Should Chiefs and Royals cancel their games? In this moment, athletes should be heard
In this moment of anguish, athletes have unmistakable voices, and they will be heard.
And they will make a difference.
We don’t know yet if the Chiefs or Royals, or Sporting KC, will postpone games, or if their opponents will take matters into their own hands. But the athletes’ demands for change, heard after George Floyd’s death in May, have grown to a roar in August.
All of us should listen.
On Wednesday, Milwaukee Bucks decided to boycott their NBA playoff game after a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back. Seven times.
Riots broke out, and two protesters were killed, allegedly by a gun-toting teenager.
“Our focus today cannot be on basketball,” Bucks team members said in a statement. They called on Wisconsin legislators to focus on police “accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform” in the days ahead.
Other NBA and WNBA games were postponed. So were some major league baseball games. Some players sat games out. Some tweeted their concerns.
“FED UP,” said Chiefs’ safety Tyrann Mathieu. “We cannot be happy for self when our communities are suffering & innocent folk are dying.”
Doc Rivers, a Black NBA coach said, “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.”
“WE DEMAND CHANGE,” tweeted NBA player LeBron James.
Those words, and others like them, will make some people happy and infuriate others. What cannot be denied is their impact.
Many pro athletes, perhaps most, understand this only reluctantly. Players are trained from an early age to keep quiet and accept direction. Dissent is swiftly punished. Individuality gives way to team-think.
At the same time, at the highest level, athletes can easily isolate themselves from the real world. They make tons of money. They’re instructed to avoid “distractions.” Some teams literally lock their players away before a big game.
And let’s be honest. Isn’t distraction the reason we love sports so much?
“What we do is a separation from what’s going on in the world,” Royals star Whit Merrifield said, explaining the team’s decision to play Wednesday. “It gives people a three-hour window to enjoy a baseball game and to not think about what else is going on in the world.”
Every sports incentive — every bit of training, practice, habit, direction, compensation, fan support — aims to separate athletes from the world. Or, as some people put it, more crudely: Shut up and dribble.
Which is why Mathieu’s statement, and the Bucks’, and hundreds of others from professional and amateur athletes, take so much courage. To speak out is to risk everything: money, fame, competition, the future. Those who doubt that should give Colin Kaepernick a call.
Yet it’s that very risk that gives their words and gestures such power. And that’s why, in this time of violence and social unrest and confrontation, we must listen, and athletes must speak out.
They should not shut up and play.
They will be led by Black athletes, who have been warning us about bigotry and violence for some time. They must be joined by white players and coaches who understand the pain their African American teammates see, and have lived.
That doesn’t mean Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce needs to tell us who to vote for in November. It doesn’t mean athletes must agree on party or politics: Former NFL player Herschel Walker gave a speech supporting President Donald Trump the other night. We should listen to him, too.
Does it mean canceling games? Maybe. The Bucks showed the power of that action. On the other hand, regularly postponing series or seasons weakens the impact. NBA players voted to return to the court, and so far, Chiefs and Royals games are still scheduled.
It does mean listening to athletes as full members of our community, not once-a-week heroes. Teams should encourage players to speak up, and players should accept that responsibility gladly.
Then we must act: more accountability for police and the courts, more development, more jobs, more safety, more justice. The systemic racism and injustice in our country have been laid bare, and we all have work to do.
Several weeks, ago I suggested that quarterback Patrick Mahomes could lead by example by calling for an end to the tomahawk chop at Chiefs games. Some readers disagreed. A few said it was unfair to expect Mahomes to take on this challenge.
They’re wrong. Mahomes, his teammates, his coaches, other players, team owners — everyone connected with sports — have the power to bring change. Now is the time to use it.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
