Kirk Herbstreit provided viewers of ESPN’s College GameDay with one of the most remarkable and impassioned segments the show has ever produced.
Speaking about the ongoing social and racial injustices that have engulfed the Country, Herbstreit got emotional saying that his audience and all those involved with sports need to “do better” when it comes to social justice. Herbstreit then added “you can’t related to that if you’re white, but you can listen and you can try to help because this is not okay”.
And he’s not wrong, yet people will demonize him for making sports political.
People in the majority would like to sit here and believe that there aren’t systemic problems with racism in the United States simply because it doesn’t happen to them or those they care about. They’re the same chuds who not only have a problem with players kneeling during the national anthem but also social unrest and civil disobedience in the streets. They’ll sit here and go on about sports being their “escape from reality” and tell LeBron James to “shut up and dribble”, because of the false narrative that “sports aren’t political”.
Only sports is political and almost always has been. At least as long as it’s been a major facet of Americana.
How often is the American public subjected to the national anthem, Pentagon backed “Salute to Service” months in the NFL, on-field or court military reunions, or flyovers to further stroke the sense of nationalism or faux patriotism?
The answer is all the fucking time.
But the same people who complain about Colin Kaepernick taking a knee or who will complain about Kirk Herbstreit’s emotional plea to all of sports to “do better” probably don’t have a problem with being indoctrined with American nationalism before an NBA or NFL game night in and night out.
Their real problem isn’t with politics in sports, it’s that the message being portrayed doesn’t fit with their politics. It brings them face-to-face with an issue they’ve tried to ignore and push aside.