It would appear that the President of the United States has watched too many Teen movies from the ’80’s. As his latest tweet this week reigniting the athletes and the national anthem row paints athletes as being of limited intelligence.
President Trump has suggested the punishment for athletes who fail to stand during the national anthem – a topic we covered in Is Etiquette Dead – “First time kneeling out for game.” He went on, “Second time out for season/no pay.”
The fact that it would appear the President is asking certain individuals to feign patriotism is insulting in the extreme. It also flies in the face of democracy, and implies that athletes are simply robots who do what they are told and are not capable of independent thought.
Sadly within many sports we are witnessing the crushing of free spirited play. The good coaches encourage that individual skill and a player backing themselves, however within the structure of the team. In other words they are not there to simply take on the opposition singlehandedly, but are coached when to use their individual brilliance to unlock a game.
It has been to the detriment of a number of sports that individually gifted players have had their talent crushed, rather than nurtured. As sport loves those who can do what most of us can only dream of doing, this is a huge loss to the fans. In fact fans love a maverick. Yet these are few and far between today, as we are told they are not “team players.” Ask them and most will tell you they are absolutely a team player, and what nothing more to win.
Sometimes it comes down to communication. Understanding your players, and nurturing their ability and bringing the best out of them for the benefit of the team.
Yet as long as this has been going on on the pitch, the controlling aspect of players has been evolving over a period of time and far more surreptitiously off the pitch.
Now it is commonplace for a player to be briefed prior to a press conference or an interview as to what they must work into the interview. There will nearly always be a reference to the fans in a post match interview, and nearly always praising their support.
Once again it is as if the clubs, or national and international associations do not trust their players to do the right thing or say the right thing. Sure, there are some who are not good doing such interviews, but the good teams make sure that those players are kept away from doing it.
As this control has evolved we have seen players and coaches being forced to adopt the stance or beliefs of the clubs they play for. Some have felt strongly enough to speak out and make it clear that they do not necessarily share that opinion, or their employer’s beliefs. This has not surprisngly led to confrontation.
It was an issue that we looked at in terms of branding on our Podcast #52 Battle of the Brands.
It is clear that many Athletes across the globe are no longer prepared to sit and quietly trot out the responses their employers want them to portray. Where things are clearly wrong they are prepared to speak up or take action. In the USA the players kneeling during the National Anthem has highlighted a major social issue. Rather than criticising the players, or trying to silence them by banning them, we should be respecting the players for taking a stand, and looking at the problem and trying to find a way to fix it.
Mesut Ozil has been another to stand up and speak out about something he felt strongly about, and clearly felt he was a victim of, racism. Is he another dumb athlete? One who should sit down and shut up?
Or is he a brave man who has endured more than he can take and has no opted to stand up and be counted? Sure his picture with the Turkish president may have been ill-advised, but the fact that less than the number of players you can count on one hand from his 23 World Cup team mates have responded to his announcement, implies that there was a problem. As despite the spin some have tried to put on it the statistics show he was in fact Germany’s most creative player.
Germany had 118 staff at the World Cup. Yet it would appear that no one picked up how ostracised Ozil was feeling; or worse if they did they chose to do nothing about it.
How many other sporting teams have witnessed behaviour that they know is wrong but have turned a blind eye?
It is sad that Athletes who speak up or chose actions to speak for them are berated. The irony is Muhammed Ali was feted in the latter days of his life for the stance he took against fighting in Vietnam. He sacrificed three years of his career by refusing to fight in a war he did not believe in. At the time he too was abandoned by many and castigated for not being a sheep, and that word was thrown up again that he was unpatriotic. Yet it is one of the things that made him such an iconic figure.
The gloved salute made by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico Olympics is without doubt one of the most iconic Olympic images of the last century. Only with the passing of time has their protest been understood and them recognised for their bravery to make such a stance. Australian Peter Norman who won silver in that race also paid a huge price when it came to his career simply by wearing a Human Rights badge on his tracksuit. That badge showed his support to the plight of Black athletes, and cost him dearly. Yet he felt it was the right thing to do.
History is littered with athletes who have had the courage to stand up for what they believe is right. There are those who have used their success to bring issues to the fore and there are those who have used actions. Trying to silence them with bans, and fines and preventing them from earning a living is never going to silence them. In fact all it will do is turn their whisper into a roar.
Athletes are not as the US Teen movies portray them, good-looking beefcakes with no brains. Many are incredibly smart people and it is time that their intellect and their views were listened to a little more, as many are and could be a huge asset to society.
