Opinion: Critics of Football Players Calls for Justice Miss the Point

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

The advent of a new football season, which kicked off over the weekend, featured a much more widespread, if not new, display of players and teams acknowledging the racial strife that has engulfed the United States in recent months and years.

From Clemson to Los Angeles, teams and players put their calls for racial justice front and center before each game.

Some teams, both college and professional, chose to stay in the locker room during the “National Anthem” and the National Football League’s playing of what is being called the playing of the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing," known as the Black National Anthem. Others locked arms as a show of unity, some took a knee during the playing of the “National Anthem,” and others wore various messages on their helmets or shoes.

Clemson University Quarterback Trevor Lawrence, considered by many the finest at his position in the nation, wore a sticker on his helmet reading: “Black Lives Matter; We Are One Human Race; No Justice, No Peace; and Put a Stop to Racism.” Lawrence, who in June led a Black Lives Matter event on the Clemson campus wrote in a Twitter: "There has to be a shift in the way of thinking. Rational must outweigh irrational. Justice must outweigh injustice. Love must outweigh hate. If you put yourself in someone else's shoes and you don't like how it feels -- that's when you know things need to change.” 

Anderson’s own Darien Rencher, who played at T.L. Hanna, was a major influence on his close friend Lawrence.  

And Rencher's Zoom video meetings with college superstars, including Lawrence and fellow Heisman Trophy favorites in Ohio State Quarterback Justin Fields and Oklahoma State Running Back Chuba Hubbard, is credited with sparking the #WeWantToPlay movement, which some credit with helping save the college football season. 

“I’m kind of using my platform, my voice,” Lawrence said of Rencher. “He’s (Rencher) good at rallying people together. We make a pretty good team.”

The pair also helped move Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney, who admitted he needed to be educated on the issues, to join the June BLM event.

“I’m embarrassed to say that there’s things on this campus I didn’t really understand. I knew the basics but not the details,” Swinney said. “But I’ve learned and I’ve listened. It has to be everybody’s responsible to be more aware, to learn more and to speak out against racial inequality.”

Lawrence, who will likely be the top draft pick in the 2021 NFL draft, will find strong kindred spirits on whatever team chooses him. 

Steve Bisciotti, the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, said that demonstrations by some players who kneel during the National Anthem before their game against the Cleveland Browns were “not a protest against our country.” 

“We respect and support our players’ right to protest peacefully,” Bisciotti wrote in a message to fans. “This was a demonstration for justice and equality for all Americans. These are core values we can all support, This was not a protest against our country, the military or the flag. Our players remain dedicated to uplifting their communities and making America better. They have proven this through substantive action. They are committed to using their platform to drive positive change, and we support their efforts.” 

But while team owners, players and coaches seemed unified in their message, fans remain deeply divided. 

At the NFL opener Thursday, the reigning league champion Kansas City Chiefs were met with jeers as they locked arms midfield with the visiting Houston Texans in as the announcer called for “a moment of silence dedicated to the ongoing fight for equality in our country.”

Many fans of Clemson and other college and professional teams have voiced opposition to players’ making political statements on the field, with calls of “taking politics out of sports” and threats to boycott or ignore football. 

Since attendance was either limited or prohibited over the first football weekend, along with the absence of games in the Southeast Conference, which begins their 10-game schedule at the end of the month, it’s hard to gauge if the on-field calls for social justice would have had much impact.

Television ratings are up after the first full weekend, and advertisers are lining up for football in near-record numbers, seeing near-empty stadiums as an opportunity. 

Meanwhile, fans on social media continue to hammer athletes across the board.

Some see it as disprespectful of the American Flag, the county in general or the miliitary. Those charges have been roundly denied across the board by athletes, coaches and team owners

“Nobody cares about the opinions of athletes, just shut up and play ball,” others cry, in the most common retort to players’ calls for social justice.

The irony of such comments is obvious. Those expressing such opinions on social media fail to recognize they are using their various social media platforms to express their own political/social justice opinions just as players are using their own.

Attacking the young men on football fields for using their celebrity to call for justice and equality rings more of jealousy than conviction, often forgetting that with the high level of visibility comes a high level of accountability.

Critics know thier own limited platform means less visibility for their own political opinions, which leads to raw an uniformed comments. 

Few of these critics, if any, choose to acknowledge the history of racism in the sport, and that even the NFL’s best players were not allowed to stay in team hotels or eat at some restaurants on the road only 50 years ago. They also have forgotten African-American quarterbacks were almost never given starting positions until the past decade or so.

Cleveland Brown great Jim Brown, perhaps the greatest running back in league history, was never a popular player because he was a vocal and active participant in pushing for civil rights and equality.

"It was told to me that I could be loved and popular if I could bow down and do a little dance,” Brown said. “I don't know if y'all know what that means. But I said, I don't really dance,” adding that he’d rather be remembered for doing the right thing than his exploits on the field.

Today’s athletes stand on Brown’s shoulders in as the nation continues to seek ways to work toward equality and justice for all Americans, regardless their race or economic status. 

Again, this is nothing new.

Recent events, including the horrific George Floyd killing which was caught on video, only shined a bright light on the challenges presented by race that many of these young men have experienced their entire lives.

Many grew up without financial means, without a voice for justice in their schools or neighborhoods, others met barriers only there because of the color of their skin. They are now finding that voice, and like Rencher and Lawrence, building bridges of understanding to those who have not seen first hand the shadow of racism hanging over their lives. 

These bridges are important. These bridges will offer paths to a better future. 

Those who attack such efforts are only perpetuating the gaps in understanding and progress, and instead of calling for silencing or boycotts, should at the very least recognize the rights of those who see things differently to use whatever platform at their disposal to express their viewpoints.