Did Sunday’s”Take a Knee” protests by NFL players at all 14 stadiums, primarily against recent comments made by the President of the United States, along with longer-standing grievances about racism, police brutality and income and opportunity inequality, have any implications for Green-Sports? GreenSportsBlog offers its take.

 
I wasn’t going to write about “Take a Knee” Sunday.
In case you were off the media grid for most of the past week, you know that “Take A Knee” refers to the silent protests, both kneeling and arm-in-arm, made by NFL players, coaches, and even some owners during the playing of the national anthem at all 14 games Sunday (and then again at Monday night’s Cowboys-Cardinals contest in Arizona).   They were in reaction to a storm of, from my point of view, divisive, and racially charged comments, from the President of the United States, starting on Friday night. But they were born of the 2016 Take a Knee national anthem actions by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to protest racism, police brutality, and income and opportunity equality.
To be sure, climate change has strong, if not well-publicized connections, to social and economic justice. But I didn’t think there was a GreenSportsBlog segment here.
Then I had a conversation Monday with Diana Dehm, the dynamic host of the Sustainability News and Entertainment Radio Show and President of Climate and Sports Youth Summits. She, metaphorically speaking, shook me by the lapels and challenged me to write about Take a Knee as a “huge opportunity for Green-Sports!!!”
Here’s why she is right.
“Take a Knee Sunday” is arguably the highest profile recent example of athletes saying “Hell NO!” to the “You’re a jock, just Stick to Sports, don’t get involved in politics, that’s not your lane” — ethos that has long prevailed in the US and Canada, if not the world. It still has its adherents (cue the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson) but Colin Kaepernick changed things.
Whatever you think of the substance of his racism and police brutality-inspired Take a Knee protest last year, Kaepernick was the spark that jumpstarted a downward spiral for “Stick to Sports.” The ascendancy of President Trump was like dumping kerosene on it.
 

Four members of the Miami Dolphins “Take a Knee” during the playing of the national anthem before the start of their game with the New York Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey (Photo credit: QZ.com)

 
Athletes, even despite the inevitable pushback from some segments of the media and public, should feel more empowered to speak out on issues of racism, income and opportunity inequality and the President’s bullying. Kaepernick already took the bullet for them. He doesn’t have an NFL job right now, but owners will not fire hundreds of Take a Knee-ers en masse (they can do so legally but it’s hard to imagine a mass firing taking place). And now that über-popular NBA megastars LeBron James and Steph Curry are openly criticizing the President’s criticisms of the Take a Knee-ers, that gives even more cover to more athletes across more sports to speak their minds on a whole host of issues.
Including climate change.
Do I think athletes are going to take to the climate change fight with the same numbers, at the same volume, they are bringing to the racism and income inequality fights? Of course not; not even close.
But do I think more athletes will mention climate change as a social justice and economic justice issue; that there will be more eco-athletes, post-“Take a Knee” Sunday? Yes*.
* Green-Sports growth among athletes won’t happen by itself.
To knock out that asterisk, we need to find more eco-athletes. And those newly-discovered and existing eco-athletes, along with other leaders of the sports-greening movement and, for that matter, GreenSportsBlog, must connect with the many athletes already active on the social and economic justice fronts. Once those connections are made, let’s educate the activist athletes about how the effects of climate change exacerbate problems from public health to unemployment to income inequality and how taking aggressive action to fight climate change (i.e. a Marshall Plan for clean energy and energy efficiency) is one of the best prescriptions to start to cure those ills.
 
https://youtu.be/rcdjZ45Tawc

LeBron James commenting Monday on President Trump’s attacks on NFL “Take a Knee”-ers (5 minutes 40 seconds)

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