KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Maybe you want them to stick to sports. Or shut up and dribble. I do, too. That would be great. We shouldn't care what athletes believe socially or politically any more than we should care what your mechanic or plumber or neighbor's friend's cousin chooses.
But we have given them little choice.
White Americans have given them little choice. Maybe you don't want to read that. Maybe that makes you angry. Maybe that makes you stop reading. Fine. But white Americans have most of the power in this country. With that comes responsibility.
America has been asking for this momentous point in sports and societal history for years, wittingly or not.
If you want sports to go back to a mere escape, and not a commentary on broken social constructs, then let's have the conversations and actions that can help repair those constructs.
The Chiefs practiced Thursday, in full, and normally this would be noteworthy for little other than the fact that it means Patrick Mahomes remains healthy and employed, but normal stopped a long time ago.
Sports stopped in many places around the country this week, and not because of COVID-19, but because some pro athletes have essentially gone on strike.
The NBA shut down, playoff games put on hold after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play, demanding justice for an unarmed Black man paralyzed after being shot in the back by police in a Wisconsin town.
The WNBA followed, and by nightfall four Major League Baseball games had been postponed, and five more in Major League Soccer.
Please, take a step back and consider the following question:
How many mistakes have to be made for America to get to the point that professional athletes feel compelled to go on strike in hopes of addressing social and law enforcement issues?
LeBron James is one of the best athletes in our country's history. He is no more qualified to speak on these issues than millions of other Americans, and perhaps less positioned to effect change than many.
But a years-long domino of failure from too many politicians, too many in law enforcement and too many of the rest of us has pushed the most basic issue that we should all agree on _ that you deserve no better or worse treatment than a stranger, and vice versa _ into one that instead is driving a greater divide between us.
James and other athletes have platforms that few of us can match, and they now feel forced to use that power to force the rest of us to have some hard conversations.
Look, there is nuance in here, and many of us have decided nuance is too hard, so here's one sentence to make it as clear as this brain is capable: This is not about right vs. left, or Black vs. white, but about seeing our common values instead of assuming the worst in each other.
If you are willfully ignorant, or uncomfortable with hard conversations, you can find excuses, whether it's the NBA's partnership with China or some victim's prior arrests or that athletes are well-paid so they shouldn't speak on inequality. You can always find something, real or manufactured, if you're not willing to listen.
Americans largely stopped listening some time ago. Stopped empathizing. Stopped trying to understand each other. Those gaps have been filled too often by laziness, selfishness and meanness.
The bill is coming due now, with protests and counter-protests and a lot of screaming over the top of each other.
We are better than this. We are so much better than this.
At some point, we stopped believing that. Or took it for granted. Or stopped caring, because there was some political point to make, or because technology has come to divide us more than unite. We're getting what we've earned.
Maybe you're like me. I'm a middle-aged straight white man who lives in a very white neighborhood, with very white schools. There are few situations in which I'm the minority. I've never been looked at sideways at a business, never had to overcome the worst assumption of a stranger. Every interaction I've had with a police officer has begun with each side feeling comfortable.
That is a gift, and if I'm honest, one I did not realize was mine until sometime after college.
Do we not owe it to ourselves and others to understand these differences, and work toward a better future?
Nobody wants the status quo to continue. We can't continue with this stress, and these protests, and this reality in which some live with evidence that they are valued less than others based on nothing more than appearance.
There is a market for everything, even the refusal to listen, so it's become popular to dismiss "the woke mob." We blame the victims of violence for prior convictions or failing to comply, ignoring that white people survive much worse.
Too many of us don't want to hear that Black and white Americans use drugs at similar rates but Blacks are much likelier to be arrested and convicted. Studies have shown Black Americans are more often convicted and sentenced to longer terms compared to whites sentenced on the same charges.
The problem has been ignored past the point of an honest fix. Cops have been protected by each other and the law beyond reason, and the irony is that we now have an environment where those charged with protecting us have reason to feel endangered.
Protecting those who don't deserve it has led to exposing those who don't deserve it. We've dug in so hard that it's been made worse for everyone, and it's hard to imagine a more illustrated microcosm for many of our country's biggest problems of the moment.
This has all happened on our watch. The divide has grown as we not only refuse to listen to each other but have largely refused to even look at the same facts.
We've let this go for so long _ our politicians unwilling or unable to help, and the rest of us unwilling or unable to demand they be better.
Some of you will blame all of this on Donald Trump, and others will put this on Nancy Pelosi, but these problems are far too big for one person to create or solve. We get the leadership we deserve, and the government we demand.
For now, much of the sports world has paused. That means we pause, too. I do not have the same life experience as those who are protesting, but I sure as heck want to know why they feel so strongly about these things for which they're standing. I also believe that much of America's best was built by those willing to protest on social issues.
This is supposed to be a sports column. And today it's not. I have two insights on Mahomes I want to share, and another on Royals infielder Adalberto Mondesi. Kansas football coach Les Miles is interesting. There's something I think you should know about Chiefs lineman Mitchell Schwartz.
Hopefully, soon, we'll get back to that.
I've written this column for 10 years, and except for when my mother died, have never gone this far away from sports. Then, sports have never gone this far, either.
I'd love for athletes to shut up and dribble, but to get there, how about more of us shut up and be part of the solution?
I'd love to stick to sports here, but to get there, how about more of us stick to demanding everyone is treated with the respect they deserve?
There are a lot of Americans _ and, again, a lot of us white Americans _ who spend an aggravating amount of time demanding that strangers with different life experiences stand for the national anthem, or have the same view of law enforcement, or express the same form of patriotism.
What if we put that same energy into creating the kind of country that makes us all want to stand, eliminates fear on both sides of law enforcement encounters and drives us all to scream to the skies that we're proud to be Americans?
Do that, and nobody will ever have to say 'stick to sports' again.
