Should leading sports people speak out about political issues?
In 2016, Colin Kaepernick gained nationwide attention when he began protesting what he viewed as the oppression of people of colour in the United States by not standing while the United States national anthem was being played before the start of games.
His actions have sparked a series of similar protests, but the quarterback is out of a job and can’t get an NFL contract.
Kaepernick is paid to play football, not highlight perceived political injustices. A sports field is a place of employment. An athlete, like any other worker, should abide by the terms of their contract.
Whenever an athlete decides to protest, we frequently see a number of arguments from both sides of the debate.
If a McDonald’s employee turns up to work in an alternative uniform protesting animal welfare abuses by the company, they get fired.
Why shouldn’t 70 per cent of NFL players who happen to be African-American take a stand against Donald Trump, who is ignorant, offensive and racist? Those in a position of privilege have a greater power to influence debate.
The world is surely a better place for the sporting boycotts of apartheid South Africa and the courage shown by the likes of Billie Jean-King, Muhammad Ali and Cathy Freeman in protesting various social and professional ills.
Israel Folau opposes same-sex marriage and gets slandered. Who really cares what the Wallabies fullback thinks?
Most athletes are boring, aren’t they? Repeating rehearsed cliches and exclusive jargon designed to deflect tough questioning of performance and satisfy corporate sponsors and their expectations of the ‘brand.’
Do athletes have the intellectual capacity to speak about such things as economic imbalance?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, is perhaps the aptest idiom for capturing the opposing opinions in this debate.
What do you think?
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