It is a slippery slope when one is an athlete and feels the need to express one’s disgust with the happenings that are surrounding you. While there are consequences for expressing one’s feelings publicly, there is lies an opportunity to make a difference in the world. Taking that chance to make a difference can bring the wondruous surprise of popularity and support from fans.
Recently, there has been alot of turmoil with African Americans and police. Police officers in several cities–Ferguson, New York City, Cleveland–have killed two Black men and one child. The situation in Cleveland with the child is still going through the legal process. However, the legal process in New York City and Ferguson found police officers not guilty of killing the two men.
Protests have taken over the streets of various cities–New York, Ferguson, Baltimore, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and more. People have taken over the streets in protests to express their anger, frustration, lack of trust with the legal system, and fear of the very people each of us pay through our taxes to protect us.
Many are fans of various teams and individual players. In the same sense, those players are members of the same society that feels the anger, fear, and lack of trust. Therefore, it is not surprising that some players feel the need to address the tensions surrounding their lives.
It is surprising and very disheartening to learn that those players active in peaceful protest are reprimanded and an apology issued on their behalf because the opposition to the protest requests it from their team. Alas, the St. Louis Rams football players who entered the field with their hands raised above their heads found themselves in that very situation.
The St. Louis police association did not like the silent protest and let the Rams know it. The Rams, then later, issued an apology to the police as implied ramifications were issued when the police announced their displeasure with the players. St. Louis Police Officer Association Business Manager Jeff Roorda issued a statement that reads in part, “All week long, the Rams and the NFL were on the phone with the St. Louis Police Department asking for assurances that the players and the fans would be kept safe from the violent protesters who had rioted, looted, and burned buildings in Ferguson … then, as the players and their fans sit safely in their dome under the watchful protection of hundreds of St. Louis’s finest, they take to the turf to call a now-exonerated officer a murderer, that is way out-of-bounds, to put it in football parlance. I’d remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser’s products. It’s cops and the good people of St. Louis and other NFL towns that do. Somebody needs to throw a flag on this play. If it’s not the NFL and the Rams, then it’ll be cops and their supporters.”
The gesture of hands up was the gesture used in peaceful protests to stand up to the excessive force used to kill Mike Brown in Ferguson. It should also be noted that protestors were across the street from the St. Louis Rams game. Players and fans are not just united by the football that is played on the field, but by the passion they feel in the causes they believe in.
Sorry, Mr. Roorda but the First Amendment exists because the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid the exact intimidation you are trying to exert by denying the St. Louis Rams players an opportunity to express their opinions as well as their ability to protest.
While freedom of speech, association and protest are protected under the First Amendment, is there a line that an athlete–by the very nature of her job–should not cross?