I was born in 1992. Since my existence, I have never seen a bigger phenomenon in this country as huge as Sports. Not just in this country, but around the world, sports is a big deal, it’s just like religion. Sports is a phenomenon on all levels: Middle School, High School, College and beyond. But also, there are opportunities in athletics for young women and men all over the world on all these levels. Sports has definitely gave opportunity to people whom I know and love, and I consider it to be a good thing for them. Athletics teaches you integrity, patience and how produce abundantly off of your hard work. But as an athlete, it’s about what is done with that opportunity. It is about what is done with that opportunity by the person who is an athlete and also the people who are placed around that person who is an athlete.
Speaking of which, overall opportunity for black men are scarce. Opportunities in athletics for black men are very much existent but the number of these opportunities decrease as the levels increase. For example, there are opportunities to play Football in High School, but a number of black men who might play High School Football might not play College Football, and those who play College might not play Professional. It just how it works. Thus, Professional Sports, provides an outlet for a very small percentage of black men. Some of the black men who were given this opportunity have done both positive and negative things with these opportunities, but there are some groups within the total percentage of those who have went Pro that have transcended athletics and cultural aesthetics at their universities, their neighborhoods and others, professional franchises and in this country at large.
About a week ago, the Seattle Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots 24-28 in Super Bowl XLIV (49). Even though I have opinions about how Seattle played the game and called the game, I still have respect for the men who play for this franchise. This is because over the course of about three seasons, I have caught on to the personalities and intangibles of several players who play for Seattle. The first being Marshawn Lynch who have been one my favorite backs in the NFL since his days in Buffalo. There is also a group within the Seahawks defensive backs corps who refer to themselves as #LOB which stands for the Legion Of Boom. This group includes all-pro Cornerback Richard Sherman and Free Safety and Super Bowl XLVIII MVP Earl Thomas III. As stated, several of their players possess certain personalities and intangibles that allow them to stand out among other athletes in the NFL. Their character, media responses, opinions, accents, and even their hair styles are often heavily critiqued by sports pundits and fans of all types. This is because some of these men do not fit the status quo of the “tokens” who were discussed in the last post. When a black man who is payed by a billion dollar industry doesn’t fit the status quo, he is often seen as a threat and is then referred to as a “thug” in the media and probably a nigger behind the closes doors (and on social media as well) of those who feel threatened by them. The media often ignores the positivity and the humanity in these men. They ignore the work that these men do in their neighborhoods and inner cities all across this country to attempt to improve the lives of oppressed people. This is a tactic used to further demonize them which then makes them even more of a threat to the status quo and white supremacy. But there have been hoards of people on social media that have supported them amongst all the criticism and this is a great thing. It is great to see how several of us in this generation have come to see what their media does to us. Real people recognize humanity. Real people can see what media does to erase the humanity we posses and the work we’ve done. As long as they paint these pictures of us, we will continue to take after the example of men like these and constantly be a threat to their erasure of blackness.
Movements such as #BeastMode and #LOB have taken precedent before in Sports. To me they have become synonymous with other players, movements such as The LA Raiders in the early 80s into the 90s, The Fab Five of Michigan, The Georgetown Hoyas during the Patrick Ewing and Coach Thompson Era, The Detroit Pistons during the Bad Boys era, The U (Miami Hurricanes Football), Allen Iverson, Michael Vick, the LA Clippers silent protesting Donald Sterling last season during the NBA Playoffs, LeBron and other athletes wearing “I Can’t Breathe” shirts earlier this season, Several St. Louis Rams players holding their hands up during player announcements earlier last season, and last but not Least, The “Portland Jail Blazers” of the late 90s who they say was the most misbehaved team in NBA History: Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Darius Miles, Zach Randolph, Damon Stoudamire, Scottie Pippen, Shawn Kemp, ETC ETC. I considered all these guys hero’s though. Back in the day, playing NBA Live, if i didn’t chose to play with the Sixers, I was for sure going to chose the Blazers.
As stated earlier, These movements and players within the athletic sphere of America have transcended and shifted the culture of sports and lifestyle during their existences. For example, NWA and folks who lived in Compton and South Central was known for always wearing Raiders jackets and snapbacks, the whole east coast wore Georgetown gear for a chuck of time during the 80s. And just like the Fab Five, you had high school players shaving their heads and wearing black socks and XL Shorts in their basketball games: Taking after the example of the silent protests that the Michigan Fab Five participated in on court in the 90s because of the racial threats they received through the mail of Michigan alumni and from fans from opposing schools as well.
For these movements, it was more than just being a fan of a team and wanting them to win a contest. It was about what these athletic movements represented. For the most part these movements represented being unapologetically Black, being true to yourself, standing up in the face of corrupt authority. It represented Black Unity.
Earlier I spoke about groups of athletes doing work in the neighborhoods of their people. There is one group that started in the city of Philadelphia with a few young men who attended and played Football for the High School I attended. SnapGod, often stylized as SNPGD is a collective that includes former West Catholic Wide Receiver’s Quran Kent who currently plays for Shippensburg University and Jaelen Strong who is NFL Bound and played for Arizona State University. Both of these young men both attended Pierce College in Los Angeles together before moving on to their respective programs. But the SNPGD movement has been established for quite some time and for some time they have put in the work to give back. Coming soon will be the second annual “Legends of Tomorrow” Youth Football Camp in Philadelphia. Follow both @JaelenStrong and @qurankent10 on Twitter for more details.
In this case, all I want is for our athletes to be recognized as humans. But we cannot leave it up to the opinions of the media and leagues to see them as human because they never will. We have to support the men and women who look like us, recognize their work and see them as human. Not take after the same opinions of the media and then tear them down verbally, especially on social media, because that then erases their humanity and efforts even more when their own people speak against them for being unapologetically themselves. I am by no means saying that these people are infallible and everybody should be critiqued to a point, at the end of the day, we need to start seeing ourselves as human and be unapologetic for it. Is this such a difficult thing to do?
