With so little going on in the sports world, you might think there’d be so very little to talk about, especially in a twice weekly blog, but alas, how wrong you’d be. In fact, I believe this gives us much clearer opportunities to write about substantive issues moving beyond the daily goings on of sports scores and analysis.
If anything, it allows those outside of sports to the freedom to to voice their opinion regarding the ills of society that sports often became the reactive forum for. How many times have we seen issues of social justice play out on the platform that is sports; be it the power fist of the the Olympic games of the 60s, or Magic and the AIDS crisis of the 90s. No matter how many times political hacks decry athletes utilizing these platforms to address these concerns. Remember shut up and dribble?
Just a few weeks ago, everything went to crap. The Big Dance was canceled. The event was killed by the pandemic, and though the teams and athletes face an uncertain future, the hourly workers cleaning the facilities, taking tickets, and selling food and souvenirs in host cities around the country are far more certain.
As so often happens in times of economic crisis and societal upheaval, it is the lower caste that suffers the most. The billionaire owners and wealthy executives will land o their feet just fine. I have no doubts Dallas Renegades Bob Stoops will be just fine. Not only is he most likely financially secure, He was making $5.55M in his last season in Norman in 2016. I’m gonna guess he didn’t blow through that five milly in just four short years. Plus he was raking in another $325K a year as the “Special Assistant to the Athletic Director” at OU, in what I can only assume was a largely ceremonial position, glad-handing donors and greasing plasma for the Sooner athletic department.
But an MP in the UK took the fight for the oppressed straight to one of the richest and most powerful leagues in the world, the English Premier League. MP Julian Knight, the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, blasted the league, teams, and especially the players, whom he derided as living in a “moral vacuum.“
Most of the players in the top-flight league have still retained their full salaries, while most staff and stadium personnel find themselves with a definitive 20% paycut. In fact, the most may of them can make per month is capped just £2500 or roughly $3200. Trust me on this when I write that $3200 does not take you very far in the bustling metropolis of London and her surrounding cities. Housing alone will eat up and average of 70% of that in ole Londontown.
So when Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, joins Knight in his criticism, you should listen. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Khan argued “My view is always that those who are the least well-off should get the most help.”
Agreed, Mr. Khan. Hopefully, we will listen.