The End of America’s Love Affair with Sports

The End of America’s Love Affair with Sports

By Billy King

 

I have spent at least 30 of my 40 plus years watching sports.

I started out watching the NBA in high school. Something about the Detroit Pistons drew me in. They seemed like huge underdogs playing against the more well known teams like the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers with superstars like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I still believe Isiah Thomas is one of the best small point guards to ever play the game. Of course, the Chicago Bulls dynasty came along and destroyed my Pistons every year so I had to wait until 2004 to see them win another NBA championship. In the meantime, I turned my attention to football.

I soon began to watch football not long after I started watching basketball. Everyone in my School liked Joe Montana's 49ers so I did not want to jump on that bandwagon. My mother was a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and, at that time, they were the worst team in the NFL coming off a 1-15 season, so I followed Mom’s example. After watching what I believe to be the greatest team ever assembled win three Super Bowl rings, I have never looked back. Through 3 consecutive 5-11 seasons as well as numerous 8-8 seasons, I have been a diehard fan. My fandom for the NBA has since waned but never my love of the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys.

I remember watching the Dallas Cowboys while serving in the Air Force. While overseas, I remember waking up at 3 AM just to watch the annual Cowboys Thanksgiving game. When I was stateside, I never missed a game thanks to the Sunday Ticket and our NCO Club that carried all the games. I remember going there every Sunday, ordering up some wings, and sitting and watching all the games until closing time. If my game was a noon game, I watched it until it was over. If it was an afternoon game, I bounced from TV to TV watching all the other games until my game came on.

While watching the games, nobody there was a stranger. We all watched the games and talked smack while eating delicious food and drinking beer. I argued with Giants fans over who was better between Jason Witten and Jeremy Shockey. I argued with Eagles fans that Terrell Owens was an overrated wide receiver until he joined the Cowboys and then I argued the opposite. While discussions were intense, they never got heated and out of hand. Everyone there wore his or her team's gear. They had a jersey, t-shirt, hat, or any combination of the three. I always sported my vintage Aikman Jersey (even though he had long retired) and any of my numerous Dallas ball caps. While I knew who everyone's favorite team was, the one thing I did not know was whether he or she was a Democrat or Republican. None of it mattered. We were fans of our teams and we left politics at home.

However, all that has changed now.

It started in 2016 with Colin Kaepernick, the now infamous quarterback who decided to protest police shootings by kneeling for the National Anthem. This gained traction for a while and then died off. I have spoken on this at length in other ramblings and really do not need to go into it again. I will say that I tolerated it then even though I found it to be divisive and really of no use to victims of police brutality or police shootings. Think about it for a moment. Is kneeling during the National Anthem going to resurrect Michael Brown or Freddie Gray? Are supposed racists going to see a player kneeling and decide to repent of his racist ways? Neither of these things are going to happen so it is nothing more than an exercise in futility. I tolerated it then because no one on my Cowboys knelt and because it was only a few players doing it and it was their right. Now if owners wanted to penalize said players for hurting their bottom line, this too was their right.

I do remember when President Trump spoke out against these protests and the league decided to do a league wide protest of the president’s remarks. Dallas was playing Arizona on Sunday Night Football. Both teams decided to come out and kneel before the anthem and then stand for the anthem with their arms locked together. I was unaware that the teams had stood back up. I may have looked away from my TV when they stood but it appeared to me that my Cowboys were kneeling during the playing of the anthem. I sat there and sobbed. What now? I cannot watch a team that disrespects my country. What will I do with all my merchandise? I found out soon that they stood after all and breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hand of a police officer, I am not so sure I will be able to watch any sports this year. It has all gone political. It started with Major League Baseball. The NBA soon followed suit when they reopened their season. The WNBA did not even stick around to kneel. When the anthem started, they trotted off the court and back to the locker room. It appeared that the NHL was going to the lone holdout but then they knelt the other night. That would not matter anyway because I do not watch hockey anyway.

As if kneeling is not enough, players in the NBA have replaced nameplates with pre-approved protest slogans like “BLACK LIVES MATTER” or “SAY THEIR NAMES”. I find it ironic that “FREE HONG KONG” is not one of the approved slogans. One player actually stood the other night and had his feet held to the fire by the media. He needed to explain himself. What kind of country are we living in when someone has to justify honoring your country?

Nobody wants to see this. The main base that these athletes are reaching out to live on Twitter and most of these woke individuals could not care less about sports. The antics of these athletes and their owners is not going to draw in new woke viewership. A prime example is the opening night of the NBA. That night, Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” had higher ratings than the NBA reopening its season. Imagine that. People who had been doing without sports and reduced to watching reruns of games on YouTube decided to watch the news instead of the NBA due to all of this woke garbage.

I am still holding out hope that the NFL will see the error of these other leagues as their ratings plummet due to all of this political crap although I am doubtful. They have already decided to have a separate “Black National Anthem”. What does this even mean? There should only be one National Anthem for everyone! What’s next? Will black athletes want separate locker rooms for blacks and whites? How about separate seating for black and white fans? Is it just me or are we going backwards as a country here? I thought Dr. King and his followers underwent abuse and hardship to put all that behind us. Why are we trying to bring it back?

There is no need to remind me that these players have their First Amendment Right to protest. I served nine years to protect that right whether I agree with it or not. However, they are going to go broke if ownership does not figure something out. As soon as that alternate anthem finishes up with all the players standing and then they kneel for the actual anthem, people will turn off their sets. I know I will.

I do not need an athlete who makes more on a Sunday afternoon to tell me how oppressed his people are and why it is my fault. I look at it like this. When I go to Wendy’s and order a Baconator, I am not paying for a lecture on the $15 minimum wage. If the person behind the counter begins a lecture, I am leaving and going to McDonald’s. The same goes for what I watch on TV. These players have every right to protest by kneeling for the anthem and I have the same right to change the channel and watch something else!

Heaven forbid any NFL player who wishes to stand for the National Anthem and honor America despite her flaws. We all saw how that worked out for Drew Brees. He was shamed and bullied into compliance. The fact that someone is not free to think for himself and stand for the anthem without being shamed for it bothers me more than the kneeling itself.

Sports, in general, is digging itself into a hole that is going to be very difficult to dig itself out. People have had to endure lockdowns driven by politics as well as riots that are also driven by politics. They are sick of it. Sports was supposed to be our escape and now that too has been ruined.