The Colin Kaepernick situation is proving that the worst part of sports talk media is the more successful you are, the more chances you get to completely mislead people.
Rather than staying focused on covering the sport or the local region that made folks successful to begin with, producers seem to encourage their talent to yammer on about everything making news and fill five to ten minute segments with their long-winded opinions. In a world where everyone these days understands that most of the time less is definitely more, sports media continues to flood airwaves everywhere with tons of utter nonsense.
The latest edition of Hot Takes Gone Wild brings us to Kaepernick’s controversial decision to protest injustices in America by refusing to stand for the national anthem. The reactions have been intense to say the least. We’ve heard everything from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith urging Kaepernick to next address black on black crime, to Rodney Harrison proclaiming that Kaepernick shouldn’t protest because he doesn’t really understand the plight of black men in America because “he’s not black” even though he is. (Harrison has since apologized).
.@Rodney_Harrison ..ppl like u claim us biracial kids when it's convenient for u. That's a racist, dbl standard. Sad https://t.co/t6kGHLiTx9
— Sage Steele (@sagesteele) August 30, 2016
Then there’s Boomer Esiason who spoke to reporters at CBS’s NFL media day and went completely over the top when talking about the decision made by the 49ers quarterback.
"“It was one of the most disgraceful displays I’ve ever seen by a professional athlete on his field of play,” Esiason, said. “He signed a contract with an NFL football team. He has on an NFL football helmet. He has got an NFL uniform on. He doesn’t have the right, I don’t believe, to now start putting out his own political views in that form.”"
It’s bad enough that Esiason fancies himself as Commissioner of the NFL Police as means of “protecting the shield” like so many ex-players do, but what’s worse is that he had absolutely no understanding of the league’s stance on such actions. If the NFL doesn’t require players to stand for the anthem then what’s so disgraceful about what Kaepernick did? To Esiason it was his ignorance towards law enforcement as a whole.
"“I would tell him: Before you open your mouth again, maybe you should take a ride in a police car on Friday or Saturday night in one of these major urban cities in America,” Esiason said. “Just go on a couple of 9-1-1 calls. Maybe then you can get an idea of what these people, making $35,000 a year, have to deal with.”"
Of the seemingly five thousand jobs that Esiason has being a police officer is not one of them. It seems Esiason’s rationale and understanding of the job stems from the fact that he has dozens of friends and family who work in law enforcement and that gives him some perspective. If this is so, he doesn’t have anywhere near the perspective that he’s chastising Kaepernick for not having. Not to mention there’s a pretty obvious reason Esiason knows more people in law enforcement.
Kaepernick made news and that was the idea. People get paid to talk about it so I’m not at all saying criticism isn’t necessary. But, isn’t the job of media to provide a shred of proper perspective? Why in the case of Smith, Harrison and Esiason, among many others, was this so hard to achieve? It seems the more people are allowed to talk the worse off we are in these situations.
Let me give perspective a shot.
Colin Kaepernick is a black man who decided to protest on his platform, that being a professional athlete in the National Football League, about injustices in law enforcement against minorities using his First Amendment right while not violating NFL policies in regards to the national anthem. Kaepernick doesn’t have any authority over law enforcement and hasn’t broken any laws during the protest.
Protests like this cause reaction to those who have had friends and family in the military. It’s an emotional scenario that, like law enforcement, draws many reactions like Esiason’s stance on police. What’s worse? Generally speaking about outrage by large groups of people like Smith, Harrison and Esiason did, or merely speaking for yourself about something that Kaepernick believes needs change? If #VeteransforKaepernick is indication enough, the answer would seem to be the former.
Hey, what do you know? A hashtag providing proper perspective.
What we have here in sports media today is a grandstanding problem and it’s not just about Kaepernick’s decision – that’s just the hot take du jour. Like many of the issues our country and society face today it simply needs to stop. All the likes of Smith, Harrison and Esiason are doing in these situations are making them worse and dividing an already divided nation further and further apart when sports does such an amazing job bringing us all together.