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Democracy has been prevalent in all areas our country recently including sports. My name is Colin Rownd, and I’m a junior here at the University of Michigan studying sport management, and you’re listening to democracy unmuted.
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Recently, politics and sports have had a major Collision Course. Ever since Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem and protests against police brutality, the conversation about sports and politics and their intersection has taken off. Donald Trump encouraged fans to lead games of players now during the anthem, and even said about Colin Kaepernick. Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now out he’s fired.
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fired.
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Fox News personality Laura Ingraham also said about LeBron James. And it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball. Oh, and LeBron and Kevin. They’re great players, but no one voted for you. Millions elected Trump to be their coach. So keep the political commentary to yourself. Or as someone once said, Shut up and dribble.
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To which LeBron James responded on all star weekend.
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I actually my first, I actually laughed first. When I first saw the reports, and I didn’t I didn’t watch the video and I saw exactly how it was put off.
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But first of all, I had no idea who she is or what she do.
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Until so she she wanted that case, because because now I know who she is.
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It’s
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for her to go up there and say what she said First of all, I mean,
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I would have had a little bit more respect for her if she would have actually wrote those words off. She probably said it right off the teleprompter.
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But that’s okay.
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You know, we live in a way back to everything I’ve been talking about over the last few years. So it lets me know that you know, everything I’ve been saying is correct. for her to have that that type of reaction.
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But we will definitely not shut up and dribble
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I would definitely not do that. I mean too much to.
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to society. I mean too much to the youth I mean too much to,
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to so many kids that feel like they don’t have
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they don’t have a way out and they need someone to help lead them out of the situation they’re in.
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She’s definitely she did a The best thing she did is gonna help me create more awareness. So I appreciate her for even giving me even more awareness for me to sit up here and the greatest weekend of the NBA All Star weekend. This is the best weekend at NBA where all the countries in the whole entire world. Come watch the greatest players in the world, no matter if they’re part of Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
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And I get I get to sit up here and talk about social injustice, equality, and why a woman on a certain network decided to tell me to shut up and dribble. Many people have claimed that they won’t watch sports if players teams in the league support organizations like Black Lives Matter or are kneeling during the anthem. Trump has also been critical of the ratings of the NBA when they came back in their bubble and the NBA was very passionate about their Black Lives Matter message, as well as other social justice movements.
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Although there are many people criticizing these athletes and legs, the impact they have made speaks louder than the criticisms they get. The NBA was able to turn every team’s arena into a polling station for the 2020 election and overall for the elections. 71 sports venues across the country hosted early or Election Day voting. LeBron James teamed up with many other black athletes and artists to promote a spin on his more than an athlete with more than a vote. In light of the George Floyd and Brianna Taylor murders. They focus on educating and energizing black voters and the
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especially young black voters. Early numbers from the election show how this election had the best voter turnout ever. predominantly black cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Atlanta also had great turnout and were key in running their states are Joe Biden.
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Atlanta State Farm arena, which houses their NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks had 40,000 voters through 300 machines in the 19 days of early voting in Georgia. There was little waiting and no reports of incidents, and this turnout quadrupled the turnout at the state’s next busiest voting site.
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Colin Kaepernick has also raised millions of dollars for organizations that he works with the sport many things from the Know Your Rights camp to helping COVID and black communities and more. The awareness these leagues especially the NBA brought to these issues is incredibly important as well. The NBA is the most popular league among younger viewers, and they definitely did the most to bring awareness to these issues, bad social justice messages on the backs of jerseys, kneeling for the national anthem to start every game, and they even boycotted two days of playoff games after the murder of Jacob Blake. The players were the ones who made the push for their arenas to become polling stations. And the NBA players Association made it a big goal to register all of its players to vote. If these players listened to this shut up and dribble advice they were given who knows what would have gone differently in this election or any other issues they were passionate about.
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Looking locally at the University of Michigan, it has been important to see figures like head football coach Jim Harbaugh, March of this team and a black lives matter protests on campus.
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Coach Harbaugh is also with Colin Kaepernick at the San Francisco 40 Niners from 2011 to 2014, where they made a Super Bowl appearance in 2013. Kaepernick threw for 300 yards and rushed for 62 yards and a three point loss to the Ravens.
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In late May of this year, Harbaugh join fellow Michigan alum rich Eisen on the rich Eisen show, and discuss the murder of George Floyd as well as some of the recent conversations he had with his former player and Colin Kaepernick.
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Well, I mean, today I say whatever I’m really very, very upset about George Floyd.
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Death and that’s kind of got me preoccupied today. I’m not just very horrendous
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so
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very, very I’m very I’m just watching right now and
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I’m looking looking forward to there being an investigation and and waiting for that to charges. That’s completely outrageous. Yeah, I know you. I’m sure you you’re you’re obviously on a on a campus. College campus where that I’m sure is a major discussion. You’re also a former
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coach of Colin Kaepernick. And you see all the memes out there if this is why he knelt a woman’s the last time you spoke to Colin, coach, has it been a while ago? Um, we texted
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every now and then I’ll get a text from Connor. I’ll text him but
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I think that that that that there weren’t there was a graphic I saw that too. You know, this, this is why he This is why he now that’s Was it the LeBron James Who? Who tweeted that? I think so. Yeah, exactly. If you didn’t if you didn’t know now, if you didn’t know then, you know now that
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spoke volumes I thought. By the time Kaepernick first started kneeling in 2016. Harbaugh had already been with the Michigan Wolverines for a few years, but for Harbaugh to speak out and show his support speaks volumes when a lot of people spoke up against Kaepernick, and the fact that he’s still blackballed from the league, even though he proved that he could lead a team to the Super Bowl and perform very well in his long Superbowl appearance. social media accounts connected to university athletics have also promoted these issues. Many players have spoken out to support the Black Lives Matter movement. With these statements on social media. There’s a lot of support, but also backlash. People on Instagram comments in Twitter replies and derogatory things about the posts, and some vowed to no longer support Michigan or athletics. athletes like Isaiah livers and Cameron regrown, who both are likely to make the next step and play professionally have spoken out on their social media platforms about these issues. But grown quote tweeted a Notre Dame football tweet that supported Black Lives Matter saying comments make me want to throw up some only care about us on that field. livres posted a screenshot of comments from previous Instagram posts he had about Brianna Taylor
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saying I’m not going blue until it’s go black in response to someone defending the murder of Brianna Taylor, and then saying go boots and the comment. livers also made a statement by taking a knee during the national anthem for Michigan basketballs first game of the 2020 season. players on the basketball team also had social justice messages on the backs of their warm ups and the team has a Black Lives Matter patch on the front of their jerseys.
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The immense pressure these athletes already face now coupled with the fact that they are only seen as athletes, rather than people has to be demeaning and frustrating. This is why it is so important that fingers like LeBron James and others prove that they are more than just what they can do on the field in court, and they can make an even bigger impact off.
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It will be interesting to see how this intersection between politics and sports continues to evolve in the future. These two powerful entities have been intertwined for a long time. And now with the ease of access to speak your mind on social media. athletes will continue to use their platforms in all levels of sport. Overall, everyone’s voice matters, whether you’re an athlete, student, parent, friend, or anything else. So don’t just shut up and dribble or shut up and fill in the blank for whatever fits your narrative with speak out for what you believe in and you can make an impact. Again, this has been Colin Rownd with democracy unmuted.
