Writing this column for more than two years, what I’ve tried to do more than anything is have a laugh, make people smile and bring a little entertainment to those who choose to read it.
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This week, going for jokes just doesn’t feel right.
The on-going protests in the United States after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota have spread across the globe and incited conversations that not only need to be had, but need to be backed up with actions.
Warning; yes, this ‘sporting’ column will be political — if you’re not interested, just don’t read it.
And a further disclaimer — I am a white Australian who has never suffered one single act of discrimination on racial grounds; there are an infinite amount of people who understand this situation better than I do, and it is super important we are all reading and listening to what those people have to say, not just at this time, but at all times.
After Floyd’s tragic death, the US has, once again, began to discuss the treatment of African-Americans by the nation’s police officers, with video showing a police officer, who has since been charged with murder, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes, choking him.
The video is impossibly hard to watch and, while the conversation began as an American one, mistreatment of minority groups by police is far from a situation isolated to one country — for example, 432 indigenous Australians have died in custody since 1991, and no individual has been convicted of one of those deaths.
But how does this tie into sport?
One of the first series of moments last week that — for myself, at least — began to illustrate the global nature of the appetite for change were the multiple peaceful protests made by Bundesliga footballers — that is, the top-tier German soccer league.
American Weston McKennie, Frenchman Marcus Thuram and Englishman Jadon Sancho each displayed messages calling for justice and supporting the larger Black Lives Matter movement; McKennie wore an armband, Thurman took a knee and Sancho took off his shirt after scoring a goal to reveal an undershirt that read ‘Justice For George Floyd’.
There is something special about athletes who realise how much more to life there is than sport, and what an outstanding platform they have to share a political message when they choose to use it — and today feels like the right moment to reminisce on my favourite examples of this through history, in Australia and abroad.
Nicky Winmar
It is probably the most famous image in Australian sporting history; St Kilda’s Nicky Winmar lifting his jumper and pointing to his black skin after receiving a mountain of racial abuse from Collingwood supporters during a match in 1993.
Winmar, a member of the AFL’s Indigenous Team of the Century, initially let his football do the talking with a 25-disposal performance earning him Brownlow Medal votes, but as the game concluded in a Saints victory and the abuse continued, he made probably the most powerful statement in the sport’s history.
It is an image that is so meaningful and provokes so many thoughts, it is basically impossible to sum up.
But while Winmar’s action sparked discussion, the treatment of a certain Sydney Swans champion in the mid-2010s would indicate our country still has a long way to go in terms of stopping racism.
Adam Goodes
The 2014 Australian of the Year and two-time Brownlow medallist was mercilessly booed by opposition supporters and it seemingly stemmed from him calling out a 13-year-old girl who called him an “ape”.
In a press conference the following morning, Goodes said the girl had given racism a face; that would appear to be a pretty common sense statement, but an indigenous Australian calling out someone that had racially abused him seemed to threaten plenty of our citizens.
Why did some commentators find this so hard to stomach? Work that one out for yourself, or by watching either of the brilliant documentaries detailing that sorry period; The Australian Dream and The Final Quarter.
In 2015, after essentially being booed for two years, Goodes performed an indigenous war dance in celebration of a goal and he summed it up perfectly to The Guardian.
“Being booed for two years was tough … That was my FU to the booing. I walked off with my head held high,” he said.
1968 Olympics
This is another of sport’s most powerful images — African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, flanked by Australian Peter Norman, raised their fist on the podium for the 200 m sprint at the Mexico City-hosted 1968 Olympics to protest racial discrimination.
The duo performed the traditional Black Power pose, but Smith later clarified it was a “human rights” salute — all three wore badges supporting the Olympic Project for Human Rights.
“If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say ‘a Negro'. We are black and we are proud of being black,” Smith said at the post-race press conference.
“Black America will understand what we did tonight.”
The International Olympic Committee suspended the duo for its protest, but time has had this demonstration remembered in an extremely positive manner; we can only hope this week’s protests are also viewed as difference-making.
Muhammad Ali
There is perhaps no more highly-respected athlete in the history of sport than the great Muhammad Ali — and while his status as one of boxing’s all-time greats helps this, his continuous fight for human rights throughout his lifetime is as big a part of his legacy.
His most famous stance was his refusal to be drafted into the US military, due to his religious beliefs and opposition to the war in Vietnam.
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10 thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam, while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Ali famously said in 1966.
His protest cost him his world title and more than three years of his career, but inspired millions.
Colin Kaepernick
In 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first sat, and then kneeled, during the American national anthem played before NFL matches.
Kaepernick was, and remains, protesting the exact same thing being fought for in the past week — police brutality and African-Americans dying due to police treatment.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour,” Kaepernick told NFL Media after his initial protest.
”To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Like all these protest by athletes, this is inspiring, and costly; a talented QB that led the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl, Kaepernick’s contract ended in 2016 and he has not been on a NFL roster since.
It is widely believed he was frozen out of the league because of his on-field protesting rather than performance and it led to a lawsuit in which he alleged NFL owners colluded to keep him out of the league.
Ironically, many in response to the recent protests have said riots are not the answer and that peaceful protesting is; that is exactly what Kaepernick did, and it cost him his career.
Senior journalist