Post Classifieds
Pro athletes' voices should be heard
By Angelica Rodriguez
On October 17, 2012
For many people, a typical reaction to professional athletes talking about anything other than their last
goal, touchdown or home run is, "shut up and play."
Who cares about your stance on the economy, or the presidential candidates or anything other than how
the defense held up on that last drive? Politics has no place in sports.
Recently, however, there has been some interesting commentary from football and hockey players
regarding political issues.
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, for example, has become increasingly vocal about marriage
equality. After Maryland delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. admonished Baltimore Ravens linebacker
Brendon Ayanbadejo for voicing his pro-equality stance, Kluwe penned an articulate, hilarious "open
letter" to the politician. Since then, Kluwe has been involved with an LGBT rights group in Minnesota
and appeared in an interview with Out magazine.
On the flip side, we all likely remember NHL goaltender Tim Thomas' refusal to attend the White
House with his Boston Bruins teammates, citing his feelings that government had grown too large.
Thomas also posted on his Facebook page earlier this year that he "stand[s] with the Catholics in the
fight for Religious Freedom [sic]," referring presumably to the mandate that all medical insurance
plans cover contraception for women.
In both of these cases, Thomas and Kluwe had supporters. There were also people grousing about the
fact that there were guys making tons of money to kick a ball or stop a puck, talking about things that
had nothing to do with their professions.
Last time I checked, I wasn't a politician either. Yet my viewpoints can be strewn far and wide across
the Internet with few people reading or caring.
Athletes are human beings, first and foremost. They have wants, needs, and, oh yeah, opinions. And
just like the rest of us, sometimes they find social media as a platform they can share those opinions
with everyone else. They are of a considerably higher profile than the rest of us, that's true, but that
doesn't mean they turn into robots only concerned with scores, stats and play formations.
Sometimes they say things that have to do with the larger world around them, and that's actually a
good sign; it dispels the myth of the "jock," that dopey, age-old stereotype that chases every athlete
regardless of their IQ.
Some of the negatives that come along with speaking your mind are common to any average Joe - you
could confuse teammates and fans, alienate them, even make them angry. Certainly this was the case
with Tim Thomas for me - I went from liking and respecting him to wanting him to just stop talking.
There's a Bruins player tee with his name and number on it sitting in my drawer, likely never to
be worn again. Sometimes you just can't separate your appreciation of someone's talent from your
complete opposition to their viewpoints. And I'm sure that's the case with Vikings and Ravens fans who
are against marriage equality. That's just how it is.
Keep in mind, though, that just because you don't agree, doesn't mean they should stop talking. I've
gotten into debates with my more conservative friends, and we have all respected one another's ideas
and refrained from trying to censor each other.
The same should be true for any athlete. If you're that bothered by their opinion, stop supporting them,
but don't assume that they're exempt from the right to exercise free speech. As long as no one's being
overly hateful or prejudiced, I have no issue with it.
As for some people's ideas that sports and politics don't mix, flash back to all of the controversy
surrounding the London Olympics - the outrage over there being no ceremony to remember the
Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre, the awful misrepresentation of the Korean flags for their
women's soccer teams, South African runner Caster Semenya and the ever-unpopular gender testing of
female athletes.
Think back to how proud Americans were that the U.S. won the most gold medals overall, somehow
tying American dominance on playing fields to dominance over the rest of the world in general, and
then tell me there's nothing political about sports.
So, whether or not we pay to hear NFL and NHL players expound on how wrong our government
leaders are, I doubt that they care. They're going to talk about it no matter what. We just need to take it
for what it is - a free citizen saying what he has to say.
Angelica Rodriguez can be reached at rodriguez.record@live.com.
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