elevator. When I returned to my seat, a group of 50 protesters from both schools already had found theirs on Yale’s new synthetic turf. They clapped rhythmically. They chanted, “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” They held up signs demanding action on climate
change. When the public address announcer implored them to leave the field, they chanted, “OK Boomer!”
Hours later, after having finished writing about the bizarre, thrilling events of a long day that ended with an Ivy League cochampionship for Yale, a more careful examination of various social media posts produced the onslaught of polarized messages I had expected …
The cops should have given those narcissistic brats one warning, then moved in with billy clubs and hauled all their entitled butts to jail!
It’s unconscionable that Harvard and Yale continue to profit off fossil fuels and Puerto Rican debt!
Screw them for trying to ruin The Game for the senior players!
No issue facing mankind is more important than climate change!
Those rich punks drove gas guzzlers to the game!
They’re saving the planet!
Yippee! We’re all gonna die! …
That’s when I came across Harvard football captain Wesley Ogsbury in a video released by the Divest Harvard group. Ogsbury said, “Harvard and Yale can’t claim to truly promote knowledge while at the same time supporting the companies engaged in misleading the public, smearing academics and denying the truth. That’s why we’re joining together with our friends at Yale to call for change.
“In solidarity with Divest Harvard and Fossil Free Yale, who disrupted today’s proceedings, many of my teammates and I are wearing orange wristbands, the color of the Divest movement, after the game. We’re coming together to call on Presidents (Lawrence) Bacow and (Peter) Salovey, to divest from the fossil fuel industry now, for the sake of our generation.”
Frankly, the video did not surprise me.
It did inspire me. Inspired me because athletes, true to their team and true to their school, demonstrated they also could be true to their conscience.
As events of the day are pieced together and as organizers explain their preparation, clearly much went into planning a demonstration that quickly became a national story. A lot of people had to have some knowledge of the upcoming drama. And what could be more dramatic than — cue the “Law & Order” opening —than Yalie and climate activist Sam Waterston being among the 42 protesters arrested?
The Ivy League and Yale, predictably, spoke of respecting rights of expression while calling the protest regrettable for taking place during a careerdefining time for the athletes. Former Vice President Al Gore, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie
Sanders, Julian Castro, and Tom Steyer, and congresswoman Alexandria OcasioCortez just as predictably lavished praise on the protesters. For me, Ogsbury’s words meant every bit as much.
Few things ate at me more over the years than athletes following the lead of Michael Jordan. You know, caching, caching, amass the bling, and don’t say anything about society and mankind. Some loved it. I’m among those who hated it. The raised Olympic gloves of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the draft resistance of Ali, the dignity and humanity of Arthur Ashe, we as Americans needed those things. Protests are not supposed to make us comfortable. They are supposed to make us think and, if the cause is righteous, spur us to action. Athletes are among the mosthigh profile in our society. Many of them, progressive or conservative, are not only welleducated, they are excellent communicators well suited for the big platform.
It is a good thing that more athletes have expressed themselves in recent years. Yes, it can be messy. Until Colin Kaepernick sharpened his message, wearing socks with pigs dressed as pigs and wearing a Fidel Castro Tshirt certainly did not present himself in a wise manner. LeBron James, who has been a strong advocate for education and part of an important discourse of police relations with young black males, came off weakly when he criticized Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey as “misinformed or not really educated” after
Morey tweeted his support for the Hong Kong protestors. James could have at least admitted to his lucrative business ties to China through Nike. He could have straddled the line with a statement backing human rights while respecting China’s dominion.
So, yes, when you speak up, it can get messy.
This certainly doesn’t mean to allow some talk show host or news junkie to bully you into shutting up and sticking to sports.
There is a time and place for protests in sports and sporting events.
If a guy runs on the field at Yankee Stadium during the second inning with a sign calling for a ban on assault weapons he deserves the wrath of security. Ditto for one running on the field at a Patriots game with a sign supporting Second Amendment rights just as Tom Brady drops back to pass. Fifty protesters can’t be allowed to simply wander onto the court during play at the NBA Finals or a UConn game.
Yet what better place and time than halftime at The Game? Shared tradition and rivalry, shared greatness and intelligence, the ancient personification of sound mind, sound body. The Game is something noble.
You know what the first thing I thought when I realized what was going on at the 50yard line at halftime?
A future president of the United States is in the stands and might be inspired by what’s happening.
As 10 minutes became 20 and 30, and the crowd of 50 grew into several hundred, you know what my second thought was?
Please, God, don’t let this turn ugly.
Many of those on the field had nothing to do with climate change. It also doesn’t matter how high the SAT scores are, when someone has been tailgating and is welloiled the stupidity index increases diametrically.
As the delay continued, some in the stands grew restless and started to boo.
Here were more than 40,000 people packed in a tight environment. All we needed was someone to throw a punch, flatten a cop on the field and this could have gone downhill in a heartbeat.
The protest demands that the schools, which have a combined $70 billion endowment, divest from fossil fuel companies and cancel holdings in Puerto Rican debt would have rung hollow. The demands the schools reinvest in environmentally sustainable and socially responsible initiatives would have rung just as hollow
Too many people on the field, nerves getting frayed, there were 20 minutes there when I was scared what might happen. Some would say, “Good” and “OK Boomer.” I would say, “Enough, now get off Yale’s synthetic lawn.” Those are the 20 minutes that people who weren’t there can’t fully appreciate, yet could have told a more unfortunate story.
“We were committed and prepared to remain on the field until either Yale and Harvard met our demands or they arrested us,” Yale junior Nora Heaphy, one of the organizers told Hearst Connecticut Media. “We expected that they would arrest us very quickly. Instead we were joined by many, many people from the stands and it took much longer than anticipated.”
Good for security and the cops. They stayed cool. Good for the protesters. They stayed peaceful.
And great for the players who produced a game for the ages. Believe this. When the vitriol over halftime subsides and after the climate change protest moves on to another event, what will remain is the legend of the day. The protest AND the game eventually what will add to the great tradition of The Game.
Thirty years from now, I wish nothing but clean air for those kids with the 1500 SAT scores to do the macarena.