Reflection: Professional Sports and Politics
I am not an NFL football fan. When I say this, I do not mean that I despise the media, or that I have never watched an NFL football game on a Sunday afternoon. What I mean is that I have not grown up rooting for a particular NFL football team or even a specific player. I do, however, keep up with Alabama football each fall. Living in Alabama my whole life, it has been kind of hard to avoid one of our state’s most esteemed specialties. Most Saturdays in the fall, I watch some Alabama football. Despite this, I have not kept up with any other sports and recently found an interest in how these sports impact our society outside of games. Some time in August, I received an email from a New York Times newsletter I subscribed to titled: “We can boycott the N.F.L., but there won’t be enough of us to matter”. Right after reading this, I felt confused, because why would anyone feel the need to boycott the N.F.L.? I rarely read any of the newsletters I receive, but the title of this article made me too curious to ignore it.
At the very beginning of this article, the author, Jay Caspian Kang, introduced the saying, “Scandals come and go, but the N.F.L. will always grow.” Reading this only added to my confusion of why the N.F.L. was being regarded so badly, but nonetheless I continued to read. The whole article is primarily about how, historically, members of the N.F.L. have committed crimes and caused scandals, but the media continues to support the corporation. Jay emphasizes that despite whether some choose to boycott watching the N.F.L., or how much outrage people show towards the league, the numbers of viewers and the amount of revenue the league generates has continued to rise. The article provides examples of different incidents where the N.F.L. has intercepted political ideas, and condemns several responses given from members of the N.F.L. and fans towards some of these situations. After reading all of this, I was shocked at how little I really knew about the N.F.L. itself and the role it plays in our society. Thinking about this also prompted me to consider the impact of other types of sports industries in all parts of the world.
Intrigued by these questions, I took it upon myself to do some research about the current events happening in the sports industry across the globe. Earlier this year, China relinquished its rights to host the AFC Asian Cup 2023 and the East Asian Championships due to the Covid-19 situation in the country. China has continued to stick to its “zero Covid” policy as a way of managing the virus in their country. Keeping a large number of Chinese citizens from being able to work has held back economic growth in their country. Giving up the hostage of these tournaments will also take a toll on the country’s economy. Furthermore, China has spent tens of millions of dollars over the course of many years to boost its soccer program, so withdrawing from holding these events will not do China any economic favors. What is puzzling is that China hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics while Covid-19 was still a major part of many people’s lives. China spent a $3.1 billion operating budget on the games in hopes to advance the tourism industry in their country and transform Beijing into a global destination for winter sports. At the Winter Olympics, a closed loop system was enforced along with other strict Covid-19 regulation measures, which according to Thomas Bach, yielded a low 0.01% infection rate at the event. If the Covid-19 virus could be managed so well at the Olympics, why would China not employ the same measures to host the soccer games?
Unbeknownst to me, there are actually many sports related conflicts occuring in other countries around the World. In Italy, volleyball player Paola Egonu battles questions about her that challenge the validity of her spot on the Italian volleyball team. Paola was born in Italy to non-Italian parents and gained Italian citizenship at the age of 14. Now, at age 23, she is taking a break from playing volleyball with Italy’s national team because she is tired of being questioned about whether or not she is Italian. Journalist Sean Ingle is upset that in England, professional sports games were carried on after the Queen’s death. This past month, a law firm contacted FIFA on behalf of a group of Iranian sports figures urging to ban the Iraninan Football Federation from participating in the 2022 world cup in Qatar. Liz Millz, from Australia, recently broke barriers by being the first woman to coach a men’s international basketball tournament.
No matter the game, it is clear that sports have been playing major roles in people’s lives across the globe. Whether it is the NFL, college football, the Olympics, FIFA, the list goes on, each sport has supporters as well as contestants. While people can choose to watch certain sports or not based on their political opinions, do the individual members of these sports groups all share political and social opinions with the corporations that manage them anyways? How much is there going on within these entities that we do not know of? Should we all watch sports for the fun of rooting for a team with friends and family, or are our political ideals so important that if we disagree with what the team stands for, choose to refrain from watching? None of these questions have definite answers, yet one thing that can be certain is that regardless of the sport, place, or belief, a game is just a game…right?
Sources Cited
“China Withdraw as AFC Asian Cup 2023 Hosts.” ESPN.com, 14 May 2022, www.espn.com/soccer/afc-asian-cup/story/4664785/china-withdraw-as-afc-asian-cup-2023-hosts. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.
Stevenson, Alexandra. “China Is Sticking to Its “Zero Covid” Policy.” The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/10/16/world/asia/china-is-sticking-to-its-zero-covid-policy.html.
CNN, Jessie Yeung. “Reopening in Doubt as China Withdraws from Hosting 2023 AFC Asia Cup.” CNN, www.cnn.com/2022/05/16/football/china-asian-football-confederation-covid-2023-intl-hnk/index.html. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.
“What We Learned about COVID-19 Rules at the 2022 Olympics.” Time, time.com/6149800/beijing-2022-covid-19-olympics/.
Bradsher, Keith. “For China, Hosting the Olympics Is Worth Every Billion.” The New York Times, 14 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/business/economy/olympics-china-economics.html.
Reuters, Story by. “Italy’s Mario Draghi Offers Support to Volleyball Player Paola Egonu over Nationality Issue.” CNN, 17 Oct. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/sport/paola-egonu-volleyball-italy-nationality-spt-intl/index.html. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.
“FA Forgot Football’s Community Role in Fear of Getting Royal Response Wrong | Sean Ingle.” The Guardian, 18 Sept. 2022, www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/sep/18/fa-forgot-footballs-community-role-in-fear-of-getting-royal-response-wrong.
Sterling, Wayne. “Group of Prominent Iranian Sports Figures Calls on FIFA to Ban Iranian Football Federation from World Cup.” CNN, 19 Oct. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/football/iran-fifa-world-cup-football-spt-intl/index.html. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022.
Howorth, Alasdair. “How Liz Mills Became the First Woman to Coach a Men’s Basketball Team in an International Tournament.” CNN, 19 Oct. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/sport/liz-mills-womens-basketball-coach-fiba-spt-intl/index.html.