Who says sports and politics don’t mix?

[Music]

okay donovan dooley is a columnist with

the sports website deadspin he joins us

from

tuscaloosa alabama thank you so much

indeed for joining us

they always said that sport and politics

don't mix but they certainly do now

yes they certainly do one of the things

that we're seeing now

as a nation unfolds and one of the most

unprecedented movements

that we've ever seen um in this time in

our country

is that these athletes you name some of

them lebron james

naomi osaka who just recently won the us

open

um and a myriad of other different

athletes are using their platform

to be able to get the message out that

black lives

do matter and that they are not going to

stand for these racial injustices

and they're not going to stand for these

levels of oppression and inequality

any longer and one of the things that

has become

new to many americans here in this

country

is that these athletes are some of the

ones leading the forefront

they are no longer going to be pawns and

just play and be entertainment

for many people in this country now they

are going to they're going to be

advocates

and they're going to be activists and

they are going to lead

and try to bring this nation into a new

into a new millennium into a new age

of equality donovan why do you think

it's taken so long

for these superstars multi-millionaires

who live a life of privilege to speak

out against what's been happening for so

long

i mean we're running a list of the more

than 150 names of african-americans

who have died since 1968 alone you could

go far

far further back and come up with

hundreds and thousands of names

presumably

it's taken this long why so long were

they scared of their sponsors

scared of their franchises

i don't believe that some of these

athletes were

scared of their sponsors or scared of

their franchises

you have to think um athletes have been

at the forefront of these movements for

a while now

even going back to 1968 in the olympics

we had tommy smith and john carlos

raising the black power salute in at the

olympics in 1968 that was in front of

the whole world to see

um you saw kareem abdul-jabbar bill

russell jim brown

the probably some of the largest black

sports stars

ever at the cleveland summit in the late

1960s to support muhammad ali

as they fought for social activism

during that time as well

and even if you want to bring it closer

back to the

early 2010s and in this this generation

here

you see lebron james has been using his

platform

for a while now speaking up against the

wrongful deaths of so many

african-americans in this country

the wnba have been stalwarts

in this fight and in this cause for a

while now as well and so this is not the

first time

that many athletes are stepping up to

the forefront this is actually

just the culmination of a long time and

a long time where you have a lot

of injustice going on in this society

very good point you make and obviously

social media amplifies the platform so

much more

what about the responsibilities of the

sporting bodies themselves

of the franchises many people have said

that

it's pretty hypocritical of them how

they've almost turned full circle from

having been

at best uncomfortable at worst actually

stopping

their employees from expressing these

sort of political opinions

and now they're oh bring it on blm is

part of what we are

right um i definitely think that's a

point that needs to be addressed

um i think it's admirable for these

leagues to

now want to back and support their

players however you do have to criticize

them for being so

late to the party here i mean the nfl

just recently

um addressed the issue of colin

kaepernick kneeling in 2016

um by saying the player commissioner

roger goodell

said in a video that he apologizes for

not listening to their players sooner

when they are protesting about these

social injustice matters

and so that is a topic that you need to

talk about it needs to be discussed

like where were these organizations at

the forefront

the nba i will say has always been at

the forefront of these issues

when you're talking about the death of

eric garner they were speaking out

against that

implementing different social social

movements and implementing different

things that were allowed

to be able to help these players express

themselves in that time

with his unjust killing and but other

leagues

mlb nfl mls

it runs the gamut um these leagues are

now coming to

the forefront now but you have to ask

the question where were they at

at that time do you think it's going to

make any difference

i mean do you uh think that with

lebron james using the hashtag more than

a vote

with uh george floyd's family saying the

look whatever's happening

there's only one solution get out there

and vote so the vote comes up on

november the 3rd

in terms of your interaction with sports

fans do you feel as if

athletes being part of the black lives

matter movement is going to push people

to get out there and vote for the change

that they want

i definitely think is that that's going

to help um

when you have to look at american

culture the athlete itself

is such a huge part of american society

and you have a lot of people that really

look up to these athletes

and try to embody everything that these

athletes are

so if you have lebron james um dwayne

wade

you know and a myriad of other people

that are voicing

their opinions and voicing their you

know their their willingness to go out

and vote

on november 3rd then you're going to see

a lot of people

follow behind that and rally behind that

however

it's not just for these athletes it's

going to take everybody in this country

to effectively bring change to this

nation and the athletes are

doing an excellent job of being at the

forefront of it but we still got to

follow behind them and

people in this country still have to

follow behind them if we want to

achieve change donovan dooley thank you

so much for joining us

donovan dooley speaking from alabama

you