Thus far, 2014 has been full of significant cultural events in sports. The year started with Michael Sam coming out as gay and subsequently being selected by the St. Louis Rams in the NFL Draft. Sam's jersey is currently the sixth best selling jersey in the NFL--not bad for someone who might not even make the roster. Furthering the message of progress, if Sam doesn't make the roster, it'll be because he can't play, not because he's gay.
In April, the Donald Sterling debacle exploded with the exposure of his viciously racist comments. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acted quickly and decisively, imposing a lifetime ban on Sterling just four days after the remarks came to light and fined him $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed by the NBA. Sterling's ban necessitated his sale of the team, and while he tried to appeal the ban, he was stonewalled. Silver's quick action was a stand for what is right rather than hemming and hawing over the legality of banishment for private remarks.
Last week, Becky Hammon was hired as an assistant coach by the San Antonio Spurs, making her the first paid female coach in any of the four major sports (Lisa Boyer was a volunteer assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2001-2). There's no reason why women can't coach the way men can coach, and hopefully this paves the way to more women on coaching staffs and eventually a female head coach.
Just a couple of days again, Chip Sarafin, a backup offensive lineman at Arizona State, came out as gay. He is the first openly gay FBS football player.
Suddenly, the sports world is starting to look progressive. Good.
One only needs to do a quick Google search of "anti Michael Sam comments" to find ire his announcement raised. Even current NFL players (eg the Dolphins' Don Jones) couldn't keep their mouth shut.
Upon hiring Becky Hammon, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had this to say: "I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff. Having observed her working with our team this past season, I'm confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."
Let's compare that language to the language used to describe the Milwaukee Bucks hiring Jason Kidd as their head coach. General manager John Hammond:
I'm not going to continue and crucify Popovich because he probably has 10 press announcements scribbled on napkins that he cycles through and it just so happened this is the one that popped up for Hammon. But there is undeniably a dichotomy in the language to used to differentiate athletes/coaches based on the way they look. Any white wide receiver in the NFL is either a "lunch-pail player", "blue collar", or a "gym rat". Black receivers, on the other hand, are "athletes". When I hear this, I think "well gee, according to the broadcasters, Calvin Johnson is a bum and Wes Welker is about as athletic as I am." Let's set the record straight: anyone in the NFL is an outstanding athlete and 95% of them work their tails off. The 5% of them who are lazy are uniformly distributed across race/ethnicity/background/whatever. Ridding the NFL (and all sports) of this language divide would be better than eliminating the touchdown -> commercial -> kickoff -> commercial -> next series sequence from TV broadcasts.
And, of course, the real motivation for this post: the NFL's pitiful suspension of Ray Rice. Much has been said on this topic, but for some unknown reason, NFL players can't help themselves when it comes to beating up their girlfriends. From a PR perspective, the League would have been better off not suspending Rice at all. I know I had forgotten basically forgotten about the incident and I think many others had too. But, the public outcry has thrust the NFL's domestic violence issue into the national spotlight and might even effect change in the League's policy.
I have two problems with the proposed changes to NFL policy:
In April, the Donald Sterling debacle exploded with the exposure of his viciously racist comments. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acted quickly and decisively, imposing a lifetime ban on Sterling just four days after the remarks came to light and fined him $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed by the NBA. Sterling's ban necessitated his sale of the team, and while he tried to appeal the ban, he was stonewalled. Silver's quick action was a stand for what is right rather than hemming and hawing over the legality of banishment for private remarks.
Last week, Becky Hammon was hired as an assistant coach by the San Antonio Spurs, making her the first paid female coach in any of the four major sports (Lisa Boyer was a volunteer assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2001-2). There's no reason why women can't coach the way men can coach, and hopefully this paves the way to more women on coaching staffs and eventually a female head coach.
Just a couple of days again, Chip Sarafin, a backup offensive lineman at Arizona State, came out as gay. He is the first openly gay FBS football player.
Suddenly, the sports world is starting to look progressive. Good.
One only needs to do a quick Google search of "anti Michael Sam comments" to find ire his announcement raised. Even current NFL players (eg the Dolphins' Don Jones) couldn't keep their mouth shut.
Upon hiring Becky Hammon, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had this to say: "I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff. Having observed her working with our team this past season, I'm confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."
Let's compare that language to the language used to describe the Milwaukee Bucks hiring Jason Kidd as their head coach. General manager John Hammond:
"When you list the characteristics that make a successful head coach, you would include leadership, communication and a competitive drive. Jason used all of those traits to become a 10-time All-Star player in the NBA, and has now translated his on-court success to the bench. We welcome him to the Bucks organization and look forward to building a Championship-caliber team with him as our head coach."Owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry:
"Jason is a determined leader, a tough-minded competitor and a great teammate. We believe his focus, vision and intensity will help him work alongside John and David (Morway) to rebuild the Milwaukee Bucks as we aspire to achieve excellence over the next several years. We are excited that Jason will call Milwaukee his new home."Hammon has a high basketball IQ and good interpersonal skills while Kidd has leadership and competitive drive. Being a "tough-minded competitor" will not cut it to get Hammon a job in the NBA.
I'm not going to continue and crucify Popovich because he probably has 10 press announcements scribbled on napkins that he cycles through and it just so happened this is the one that popped up for Hammon. But there is undeniably a dichotomy in the language to used to differentiate athletes/coaches based on the way they look. Any white wide receiver in the NFL is either a "lunch-pail player", "blue collar", or a "gym rat". Black receivers, on the other hand, are "athletes". When I hear this, I think "well gee, according to the broadcasters, Calvin Johnson is a bum and Wes Welker is about as athletic as I am." Let's set the record straight: anyone in the NFL is an outstanding athlete and 95% of them work their tails off. The 5% of them who are lazy are uniformly distributed across race/ethnicity/background/whatever. Ridding the NFL (and all sports) of this language divide would be better than eliminating the touchdown -> commercial -> kickoff -> commercial -> next series sequence from TV broadcasts.
And, of course, the real motivation for this post: the NFL's pitiful suspension of Ray Rice. Much has been said on this topic, but for some unknown reason, NFL players can't help themselves when it comes to beating up their girlfriends. From a PR perspective, the League would have been better off not suspending Rice at all. I know I had forgotten basically forgotten about the incident and I think many others had too. But, the public outcry has thrust the NFL's domestic violence issue into the national spotlight and might even effect change in the League's policy.
I have two problems with the proposed changes to NFL policy:
- Four to six games is not enough. Give me a league full of doped up freaks (suspension for a first time PED offense in the NFL: 4 games) before a league full of wife beaters. Seriously. Spousal abuse is a far bigger issue than PED use with social implications beyond the game. As it stands, the biggest implication for fans for domestic violence punishment is how the abuser's absence will effect their fantasy team. (Just because I can't help myself: let's remember Terrelle Pryror was suspended for the first five games of his rookie season for trading jerseys and memorabilia for tattoos while he was in college)
- This change is the result of reactionary policy making. The League didn't know its policy was screwed up until implementation and the ensuing public backlash. I struggle to believe the NFL can't find someone to read their policies once a year, find the dinosaurs, and amend them appropriately. This approach of action over reaction would lead to significant social change.
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