As sports fans, we spend our time watching all the games, participating in fantasy leagues, we wear the game gear, and we’re all pretty average people. Personally, I am a student with jobs and internships. Some sports fans are your construction men, teachers, lawyers, stay at home parents, farmers, etc. We all wake up and go do a job and then sit our asses whether it be at home or at a bar and watch the sports we love and support the athletes we love.
Athletes, they too, are pretty average people if you think about it. The only difference is that the job they wake up to do everyday is just a little more glamorous than the rest of us. They live in the same cities as us, play maybe even just a few blocks from our jobs or homes. They are Americans in America employed by an American business…….like the rest of us.
WHATS WEIRD is how DARE THEY participate in their rights as Americans? Politics? Didn’t they read in their contracts that being born with the talent of being really good at a sport involves you giving up your rights as Americans to participate in something, like expressing your beliefs? Protesting is definitely out of the picture. There’s definitely some kind of line mentioned in their contracts telling them not to do that.
Honestly, I don’t know why any of these athletes think they can do what they’re doing, because being an athlete means you have no right to have an opinion, own set of values and beliefs and really all they are when they decided to become professional athletes is just an athlete. That’s it. Nothing else. They are their sport and nothing else.
It’s hypocritical really that to feel as the average Americans we are over here in our homes watching these players play, THROWING our money at them, that we somehow have a greater right to express our political views and beliefs than they do. It’s quiet odd that we feel we are above these people that we idolize that we are somehow better than they are and that we have greater rights as Americans than the Americans they are only because their paychecks are bigger and who they are is under a microscope.
I’m not here to tell you whether I agree or not with what they’re doing. I’m not even here to tell you if what they’re choosing to do is ethically right or wrong. I’m here to tell you that the first amendment is real and thriving. As a journalist the first amendment is something I live by everyday of my life and I honor that right. A right I was blessed with, you were blessed with, athletes were blessed with and ALL OF AMERICA was blessed with.
You have the right to have an opinion and VOICE it and not agree with something. Isn’t it beautiful how that works?
What’s silly is to have all these people who have greater platforms than us, a bigger voice and a greater power to reach millions to want them to sit down and stick to what they know? If this is your view, then why were we so excited to have a businessman run for the highest position in POLITICS. Stick to what you know, am I right?
Should we also ask every single owner and player who donated millions to the foundations that have probably helped someone in your life in some way or another to also ask for all that money back? Because these are people who have given millions to people in need. That’s not sticking to their sport? Or does this not apply here? Because we want our athletes to make wishes come true, give away their money and give us the time of day. BUT hey! Shut up when you want to express your views.
For us to want to silence people is ignorant. It is a gift we all have here in America. You have the right to be sitting on your ass at home and screaming via your twitter account about how you disagree with them all you want. Just like these athletes have the right to do the same in the way they choose.
What’s beautiful about all of this is that no matter the color of your skin, your occupation or your background the first amendment will continue to be a right of ALL the people.