This past Wednesday, on Cinco De Mayo, the Phoenix Suns spoke out against the new immigration laws in Arizona, by sporting jerseys with Los Suns written on the front.
Suns owner Robert Sarver had the idea for the jerseys, and after getting unanimous support from the players, decided it would be a good idea to use them.
According to CNN.com, "under the [law], police would be required to question anyone they suspect of being undocumented. The [law] also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them."
Sarver believes that the law is not "the right way to handle the immigration problem, Number 1. Number 2, as I read through the bill, it felt to me a little bit like it was mean-spirited, and I personally just don't agree with it."
When Tony Kornheiser asked Steve Nash what he thought about Arizona's new immigration law on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption yesterday, I couldn't help but sigh for what I expected to come. It was a valid question, considering the context in which it was asked. Steve Nash plays for the Phoenix Suns, and is a Canadian immigrant, but athletes, especially of his caliber, usually prefer to not take positions on such controversial issues, for marketing reasons. Understandably, most try not to alienate fans or potential fans by stating their views on big issues.
Still, the general public wants to hear athletes answer these questions, to prove that they can talk about more than box scores, and zone defenses. Like other high-profile athletes, I expected Nash to find a crafty way of answering the question, but not really answer the question, or just not comment at all.
I was wrong. He didn't even come close to dancing around the question; the first three words out of his mouth were "I'm against it." He went on to say "I think that this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties ... opens up the potential for racial profiling, racism ... it's a bad precedent to set for our young people, represents our state poorly, and hopefully it will change a lot in the coming weeks. We have to find a different way to combat the issues, and I think that this is the wrong way to go about it."
Certainly not your usual, "I don't feel comfortable answering that question." And good riddance. The idea that more publicly stated opinions leads to less sold jerseys is quickly being debunked by devout Christian Tim Tebow. Tebow spoke out on one of the most controversial issues, on one of the biggest stages in sports (abortion during the Super Bowl). And guess what? This past April, Tebow had the highest selling jersey in the NFL. And that's not just for rookies, that is the entire National Football League.
Then there's Twitter nation. Shaquille O'Neal and Chad Ochocinco, if anything have kept their jersey and marketing revenues up by expressing their views on social media sites like Twitter.
Speaking out means relevancy, and relevancy means more revenue.
But of course, money isn't everything. Some athletes have been politically and socially active for a while now, whether people like it or not.
Former Major League pitcher Curt Schilling is an avid Republican. He campaigned for Bush in 2004, and in 2008 did the same for McCain who he had worked with since 2000 on veterans issues. Rumors have constantly circled about a possible political career for Schilling, including this past year, in the special election for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. He has never ruled out the possibility of a career in politics.
In the 2008 presidential election, athletes donated a total of $445,334, with 55.8% going to Obama and 44.2% going to McCain, despite the fact that Sports Illustrated reports that when it comes to voting, athletes are usually 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.
The line between sports and politics is a shaky one, and sometimes it is tough to say when to cross it. Is it really appropriate for an industry that is for sheer entertainment to get involved in some of the hotter issues of the day? If any sporting event has the answer to that, it's the Olympics.
The Olympics have probably pushed sports and politics closer together than they have ever been. The 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics held in Moscow and Los Angeles respectively were boycotted heavily, the American athletes refusing to go to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet athletes refusing to go to the U.S. during the Cold War.
The 2008 Summer Olympics also created a lot of buzz over political issues. Protests about China's control over Tibet, human rights (or lack thereof), censorship, and the massive amounts of air pollution, pushed the relationship between sports and politics to its breaking point. Many called for a boycott of the games, and even some athletes got involved in the protests.
When coming into Beijing, a group of American cyclists were wearing black masks, as to not breath in the polluted air. It is still contested as to whether these cyclists were just trying to stay in top physical shape for their races or if they were making a political statement, but either way the Chinese government took offense and the cyclists subsequently apologized, even though the masks had been distributed to all American athletes.
The Olympics, as a global sporting event is a great stage to address issues, some of them extremely important. So when given the global platform to speak on, it is acceptable and should be expected, that athletes speak out for what they believe in, especially in a place as controversial as China. The Olympics are one of the few times that global issues can be addressed without petty politics drawing a veil over the most serious issues. Even if it is athletes doing the talking, any attention that these issues get, especially on such a huge stage, is important.
The United States is not any different. Professional athletes should be allowed to express their political views freely without having to worry about losing fans or facing criticism for being some dumb jock. In a world with constant news coverage, and more exposure of national and global issues than ever before, it is important that professional athletes - all of whom have to serve as role models, whether they like it or not - take a stand for what they believe in.
What is most important is not that athletes speak up, but that the general public isn't solely swayed by the view of their favorite athletes. The main point of athletes speaking up should be to draw attention to certain issues, so that the fans research the issues for themselves and draw their own conclusions on the matter, not just go with what the athlete says.
So don't be surprised if you see guys like Favre, A-Rod or Kobe coming out on issues like gay marriage, health care, or stem cell research. It may just be the new fad.
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