I'm a left-leaning, arts-appreciating, social-justice-loving kind of guy. I do my best to be socially aware despite the advantages afforded to me as a white, straight male. I think I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious- and I'd like to think individual thinker. I am also, and have always been, a big sports fan.
Watching sports for me can be great form of escapism. Fandom is not logic, it doesn't always have rhyme or reason. It's not unlike religion if you think about it. Being a fan of a certain franchise or sport can be passed down through families. A friend might indoctrinate it into you. You might stumble upon it on your own during depending on what happens to be going on with you. It can be based on locality, or have nothing to do with where you are at all. It's making an emotional and often a financial commitment to something completely based on faith. Putting that faith into something outside of yourself, something that you have little to no control over- despite attempts of wearing certain garb, arrangement of relics, and ritual practice in the hopes of affecting positive outcomes. My point- at length- is that sports fandom, like religious practice, is a very personal thing.
Given my personal feelings on life and society, in order to keep my personal relationship to sports, I have had to intentionally shield myself from the political and religious bents of some of the players that I root for on a yearly basis. These players whom I cheer, whose successes and failures can affect my daily moods, whose fates and dreams seem intrinsically (if imagine-arily) linked with mine: a lot of these guys have religious and political practices that are very much in juxtaposition with with mine. And that's okay- we can have friends, even family that have differing views and ways of life, right? So certainly I can appreciate the work these fellas do in uniform independent of who they voted for, regardless of who they pray to or how they do it, yeah? And I have done that, for the bulk of my adult life. However, it gets harder to ignore when an entire league takes a stance that doesn't sit well with me.
The ongoing debate over NFL players protesting during the playing of the National Anthem that started in 2016 and continued through the 2017 season still rages on as the 2018 season is mere weeks away. If you’ve been living under a rock, the players are protesting the continued marginalization of black people in society, most specifically how it relates to the disproportion of black lives lost at the hand of police brutality. President Trump jumped on the players, shouting and tweeting (incorrectly) that they were protesting the anthem itself, and by association, America. He called for for suspensions firings, even intimated such players should leave the country. As the story, and Trump-slanted versions of it took hold across the country it fell to the individual teams to manage the protests on their own as they saw fit. Some teams adopted their own form of “acceptable” protest, some quietly asked players too not take part in protest at all, and some came out in support of their players. In the end many players continued to kneel for what they felt was right. Fans took to the internet and took sides, some calling for the boycott of the NFL for allowing the protests to continue.
This off-season at NFL owners' meetings, a new policy was adopted- if not actually formally voted on- to quell the protests once and for all. Players could stay in the locker room during the anthem if they wished, but if they took the field no form of protest would be tolerated. Teams themselves would be penalized for any actions of the players to the contrary. Just what these players wanted, a bunch of almost all old white dudes telling them how they can and can't protest.
Trump’s soapbox, and the kowtowing of NFL ownership to kiss his ring had been leaving a sour taste in my mouth. A human rights issue was being turned into a holier-than-thou political debate by the powers that be. These powers that make money hand over fist on the backs of so many black athletes, couldn't muster an ounce of decency to hear out the players' stance.
But the games go on. And I watch, because I love the game.
Well then it came closer to my fandom’s front doorstep. Last week the Miami Dolphins, my football team for 20+ years, and their owner Stephen Ross, released a the team’s policy on protest during the anthem. Players could be fined and/or suspended for up to four games for taking part in protests. After an outpouring of feedback from fans and pundits, Ross released a statement saying he was only releasing the policy so as to be in accordance with the new league policy and submitted his team's policy to the league as ordered. This is the same Stephen Ross who in 2015 founded RISE (Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality), a non-profit organization that, according to its website: "[is] dedicated to harnessing the unifying power of sports to improve race relations and drive social progress." Days later, the NFL and NFL Players Association (the players' union) decided to freeze the new league anthem policy pending a meeting between the two sides.
It shouldn't surprise you that I am 100% in support of the players. I understand the reasoning behind the protest, and think it was and continues to be an important part of a national discussion that needs to continue. And for the first time in my life, my fandom, I actually find myself questioning whether or not I want to be a consumer of the NFL product. The Dolphins play their first preseason game tomorrow, and usually you’d find me tweeting like a giddy school kid: “The @NFL is back!” But this year it feels less like Christmas in August, and more like the winter of my discontent.
So I have decided that until the league adopts a policy that respects the players’ rights as individual citizens of a free country- the NFL and the Dolphins won’t see a cent from me. I’m not going to buy any merchandise, won’t attend any games. I’m not going to pay to be able to stream or view on satellite my Dolphins’ games- which I would need to do to be able to watch on a weekly basis since I live way outside their local market. Ross and his fellow owners probably won’t miss my money. Maybe if enough NFL fans from across country feel the same way and do the same, some small dent will be made. In any case, it will allow me and my conscience to at least watch the games that are available to me without feeling completely complicit. I think. I hope. Faith can be a strong pull, but even faith should have it limits. I'll be exploring the limits of my fandom this year.