The second golden age of athlete activism has arrived _ whether we are ready or not.
Stephen Curry's strong comments about President Donald Trump this week _ the most notable coming when he said he would agree that Trump was an "asset" if you removed the letters "et" _ were the latest high-profile example of a sports star stepping outside of the billion-dollar bubble to address social concerns.
I was proud of Curry _ the two-time NBA MVP who grew up in Charlotte, N.C., and starred at Davidson College _ for risking some of his sparkling reputation while wading into this fray. Maybe you were proud of him, too, particularly if you read his full comments about inclusion and diversity.
Many of us do want our sports stars to speak up _ at least until they say or do something we don't like. Then we want them to SticktoSports _ a Twitter hashtag that is making its way into the mainstream.
So should an athlete just take the millions and avoid taking controversial stands, as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods mostly did during the peaks of their own careers? Or should they speak up or kneel down, like LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick?
The answer is more complicated than you might think. Several well-known NASCAR figures, including NASCAR president Brian France, endorsed Donald Trump for president a year ago. Were you OK with that?
What about Kaepernick's kneel-downs for the Star-Spangled Banner this past NFL season to protest the treatment of racial minorities? What about the half-dozen New England Patriots (at least) who have said they would skip the traditional trip to the White House to honor the NFL champion?
What about the fact that Tom Brady displayed a "Make America Great Again" Trump cap in his locker during the presidential campaign or that New England coach Bill Belichick wrote Trump a supportive letter on the eve of the election?
If you are OK with any of this, you have to be OK with all of it. You can't cherry-pick the constitution. As a democracy, we have the right to express ourselves without fear of being shipped to a prison camp in Siberia _ and high-profile members of the sports world have that right just like anyone else.
Stick to sports? No way. You don't just have to shut up and shoot, as some would have Steph Curry do. You get to have an opinion in America.
