Point: Recognize the patriotism of football players who protest

Lisa Kam | Daily Trojan

Taking a knee in football used to be a quarterback’s uncontroversial, but vital play. But following President Donald Trump’s tweet that NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem should be fired, the move has become American football’s choice method of protest and a hotbed of debate.

Some have lamented the politicization of the NFL following this move. They have suggested that somehow, sports should be an all-American activity, above the political fray, that everyone should be able to enjoy. What they fail to realize is that sports is, and has always been, political. Athletes have made huge donations to political campaigns; the ownership of football teams is a political process; former athletes have run for political office. To extricate politics from sports is to remove an institution from its social context  — it’s illogical and unproductive.

On a university campus, sports and politics are still intertwined. College football players have been embroiled in controversy about whether they should be paid, the special accommodations they receive and the challenges of student-athlete life. The fact that many college football players — Sam Darnold, for example — become representatives of the universities they play for makes their existence political.

So if a USC football player wants to take a knee, then they should be appoftelauded for it — for risking embroiling themselves in controversy in order to garner attention for the police brutality crises affecting our communities of color. Kneeling is not unpatriotic; in fact, the opposite is true.

The United States was built on protest, both literal and figurative. Colonialists protested British rule, often in the streets — the Boston Tea Party, anyone? Protest is an American tradition. NFL athletes protesting by kneeling did so in the spirit of American values — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — not despite them. They recognize that the political ideals America stands for are fundamentally incompatible with the violence facing black and brown communities. That statement should be uncontroversial, and yet it is not.

It’s curious that so many critics of Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid think that an NFL game was an inappropriate venue to protest. Daily Show host Trevor Noah hit back at that idea with an exasperated question in his show this week: “When is it the right time for black people to protest?” Protest is most effective when it is least expected. It is supposed to startle, galvanize and energize. Nowhere is a better place for this than on national television, especially with the blessing of the organization that a player represents.

The support that the NFL has shown its players is remarkable. The NFL’s statement is an excellent example of organizational leadership in the face of political — and very public — controversy. DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the National Football League Players Association, understood that to stand by his players, he could not avoid politics. He tweeted on Saturday: “We will never back down. We no longer can afford to stick to sports.”

Luckily, it looks like colleges are supporting their students’ right to protest. At a NCAA meeting in January discussing activism in athletics, officials largely agreed that student-atheletes’ speech should not be suppressed.

“From the Vietnam War to the present, student-athletes have felt compelled to use their platform to express opinions about social issues,” Lincoln University President Kevin Rome said during a panel discussion. “Whether by wearing black armbands or kneeling during the national anthem, student-athletes should not lose their constitutional rights.”

Rome makes an important point: USC football players are students, too. If USC wants to encourage their students to engage in discourse, then it should applaud the efforts of students to use the University as a platform to participate in productive national conversations. That’s what it means to be a Trojan — to be courageous enough to stand up for what is right.

Sonali Seth is a senior majoring in policy, planning and development. She is also the special projects editor of the Daily Trojan. “Point/Counterpoint” runs Wednesdays.