Right now, there’s no way to watch sports these days without hearing about the political actions behind it. With that in mind, I figured that I would weigh in, put in my two cents, and then shut up about it in this space, because this is not where I typically talk about anything other than New Jersey Devils hockey. In the off-chance that this post goes viral and you want more political and sports musings from me, I’ll get it out of the way right now: this isn’t the place for you. Go to SB Nation or Deadspin for your 500th regurgitated Kaepernick protest take of the day. But if you’re interested in (among other things) what I have to say about those two paragons of trite sports journalism horseshit, then read on.
Side note: hopefully I’ll be more active on here regarding the Devils this season- most of the players in the preseason are looking good, and that should motivate me to actually watch and write about the team without getting angry. Perhaps you’ll like my writing style and think that I’m a good guide for the upcoming season. A guy can dream!
I’m not going to write too much about the events that led up to this point because they’re readily available on every news channel and website that deals with making a quick buck off of moral outrage. But in case you’ve been living under a rock, or if an alien civilization reads this after we’re all dead in my lifetime, here’s a condensed timeline:
- Then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneels during the pregame national anthem last preseason to protest police brutality
- A few other players join him
- Kaepernick’s contract runs out after that season, he doesn’t get signed by any team, leading some people to believe that he’s getting blacklisted by the NFL
- A lot more NFL players join him in solidarity
- President Donald Trump makes comments at a rally that any player doing this should be fired, calling them “sons of bitches”
- LeBron James takes issue with these statements, as does Stephen Curry, and Trump disinvites the Golden State Warriors from attending the White House in response
- Auston Matthews takes the other side of the argument by saying this is disrespectful to the troops, while the Pittsburgh Penguins announce that they will go to the White House
And that’s where we are today. Not mentioned: so much shit being thrown around by everyone that you’d swear the world and the internet are both sewers. They are, but that’s besides the point. If you don’t agree with Kaepernick, you’re a MAGA chud. If you don’t agree with Matthews, you’re more than welcome to move somewhere else.
I’m going to lay out my views on the issue right here: I think Kaepernick’s protest was thought out well, I agree with the reasons for which he knelt, and I know he had every right to do so, although it’s not like he had much to lose from a playing standpoint because he was dreadful in the previous season. I believe that he’s blacklisted by the NFL for his views and actions, and as bad as he is as a quarterback, there are many sub-mediocre players that stick around. I think that Trump was very much out of line with what he said and that it’s disgusting (and probably illegal) to use his position to call for people to lose their jobs. So I’m firmly on the side of LeBron, Curry, and other athletes who are calling out this behavior as well as the protesters who continue to keep it going.
At the same time, I’m also a sports fan. I watch hockey, soccer, football, etc. to escape the drudgery of everyday life, not to wallow in it. I recognize the importance of these actions, but it’s not what defines my worldview as a fan. I disagree with Auston Matthews’s views and the Pittsburgh Penguins’s White House trip, but I’m not writing them off as terrible people, although I’ll definitely tease Pens fans for it. Last but not least, I know that athletes make enough money to occupy a political sphere that isn’t my own.
Something that comes to my mind on that last point is Charles Barkley talking to his grandmother about running for governor of Alabama as a Republican, which was his political affiliation at the time. She told him that only rich people are Republicans, and Barkley’s response was simple: “Grandma, I am rich!” Perhaps it’s cynical to assume that athletes have political points of view that I disagree with, but I’m a cynical and pessimistic guy to begin with. If you start with low expectations, disappointment doesn’t feel as bad. I should know, I said that the Giants would lose on the last-second 61-yard field goal right as they were lining it up on Sunday, and I ended up not being so mad when I was proven right.
Far from being an escape from the downs of life like it was when I was growing up, the internet has proven to be one long, unending scream over the past couple of years. If you want the best example of this phenomenon on the topic of protesting in sports, look no further than websites like the aforementioned Deadspin or SB Nation, to say nothing of general interest thinkpiece sites like Slate, Salon, or The Daily Beast that have surely dabbled in this subject as well (I wouldn’t know because I don’t waste my time by reading any of them). I was once a regular and passionate reader of Deadspin, but then Tommy Craggs took over. Back in the golden era of the site, he notably disagreed with founder Will Leitch’s view that they shouldn’t publish content for people to agree with just because they like reading it. That differing philosophy became readily apparent when he took over- Deadspin became less about the absurdities of sports and more about a preachy, dry, hard-to-read look at society through the lens of sports. It also got quite boring and harped on certain subjects all the time. At one point, there were 17 different articles in a single day about the then-fresh Ray Rice wife hitting story. I quit reading Deadspin when I decided that the frustration I got from reading it wasn’t worth it.
Later, I stumbled upon SB Nation, which had all of the fun that I felt Deadspin had lost. The articles were goofy but written by smart people who knew what they were talking about. Unfortunately, SBN became assimilated into the Internet Content Borg when it was acquired by Vox Media. Appropriately enough, it was right around Kaepernick’s original protest when it took a turn for the worse. The fun stuff was soon outnumbered by “important” essays, and in time, I quit that website too. Well, getting banned from commenting on all 300+ sites under its umbrella helped boot me in that direction, but somebody had to say that Matt Yglesias’s online media empire fucked over what was once a good site.
Would you want to read a site that preaches to you like this on a daily basis? I sure don’t.
A common retort to Deadspin, SB Nation, and ESPN’s occasional foray into political issues is “stick to sports.” It’s often used by people with conservative or other right-wing views as a slight against websites that they perceive as too liberal or left-wing. I don’t agree with their opinions, but it does feel like the sports writing landscape is universally dominated by people who chastise and even sometimes insult people who hold an anti-protest view. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the people writing these things are lefties, either. I’m sure that the rich people who run the family of websites that include SBN or Deadspin want nothing to do with radical redistribution of wealth.
My cynicism is speaking again, and it’s saying that those essays are performative. They’re not being written as a genuine expression of concern, they’re being written to get clicks. On top of that, they’re all boring and shallow. If you’ve read one scolding take that’s pro-kneeling, you’ve read them all. I’ll expand on the phrase that right-wing sports fans like to throw at people: “Stick to sports, because you’re not being insightful.” Either say something that hasn’t been said before or shut up. Otherwise, you’re just repeating a mantra and throwing another turd into the inferno that is modern-day Internet Content. I bet that something like Breitbart Sports will be launched very soon, and when it does, I’m going to blame these sites because they created a large audience that was alienated by their bullshit.
I suspect that my non-political views in this post are common among sports fans. Sadly, you’ll never see something like this published on SB Nation, Deadspin, or any thinkpiece website, because clicks = money and I directly insulted that business model. I certainly hope that there are people out there who agree with me.
Thanks for reading this post. I promise that my next post will be one about hockey and not one about real-world drama.
My Hockey Hell 