Candidate, Quarteback, Protestor, President
Last summer, while writing political pieces for Paste, I pitched and drafted something about Colin Kaepernick kneeling before San Francisco 49ers games last season. It was a brave and bold stance for a player who had seen his playing time cut dramatically during a lost season for a once-proud franchise in the National Football League. Kaepernick kept kneeling and slowly but surely players around the league kept protesting along with him.
As this season opened, Kaepernick found himself without a team, but on the front and center of a battle against racial inequality. As the summer grew longer and later, the realization that Kaepernick playing on a team as the league opened their season became less and less of a reality. However, more and more players were protesting during the national anthem. This time, star players like Marshawn Lynch, Michael Bennett, and many others used the anthem as a platform to keep an eye on racial inequality. Even white teammates with hands on shoulders and quotes in the mornng people began shining a light on this.
Fast forward to Friday night in Huntsville, Alabama and our president spoke to a clamoring crowd wearing their MAGA hats on their heads and their faux-conservative hearts on their sleeves. Among the things that President Trump had to say included remarks about NFL players protesting during the anthem.
“But you know what’s hurting the game more than that? When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing our great national anthem. The only thing you could do better is if you see it, even if it’s one player, leave the stadium, I guarantee things will stop. Things will stop. Just pick up and leave. Pick up and leave. Not the same game anymore anyway.”
Of course, he continued. Because he always does. Cue the perpetual John Kelly head in hands look:
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a (expletive) off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’”
This morning many players took a knee during the anthems at stadiums around the country. How did we get here? A little over a year ago, I tried to take a look at that.
By Greg Cameron
Earlier this summer, Donald J. Trump, alleged billionaire, orange-hued bloviator, and oh, yeah, Republican nominee for president wanted to plan his convention around a night of winners.
Remember this? He wanted Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Tim Tebow, Don King, Bobby Knight, Lou Holtz, among many others to extol the virtues of Donald Trump: winner extraordinaire.
It was a pretty preposterous premise, especially considering the checkered pasts of both Knight and King being pretty strong hindrances to being plausible character witnesses on a national political stage. As quickly as it was floated, the idea of Trump’s Winners Night was dead.
Winning is something that Trump is so profoundly obsessed with; yet like another flashy entity emblematic of New York City, the New York Jets, simply can’t find his way to the victory.
For each, winning is the brass ring they must catch and find but simply can’t attain. This is also in addition to their obsession to talking about the winning that they will do, but never deliver.
To the surprise of no one, Jets owner Woody Johnson is a Trump supporter, of course.
So as Trump tried to wrangle his Island of misfit winners, he forgot of his convention’s host city’s recent crowned champion jewel, the Cleveland Cavaliers. If he is so obsessed with winning, why didn’t he try and court LeBron James and his immense popularity in the Buckeye State.
On Sunday night we learned the answer to that as James penned a letter of endorsement for Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency. It read like how he plays each and every night; reasoned, passionate, and contained a lot of heart.
“Policies and ideas that divide us more are not the solution. We must all stand together — no matter where we are from or the color of our skin. And Hillary is running on the message of hope and unity that we need,” James wrote.
In the NBA specifically, the changing political bearings experienced by their players is far from new. James being such a superstar is the most significant portion of the story.
“This is definitely not without precedent,” said The Nation’s Dave Zirin, a noted historian and expert in the intersection of sports and political culture. “In 2008, players like Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups held fundraisers for Barack Obama and LeBron attended those as well.”
The star forward’s endorsement feels like the exact flashpoint that to connect sports to this election cycle directly. Could James and his endorsement affect perpetual swing state Ohio?
Zirin seems to think the James endorsement is at least falls in line with the Clinton campaign gaining some buzzworthy headlines, in addition to helping young millennials flock in support of Clinton’s bid for the White House — something the campaign seemed to be eyeing.
“There has been much less of a cultural buzzy feeling to Secretary Clinton’s run,” Zirin said. “There haven’t been many athletes out for her. That’s something that makes this singular. But if you read the letter, [James] links it back to coming back to Cleveland and specifically northeast Ohio. With that, the endorsement matters beyond sports. This election is hinging on turnout and in Ohio specifically, the Clinton campaign’s turnout of young millennials of color,” he added.
With the advent of social media and access to athletes and entertainers than ever before, political endorsements from athletes may become more and more prevalent.
Look at Colin Kaepernick as the perfect example of this. The 49ers quarterback had increased his willingness to speak out about racial inequality little by little.
Then, just a short month later, we get things like dingbat Iowa congressman and noted user of the term ‘subgroups’ when describing other races, Steve King, saying that Kaepernick is ‘sympathetic to ISIS.’ When talking about sports and politics now, everything has to be some kind of scalding hot take.
We can learn a lot from the athletes we watch every Sunday. Just look at how Nate Boyer, former Seahawk and Green Beret actually discussed Kaepernick’s stance with the San Francisco quarterback and in the end stood next to him as Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem.
In sports, trust, and furthermore, chemistry, is paramount. Name me one team that won a multiple championships and didn’t all like each other.
You have to be able to talk to your teammates and know what they know and help them fill in what they don’t on the field. If you’re an athlete and this doesn’t happen then you have probably been subjected to Jonathan Papelbon’s weird-as-hell Spotify playlist.
How does this circle back to LeBron and ultimately Trump’s Smeagol-like obsession with winning. Simply put, James’s endorsement started a new conversation; one that listened to ideas, took them into consideration, and made a decision to do something with that knowledge.
It’s what an endorsement should be: thoughtful, reasoned consideration of any and all information makes the reader and even writer better for the experience.
And frankly, LeBron James is an actual winner (seriously, you can look at box scores and everything) that Donald Trump doesn’t have on his bench. Instead, he can trot out Don King, Lou Holtz, or whomever else he wants, whenever he wants.
In the first presidential debate Trump talked about having a winning temperament, an attribute that someone that actually possesses one doesn’t have to talk about to get that point across to the masses.
Theodore Roosevelt is attributed most often to a quote about speaking softly but carrying a big stick. It is certainly doable to question whether or not Donald Trump has heard that phrase or even understands it.
Try and name me a winner that plays a full-throated game predicated on bombast and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t definitively won anything.
In sports and politics, words matter. They just do.
They matter in the huddle before the first snap, in the film room, and in the bliss of victory and in the agony of defeat. Words assuredly matter on the campaign trail, in the spin room, and in debate prep.
Winners like LeBron James know this. This very simple fact has resulted in the three championship rings that adorn his fingers.
Why hasn’t someone with such a winning temperament figured that out?
