Grinding Gears: Megafight exposes sports’ hypocrises

On Saturday night, the sports world watched as Floyd Mayweather beat Conor McGregor in one of the most highly anticipated boxing matches in history, one that is expected to shatter pay-per-view records. We marveled at how McGregor, an MMA fighter making his pro boxing debut, hung tough against one of the all-time greats, and we oohed and aahed in the middle rounds as Mayweather landed punch after punch on a finally fatigued McGregor, forcing the referee to call the fight in the 10th round.

I’ll bet you this: Not once during the fight did it cross your mind that Mayweather has a criminal history. He was cited at least seven times for assault against five women — according to Deadspin — pleading guilty twice to domestic violence and serving 60 days in prison in 2012.

It didn’t cross my mind. As my friends and I gathered around my phone watching the fight, I was just glad that Periscope streamers were saving me the $100 in pay-per-view costs and that I was witnessing a momentous sporting occasion. To me, the competition and significance of the match was enough to overlook — no, straight-up ignore — Mayweather’s checkered past. By no means was this an endorsement of Mayweather. I despise the man, but not enough to turn away from the spectacle.

All of this leads to an essential question when it comes to sports: Where is the line that professional athletes must cross before they are shunned entirely from their sport, before society deems their actions intolerable and their peers cast them aside as pariahs?

Domestic violence seems to be forgivable; we’ve overlooked athlete after athlete across various sports. The NFL let Michael Vick back in the league after he participated in dogfighting, and it gave Leonard Little a second chance after he killed a woman in a drunk-driving incident. Mike Tyson — a convicted rapist — was allowed back in the ring and his first fight back in 1995 broke pay-per-view records at the time and then we loved him when he made a cameo in The Hangover.

Clearly, we are willing to overlook at a lot of things if the entertainment payoff is worth it. Outside of the ring, Tyson is a convicted criminal; inside it, he was a dominant boxer. On the football field, Vick didn’t have the “dogfighting” stigma attached to his jersey; he was simply just another quarterback.

To some, money and success trump morality and ethics. Tyson filled plenty of pockets with every fight he took on — period. Vick was a skilled quarterback and helped teams win football games — period. If they both also happened to be bad human beings, so be it. And there’s always the argument of giving people a second chance.

But if we are to forgive the Mayweathers and Tysons and Vicks of the world, then we need to take a long, hard look at one current football player and ask why we aren’t treating him the same. It is weeks before the NFL season kicks off, and Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed.

Kaepernick, as is widely known by now, caused an uproar last season when he knelt during the national anthem before games in a sign of protest for civil rights and against police brutality. He created a divisive firestorm: Some of his peers knelt with him in solidarity, while others called him out for being unpatriotic for disrespecting his country’s flag.

It’s fine to disagree on his actions. It’s not fine, however, to use his actions as a reason to blackball him from the league, which is what the 32 NFL owners have been doing all offseason, whether they admit it or not.

Let’s set aside the argument that Kaepernick doesn’t have a job because he’s not good enough. He isn’t Tom Brady, but Kaepernick is far and away a better quarterback than Austin Davis, Blaine Gabbert, Thad Lewis and David Fales — just four of the many free agent passers who have landed jobs this offseason. Remember: Kaepernick is still 29, just a season removed from starting for the San Francisco 49ers, four years removed from leading his team to the NFC Championship Game and five years removed from being one play shy of winning a Super Bowl for the 49ers. And you’re telling me you’d rather have NFL journeymen like Thad Lewis on your team?

Point is: Kaepernick doesn’t have a job because owners don’t feel comfortable with the backlash and distraction that would come with signing him. They fear that fans would stop showing up, afraid that by signing Kaepernick, they would alienate the very people they need to fill their stadium and keep the cash flowing.

The issue here is that Kaepernick has injected politics into sports in a very forceful and public manner, and I don’t think society is quite ready for that yet. Michael Jordan, who famously avoided controversial statements during his playing days, reportedly once said, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Giving an athlete with a criminal record a second chance is, in most cases, a black-and-white issue. Prison time isn’t political. But Kaepernick’s quandary is more nuanced. Sure, some sports fans think that athletes should use their platform to advocate for what they believe in, but there are many others who don’t, especially if they don’t agree with Kaepernick’s position.

It’s an unfortunate situation — embarrassing, even. Vick encouraged animal cruelty and the NFL welcomed him back. In more recent examples, Adrian Peterson pled guilty to charges of child abuse after beating his 4-year-old son with a tree branch and is still in the league. Joe Mixon was drafted in the second round this year despite assaulting a woman in a bar in college, an incident that was caught on camera.

Yet, Kaepernick, who simply exercised his First Amendment rights — breaking zero laws or NFL rules in the process — has been shunned from his sport, blackballed and cast aside. It’s clear that we haven’t reached the point where we can truly accept athletes for who they are as people, not just pawns who run around throwing and catching footballs.

Until then, by cheering for women beaters such as Floyd Mayweather but castigating Colin Kaepernick, we are nothing but hypocrites. And that’s a shame.

Eric He is a junior studying journalism. He is also the associate managing editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Grinding Gears,” runs Mondays.