This column is sponsored by Uptown Cheesesteak Company, located at 114 Broad Street in Kingsport, TN. Mention I-81 Sports when placing an order at Uptown and receive 10% off your bill.
“Stick to sports.”
It’s become a common phrase, especially in recent years, when some player or coach or commentator voices a political opinion.
And there are some — quite a few, in fact — who think politics have no place in sports.
Here’s the truth: politics and sports go hand in hand, and they have for decades. There’s no turning back. They’re linked. They’re mixed together irrevocably, like the guy who decided to put chocolate in peanut butter (or is it peanut butter in chocolate) and lead to delicious concoctions like Reese’s peanut butter cups.
The history of athletic figures making political statements, and getting castigated for it, runs back decades. And it involves some individuals you may not expect.
You probably know that Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in Major League Baseball? You may not know that legendary football coach Vince Lombardi made the Packers the first NFL franchise to hire a Black assistant coach, Emlen Tunnell. Or that Lombardi took multiple stands against discrimination, whether it was an exhibition game in the South where Jim Crow laws remained in place, or lobbying the state legislature in Wisconsin to get a fair housing bill passed so that his Black players had an easier time finding places to live.
What about when Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a fist clad in a black glove from the medal podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics? Smith and Carlos generally were castigated by media for their moment, with one sportswriter in Chicago referring to the duo as “black-skinned stormtroopers.” You may know that writer better for his broadcasting career; his name was Brent Musburger.
Sports media figures have gotten political, too. Shirley Povich, a sportswriter and columnist at The Washington Post for 65 (!) years produced one of my favorite quips in all of sports writing whenever the Cleveland Browns faced the Washington Redskins, who happened to be the last NFL team to sign Black players. Povich wrote, after Cleveland’s all-time great running back Jim Brown scored three touchdowns in one game against Washington, that Brown integrated the Washington end zone with every touchdown.
Stick to sports? What about individuals who gained their fame in sports and embark on political careers? Bill Bradley parlayed an NBA career into a lengthy tenure as U.S. Senator in the state of New York. Jack Kemp went from NFL quarterback to Congressman to Presidential candidate. Tom Osborne and Tommy Tuberville made transitions from college football coaching to the House and Senate, respectively. Jesse Ventura made the leap from pro wrestling to acting to one tumultuous term as Governor of Minnesota. Fame in athletics doesn’t translate to success in the political arena; just ask Steve Garvey or Hershel Walker.
In our current era, many athletic figures are not shy about voicing their political views. In the NBA, veteran coaches Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers regularly take political stances. Gregg Popovich did the same for most of his lengthy tenure leading the Spurs. LeBron James has no shortage of opinions on social issues and has made political endorsements in the past. Veteran NFL defensive back Malcolm Jenkins once conducted an entire media session in front of his locker in silence, holding up homemade signs, in an attempt to bring attention to issues of social injustice. Staying in the NFL, San Francisco defensive lineman Nick Bosa crashed a postgame interview wearing a MAGA hat in 2024 and got fined for it.
It”s also rather hypocritical to criticize sports figures for becoming political when politicians keep shoving their way into the sports world. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee made a $500 million ask of the state for a new stadium for the Titans in the Nashville area, then signed a bill into law that allowed the state’s department of tourism to keep secret negotiated contracts for Super Bowls and other major events for a decade. In Louisiana, last fall, when LSU gave Brian Kelly the heave ho, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry directly inserted himself into the coaching search, which led the ouster of the LSU athletic director. On the Federal level, the Trump administration just issued an executive order that seeks to restrict an athlete’s participation in college sports to five calendar years and just one transfer. Said order would take effect August 1, and threatens to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, a cudgel that the current administration has used multiple times in the past 15 months to attempt to bring universities into line. It’s also worth noting that an executive order from a President is not equivalent to a passed law, nor does it override existing state laws. It’s not likely that Trump’s executive order is going to hold up in court, but he’s not the first President to try and exert influence over the sports world. A good friend and history wonk reminded me that Teddy Roosevelt threatened to ban football in 1905 for its violence, after 19 (!) players died during a single college season.
I say all this to make this point: when people say “stick to sports”, they mean “stick to sports unless your view is one that I also hold.” The same people who complain about Popovich and Kerr having more liberal viewpoints tend to cheer those like Bosa, and vice versa. Then there are those media outlets that seek to stoke political division or controversy from even minor issues, looking to build mountains from molehills to gain attention and get clicks. I’m not going to name names, but the most egregious offending outlet rhymes with “Trout sick.”
The greater problem comes when people try to treat sports as politics or, worse, politics as sports. It’s a bad idea to root for your preferred political party (if you have one) like you do your favorite sports team. I’m a diehard Chicago Cubs fan, but my support doesn’t affect how the coaches and players live their lives or play the game. Winning one for “our side” on the baseball diamond doesn’t have any substantive enhancement on my quality of life. Backing a political party like you would the Vols, for example, only leads to greater polarization.
You can sit there on your couch or in your radio studio and complain about politics in sports, and how it “used to be better” when politics stayed out of the games.
If you truly think that, though, you’ve just not been paying attention.