This shooting was different. It was personal for former Broncos cornerback Taurean Nixon. He knew Alton Sterling, the 37-year-old black man killed in Baton Rouge in early July by two white police officers. The “CD man” was a fixture in his hometown, known for helping up-and-coming artists get into the music industry and someone Nixon had talked with many times.
Officers responded to a call of a man brandishing a gun at people. They detained Sterling, believing he was the suspect, and eventually tased, pinned and shot him multiple times. In the aftermath, Nixon was careful not to say much publicly about the incident.
“I felt I had to keep to myself,” he said. “I was going to be politically correct. It’s one of those things where you have to be humble, understand things and leave it alone.”
Nixon’s apprehension to speak out about societal issues is common among NFL players — particularly the black athlete, who often weighs the safety of silence against a potential backlash of voicing an opinion that may not be popular.
“When it comes to the NFL, our voice isn’t as strong as other sports, We’re a little more timid,” said former Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams, who played in the NFL from 2004-2014. “The NFL athlete’s biggest fear is that the NFL, or their team, won’t support them. You can get blackballed in this industry quickly.”
A growing number of athletes, however, began to use their platform this summer to make public stands regarding potentially
controversial social topics. The latest is San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who drew outrage for sitting, and later kneeling, during the national anthem before recent exhibition games. The purpose, he said, was to make people more aware of issues such as racial oppression and police brutality. In July, when killings of two black men by police officers and a third mass shooting of police officers dominated headlines, New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony began a series of public appearances to speak about the need to find ways to end the violence.
High-profile athletes are looking internally, and at others, deciding if their words will make a difference and if it’s worth it to speak out.
VALUE OF THE MESSAGE
In person and on TV, many Broncos watched as NBA stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Anthony gave the opening speech at the ESPYs this summer in a call to action for athletes to be an agent of change. To help bridge racial divides.
Asked about that speech, Broncos players echoed similar sentiments but lamented it wasn’t NFL players who were making it.
“Social media has changed it because all you have to do is tweet something,” Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall said. “Muhammad Ali said it all in the cameras. He was a once-in-a-lifetime leader. Everybody isn’t like that. Everybody doesn’t have that in them. Do we need somebody like that? Absolutely, I think we do, but it’s gotta be real. The times are different.
“It takes the Adrian Petersons, the Tom Bradys, the Peyton Mannings. It takes those guys because they have the most influence.”
Kaepernick’s star has fallen since he was a Super Bowl quarterback in 2012 but that hasn’t made him any less polarizing following his recent actions. He took to the NFL Network following a preseason game against Green Bay to explain why he sat during the anthem.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”
Later, Kaepernick told reporters, “This is because I’m seeing things happen to people that don’t have a voice.”
Kaepernick’s actions and comments in recent days launched a spirited national debate on racial issues. 49ers safety Eric Reid and Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane joined him in the protest. To back up his words, Kaepernick pledged to donate $1 million to help causes he has been talking about.
The Broncos’ locker room was buzzing about Kaepernick after Thursday night’s game at Arizona, the same night Kaepernick chose to kneel for the anthem in San Diego. Marshall said he supported his former Nevada teammate’s stance, as did left tackle Russell Okung, safety T.J. Ward and cornerback Kayvon Webster.
Following the police shooting of Sterling, and 32-year old Philando Castile, a St. Paul, Minn., resident, and five white Dallas police officers, all within a short span in July, Marshall made a few spiritual posts on Twitter calling for peace. Okung made a passionate post on Facebook.
“I feel powerless. Incapable. An emotional wreck,” Okung wrote. “We think things have changed, that the horrific hate crimes considered commonplace in the 50’s and 60’s — and even further before that — are no more. That blacks and minorities are treated just and fair. And while the law has made strides, slowly, hearts have not. And it’s not that it got better, and then got worse — it’s that now we have the technology to expose it. A senseless murder can’t be swept under the rug because it can be live-streamed on Facebook.”
Social media has become the new wave to speak out, but such posts are often dismissed as quickly as they are posted in terms of having an impact.
“The problem with athletes is they are afraid of offending people and affecting their brand so when it comes to speaking in front of a camera they stay quiet. And you can’t knock them for that, they’re making a living,” Williams said. “When you’re a black man in America you’re treated differently than a white man in America and that’s a fact. We talk about that in the locker room even when it comes to players making the roster. Like there’s a great white hope advantage. It only hurts you to say that though.”
Williams said players understand there is a danger in rocking the boat and could risk their job if they speak out. The average NFL players’ career is around three years. And unlike in the NBA and Major League Baseball, NFL contracts are usually not guaranteed.
THE SUPPORTIVE VOICE
Dr. Will Miles, a clinical psychologist, said coaches play a bigger role in the discussion of societal issues than they may realize. Miles worked in the University of Colorado athletic department from 1988-1997, primarily with CU’s football team.
From that experience, he said he recognized the value of coaches and administration as a supportive resource for players on all issues, not just football.
“The player has to understand and believe he’s not being anti-white if he’s being pro-black,” Miles said. “It’s all about equality and bringing up a group that is being oppressed. Being neutral means you’re fine with the status quo.
“Positive social change can happen in athletics if there’s a desire to advance it from top to bottom. Everybody needs to ask what can I do?”
Former CU football coach Bill McCartney often spoke out in defense and support of his black players, Miles said, and that’s when they truly began to feel welcome in Boulder.
In the NFL, players joke that it’s the “hush, hush” league or “No Fun League” when it comes to players being free to express themselves. Each coaching staff and media relations department create their own policy on how they want players communicating to the public.
“I tell our players all the time I want them to be themselves, but I want them to be their best selves,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. “I respect everybody. We all come from all over the place, to come together and become a team. We’re all different. We don’t have one way we want people to be.”
Not every NFL coach has that mind-set. Kubiak has earned his players’ respect by being true to his words.
Yet players say they receive pressure from every direction. Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term “double consciousness” in the early 1900s, which in part described the internal conflict between a black American identifying as a black person and as an American citizen. The black NFL athlete often has a conflict between being a black man in America and an elite pro athlete.
“We, as black athletes, have the most powerful voice,” Ward said. “If the pressure gets that high, you gotta speak out. If you don’t feel the pressure as a black man, there’s something wrong with you.”
For Okung, the difficulties with police interaction toward people of color are “real systematic issues that you have to be careful about and real about.” He said he has faced them throughout his life, even now as a well-paid NFL player. It’s a common conversation among players in the locker room, even though their lifestyle is often far removed from those they seek to help.
“This has been going on, it’s just visible now,” Ward said of police brutality. “We went from guys getting beat on camera to guys getting killed. So can we get better? Are we? It’s up to us.”
Marshall watched as rappers The Game and Snoop Dogg led a peaceful march in July to the Los Angeles police department where they talked to the mayor and police chief about police brutality, and the need for respect and unity as a people. The two West Coast hip-hop artists later organized a cease-fire treaty between two L.A. rival gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.
“We can post (on social media) and say all we want, but that’s the real change. To get out in the community and say we’re going to do this,” Marshall said. “Sometimes you have to go straight to the source and really have a conversation to sit down and talk with the leaders.”
Okung doesn’t look at police relations as the central issue, but more a byproduct of bigger problems, such as a lack of education, income disparity and a lack of diversity in the workplace. His goal is to affect change, starting with having black business entrepreneurs as role models, particularly in low-income areas, instead of just athletes and entertainers. Okung launched the Greater Foundation to challenge the lack of access for minorities in the technology field. He has been working in Seattle with alternative schools and LEGO education to help kids learn a different way.
“We need to figure out what are more sustainable things that we can do to grow the community,” Okung said. “How can we work within the private and public sector to really create opportunities for these children coming up, whether it being stem education, cooking classes, teaching these people really obtainable skills that they’ll need in the future workplace. We can shift that mind-set so that we can not just be consumers, but now producers.”
