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Using sport to change society

This is an excerpt from Social Issues in Sport 5th Edition With HKPropel Access by Ronald B. Woods,B. Nalani Butler.

Is it possible to change people’s attitudes, feelings, and beliefs through sport? Some people will respond quickly to this question with personal examples, whereas others are more cautious. Over the years, sport has sometimes dramatized social inequities or injustices, such as racism, gender bias, and homophobia. Another example is that a month after the Paralympic Games in 2012 in Great Britain, 75 percent of both nondisabled and disabled adults felt attitudes were more positive toward disabled people. In fact, on Twitter the Paralympic Games were the most discussed sporting event for 2012 while the Olympic Games were fourth (Rose 2012).

In 2014, the media grabbed the tabloid-ready story of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s being caught on tape in a compromising conversation with his girlfriend. In the conversation, Sterling was heard disparaging African Americans and chastising his girlfriend for inviting them to sit with her at Clippers basketball games. Sterling’s comments were insensitive, abhorrent, and explosive—in a sport where 77 percent of the athletes are African American.

Within a week, CNN host Anderson Cooper interviewed Sterling and helped illuminate the racial prejudice and warped social views of an owner who was clearly out of touch with mainstream America. The NBA’s response was swift and clean—a $2.5 million fine (the maximum allowed by NBA bylaws) and a lifetime banishment for Sterling. The league removed him from control of the team, installed a temporary executive, and made plans to auction the team off.

Champion athletes have a platform from which to share their views if they so choose. For example, boxer Muhammad Ali spoke his mind about the military draft, the Vietnam War, and racial prejudice. Tennis star Arthur Ashe Jr. spoke about the same issues, though in a much different way than Ali did. Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos used their Olympic success to raise the Black Power salute during the playing of the American national anthem in 1968 in Mexico City, supported by Australian medalist Peter Norman. Tennis player Martina Navratilova was open about her sexuality and identifying as a lesbian during her professional career and is still popular. Billie Jean King preceded Navratilova and in some respects gave Martina the courage to affirm her sexuality publicly. King was also a relentless pioneer for women’s rights through the Women’s Sports Foundation (Davidson 2017).

In 2013 and 2014, three male pro athletes came out as gay, including Jason Collins (NBA), Michael Sam (NFL), and Robbie Rogers (Major League Soccer). In 2021, then–NFL player Carl Nassib came out as gay, and then in 2023, Luke Prokop became the first NHL player under contract to come out as gay. Yet there have been more female athletes come out and discuss their sexuality than male athletes. As of spring 2025, there have been no more male athletes in team sports, golf, or tennis to come out despite predictions to the contrary. Female athletes seem to be less reluctant, perhaps because they are simply more prevalent in sports or maybe because they have less to lose compared to the male athletes. Yet every major sport league now includes sexual orientation as part of its nondiscrimination policies and has had people from their teams or league offices march in LGBTQ+ pride parades, with many organizations showing support for these initiatives by hosting a pride night at some point in the season. More than half of MLB teams have sponsored pride nights, and every NHL team has done so. There have been more gay athletes come out at the high school and college level and in a variety of Olympic sports that reflect a gradual change in public acceptance and attitudes (Buzinski 2018).

In terms of economic issues, baseball player Curt Flood basically sacrificed his outstanding baseball career to stand up for a player’s right to free agency and some degree of self-determination as a professional athlete by taking a stand against the MLB’s reserve clause in 1969. He abhorred the idea that athletes could be bought and sold by team owners with the athletes’ having no say in the decision. Flood refused to be owned by one team with no opportunity to negotiate with competing teams for a higher salary because of the government’s refusal to enforce antitrust laws on MLB and allowing them to operate as a monopoly by curtailing player rights. Within a few years of Flood’s courageous stand, all professional sports in America changed their rules on player agency to allow players to move freely between teams. You have to wonder if today’s professional athletes understand the sacrifice that Flood made in order to make a statement that ended his career but eventually brought freedom and wealth to so many athletes who followed (Yang 2020).

These examples demonstrate how some athletes have used sport to agitate for societal change. Whether or not they achieved their immediate goals is beside the point. Their efforts raised consciousness and inspired others to stop and question their own views. These outspoken athletes are all the more remarkable for having acted forcefully in an institution that generally preserves the status quo. Their actions reflect those of critical theorists who strongly believe in the power of sport to change hearts and minds and eventually society at large (Zirin 2013).

More Excerpts From Social Issues in Sport 5th Edition With HKPropel Access

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