https://www.nola.com/sports/saints/a...4c3e678ac.html
The marriage of sports and social injustice isn't going away soon. So, please, just listen.
BY ROD WALKER | Staff writer
Published Aug 27, 2020 at 4:05 pm | Updated Aug 27, 2020 at 5:44 pm
If you already understand why Black Lives Matter, and why NFL players take a knee during the national anthem, you can stop reading now.
This column really isn't for you.
It's for everybody else.
If you're not sure if that includes you, ask yourself these four questions:
• Have I ever said I'm going to stop watching (pick a sport) games because I don't want to see any form of protests?
• Have I ever seen a person express the pain and hurt they feel from racism, then immediately began to respond with "Yeah, but ..."?
• Have I ever watched an athlete protest for the voiceless and then wondered why someone who makes millions of dollars is doing so?
• Have I ever uttered the words "stick to sports"?
If you answered "yes" to any of those, keep reading.
Chances are, you have loved sports since you were a kid. There is no need for you to give up on that lifelong passion just because of a sheer unwillingness to budge on issues that will someday land you on the wrong side of history.
It's OK to listen.
The conversation isn't going to be easy.
But it isn't going away.
It can't, as Sean Payton reminded us Thursday.
"There is an old adage: 'The obstacle is the way,’ ” Payton said. “It's not going around; it's understanding and going through it and addressing it — even if it means uncomfortable topics and conversations that may make people somewhat uneasy."
But don't just listen to Payton. Listen to his players, too — especially the Black ones on the roster who have lived their whole lives experiencing the very same issues they protest.
Just because you don't share similar experiences doesn't mean those experiences don't exist.
They do, just as they did four years ago when Colin Kaepernick first took a knee.
"It's exhausting," Saints receiver Emmanuel Sanders said. "To keep having the same conversations over and over and over and really not seeing any change and it keeps happening is exhausting."
It's exhausting for me, too.
If it were up to me, I could stop writing about it. If it were up to Sanders and his teammates, they could stop talking about it. But the issues remain, a never-ending cycle of racial incident, hashtag, protest and repeat.
You should be tired of it, too — especially if you are familiar with the stories of people like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd or Jacob Blake.
"We all know that emotionally, we are drained," Sanders said. "We are drained of talking about it. We're drained of it happening over and over again. We are drained of trying to make a change but change is not coming. We're drained of it happening over and over again. We are drained emotionally, and it's sad to see it. Why are you drained? If you are in the same situation, you know that could easily be you."
So when you hear a Black person sharing that pain or that fear, just know that it's real. It's not just the incidents captured on cellphone video. It's also the ones that aren't.
When we say Black Lives Matter, we're not saying Only Black Lives Matter. We're saying Black Lives Matter, Too.
And because of that, the marriage of sports and social justice won't be divorcing anytime soon.
It's why the Saints chose to wear Blake's name on their helmets during Thursday's practice. No, just wearing his name won't solve the issues. That can only come from changes in laws and policies. But it brings awareness to the incident that occurred just four days earlier when Blake was shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
It's why the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, based in a city just 40 miles from where Blake was shot, didn't play their scheduled playoff game Wednesday against the Orlando Magic.
And it's why Joe Burrow, LSU's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback last season, tweeted these words Thursday morning:
"How can you hear the pain Black people are going through and dismiss it as nothing?"
That's the question athletes are asking.
Now, please, just be willing to listen.
The marriage of sports and social injustice isn't going away soon. So, please, just listen.
