For hundreds of years as technology has developed, the media and the news have snuck their way into professional sports culture to report the actions of athletes on the field, but more importantly, the actions of these individuals off the field. In many cases being an athlete and a celebrity come hand in hand, but they are still real people with their own opinions and political beliefs. This brings up the controversial topic of athletes involving political opinions in their workplace.

Generally speaking, many fans and players prefer to use sports to disconnect from the real world and take a breather from the stressors of life outside the game. However, in more recent times the drama of politics has consumed a big part of professional sports and many ask if that is really necessary. News channels such as FOX, call out ESPN for being the biggest culprit of distracting the sport culture with politics. Due to the division families and teams, some former NFL players and sports analysts such as Jason Whitlock believe that anything unrelated to the game should be dealt with in the locker room and “outsiders should not be blamed.”

On air the Fox News reporter states, “The politicalization of sports … an epidemic thats been flooding Americas favorite past times.” To the audience the use of tone shows the solemnity of losing the past time aspect of sports. The action of watching sports and coming together as friends and families has drastically changed in the recent years. These people that came together are now being divided because of their political opinions that are addressed during these events. Another major argument that Fox introduces is that people do not turn on the television at the end of the day to be told what to do and how to act. When all people want to do is watch sports, it is not beneficial to be shoving political views into the faces of these viewers.

Jason Whitlock makes another good point in his interview and says that ESPN came out and basically explained that if an individual disagrees with some of these protests then they are considered a racist. He explains that this is completely wrong and may persuade people that do not agree to stop watching ESPN or sports in general. Absolutely no one wants to go on and have their opinions disregarded and be called a racist.

However, on the contrary many individuals do not only believe that political affiliation with sports is appropriate, but many think it is necessary to use the viewership to prove certain points to the audience in times of current political crisis. The whole year of 2020 has brought some very extreme political topics to the table which may severely effect how sports are played. Whether it is Covid-19, police brutality, or kneeling during the national anthem, it is safe to say the world is changing drastically which puts companies such as ESPN in a weird position with their former “stick to sports” mantra.

ESPN has always been the leading company for sports coverage and it is the first thing that comes to mind for the topic; however, they have recently received a substantial amount of backlash for changing the morals of their company. All throughout the existence of ESPN they have wanted to create a community of sports watching that helps the audience detach from the outside world. As shown in the article above, multiple years ago the company even stood against the tweets of an employee because they were politically abusing President Trump. To prevent potential backlash and to support their company morals they condemned this social media post. In this same time frame ESPN came out with a poll asking the audience their opinion on the the topic. Nearly all the votes were in favor of not covering politics and from that day forward the company launched their “stick to sports” agenda.

The reason this idea of politics in sports becomes so controversial is because of the increasing amount of “bad news” in current times. So much crime gets swept under the rug and this NBA season in the bubble players showed particular anger in this lack of coverage. After the police killing of George Floyd the NBA came up with the idea of putting phrases and names of victims on the upper back of the players jerseys that could be customized by each athlete. This idea was initially to promote the awareness of police brutality, but soon turned into the fight against any type of inequality. However, as the fight against police continued the players began to further revolt which eventually led to boycotting playoff games and exiting the court before tip-offs. Some fans were against this action saying it was not the right thing to do, but the players felt like it was the only way to gain attention and publicity. Most fans however supported this because they too want equality just like many Americans. Turning back on the “stick to sports” slogan from years previous seemed like the only option for ESPN and that is exactly what they did. To this day ESPN said it will cover any political event as long as it involves sports, as the two are intertwined.

This photo is a powerful image that was circulated around the internet to spread awareness and to inform people of the current times. This image is very symbolic and meant to use pathos to strike emotions into the reader. The picture shows multiple NBA players kneeling, wearing “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts with their head pointed down to the floor to strengthen the impact of their main point. In this particular image the only person with their head not pointed downward is one of the two black men in this picture. This may be a coincidence but it also makes a strong point to the reader either saying we all have to battle this as a country and citizens should not disrespect each other, or that it is important to stay strong and do not put your head down in times of hardship. Overall, the photographer of the photo does a brilliant job at using rhetorical skills to strike pathos into the audience.

Many American citizens take the patriotism very seriously and veterans fall deeply into that group of Americans. Many people kneel during the national anthem to protest against the flag and the United States as a whole. Some athletes protest the anthem to call attention to issues of racial inequality and police brutality, while others kneel because players like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf believe the flag is a symbol of “oppression and racism.” The idea of kneeling during the national anthem is one of the most controversial sub-topics in the politics vs. sports argument. This is because there are people who put their life on the line for the country and feel strongly about ideals of the flag that people disrespect on national television. This tends to cause veterans to speak out and share their opinion about how certain athletes make them feel.

About four years ago, Colin Kaepernick was all over the news because of his idea of kneeling during the national anthem. Initially, many people seemed to be against Kaepernick saying that he took the lighthearted characteristics out of the game. He seemingly ruined his career and ended up being unsigned because he was “bigger than the game” and teams did not want additional locker room distractions. It was not until recently that many athletes followed his lead and began taking the initiative to further pursue the practice of kneeling.

This political cartoon, like many others, have pieces that symbolize more than what meets the eye. This being said, the information given through the cartoon can be argued for both sides of this controversy. It is shown that Colin Kaepernick is able to gain the attention of other celebrities such as Lebron James and President Trump. This supports the idea that politics should be involved in sports because it is able to start a conversation that may not have been brought to the attention of people such as Trump and James. However, this cartoon also implements a bag of money that Kaepernick is kneeling next to. This supports the opposite side saying that politics should not be involved in sports because it takes away from the game and causes players to become distracted by potential profit that make come from speaking out or involving politics in the way they play the game. This is a perfect political cartoon because it is able to support both sides of the argument and use rhetoric in an unbiased fashion.

Although many believe that kneeling is disrespectful to Americans, especially veterans, people are willing to listen. Veterans and people that fight for our country are so important and prevalent in this argument because they live, fight, and die for the flag of the United States. As a result, when these athletes make their sport political and kneel during the National Anthem the opinions of these veterans may easily change about the particular athlete or the country overall. For example, army veteran Rocio Serna did not necessarily agree or understand with what Kaepernick was doing, but she still gave her attention without taking complete offense. Instead of fighting against Kaepernick, Serna seemingly agreed with his ideas but not so much with his actions. She describes how it is beneficial for celebrities to bring the elephant into the room because then people are more willing to talk about it.

However, not all veterans feel as positively about these outbursts by Kaepernick and the NFL. Green Beret veteran Michael Rodriguez agreed that Colin was completely in his rights, but he believes that the flag represents liberty to all the citizens instead of this idea of police brutality that these players are protesting. Rodriguez wants it known that the flag is supposed to symbolize everyone who has fought for any type of right that we have as a country. He goes as far to say that Americans do not know what oppression truly is and that we as a country are in a bubble and live a sheltered life compared to other countries.

“What if we had 100,000 Muhammed Ali’s?” -Tom Wicker (NewYork Times)

While many of these political controversies are relatively current, when the media first became involved with boxing star boxer Muhammed Ali he almost ruined his career due to sharing his beliefs through the media. Young or old, these athletes are still humans with cultural, religious and other beliefs. Muhammed Ali marks a great beginning of politics in sports with not only being involved with fighting against racism, but also anti-war efforts due to his religious beliefs. Not many people in this time period were able to stand up and use their fame to address controversial political topics. In this video it clearly shows the consequences that Ali faced such as three years in jail for dodging the draft due to his beliefs.

Finally, the fanbase of the NBA might be starting to show their opinions on the whole situation with politics and sports. There have been many claims by fans that the NBA has simply become “too political.” As shown in the article by Forbes even President Trump tweets that people are tired of watching the “too political” NBA. Thirty-eight percent of the randomly selected 2,000 people claimed that they watch less basketball because it has become too political. This is hurting the profits of the NBA and has contributed to one of the least profitable seasons in decades. These statistics of NBA profits are more than just numbers to the sport as a whole. This poll was created to settle the argument of politics in sports by getting the opinions of the public. The NBA seems to want to make this conversation about the sports community rather than the advocacy of political discrepancies that take over American news everyday. They used this topic to show their audience that the league cares about them and all of the viewers of the NBA.

In conclusion, as media and sports have developed, political conversations have become increasingly affiliated with sports and the athletes. Since sports are so popular, these athletes are idolized by many people around the world and this causes the analysis of every move an athlete makes. While their main job is to perform at maximum potential, athletes still have political views and opinions that sometimes interfere with the sport. This raises the controversy whether politics should be involved in sports or if fines should be given out for those that want to spread their beliefs.