Another One Bites the Dust: BLM's Favourite Song
To those brought up on coaching tyrants such as Vince Lombardi the sight of Oklahoma State’s head coach Mike Gundy making his mea culpa to Chuba Hubbard, his star running back, was jarring. Gundy’s sin was to wear a T shirt with the logo of a conservative television network, One America News, while fishing.
OAN has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. For Alberta’s Hubbard, the star running back of the Cowboys, this was heresy, a racist affront to the organization that has been seeking to exploit racial tensions in the sports world since Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in 2016.
(Based on the surrender of the cultural and business elites the past few months, the Marxist #BLM is now portrayed like the United Way, a beneficent entity operating from the goodness of its heart. As it shakes down its targets.)
Hubbard made it clear that Gundy, who’s been a highly successful coach at OSU since 2005 after being the team’s QB from 1986 to 1989, needed to repent his racism if he wanted Hubbard on the team. “I will not stand for this,” Hubbard posted on Twitter. “This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it’s unacceptable. I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE.”
Calling himself “a dumbass” Gundy said, “I want to apologize to all members of our team, former players and their families for the pain and discomfort that has been caused over the last two days. Black lives matter to me. Our players matter to me."
While the pair have forged a shaky peace, the cancel culture of denunciation is now after Gundy. A former Colorado Buffaloes linebacker says Gundy, while a quarterback at Oklahoma State, used racist language to refer to him and his CU teammates during a game in 1989. Hubbard hasn’t commented on that allegation yet. But don’t think he won’t use it to advance his platform.
Normally, this sort of political chutzpah would mean the end for Hubbard’s football prospects. Sports has largely been a politics-free zone., But these are different times. No allegation is too old, no accusation too third-hand for the woke social media. Politicians, police, corporations and even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell have prostrated themselves before #BLM, hoping that self abnegation will buy them peace in the valley. Ask the Ulysses S. Grant statues how that worked out.
So far, the attempts to placate for events dating back to 1614 have only produced more accusations and denunciations. Fires that burn this hot typically burn themselves out in time. Perhaps if Donald Trump loses the presidency activists will be sated for a time. But no one is ready to place any money on that.
What will be remembered is the changing dynamic between star athletes like Hubbard and the owners who employ them in all leagues. MLB players are demanding owners go into their team’s increasing equity to pay them more for what’s left of a 2020 season. If they have to cancel the season on this principle, then so be it.
As I wrote in my book Cap In Hand, the accelerating equity in pro teams and billion-dollar broadcast deals has led players to question why they aren’t getting more of the profits from their labours. Star NBA attraction Steph Curry makes about $40 million a year— generous, yes— but in a business with revenues of $8 B a year is he getting his due as the NBA’s star attraction?
Especially when the New York Knicks are worth $4 B, Los Angeles Lakers ($3.7 B), Curry’s own Golden State Warriors ($3.5 B), Chicago Bulls ($2.9 B) and Boston Celtics ($2.8 B.). The current status quo is the result of elite players taking a haircut so journeymen players can also make a hefty payday (the average NBA salary is $6.4 M). But that sacrifice is growing old for the stars and their agents. And they’re not averse to playing the race card to get there.
The most visible sign of discontent is the talk from Boston’s Kyrie Irving about the players starting a league of their own. Irving is talking about a scaled-down league of under 20 teams that will feature best-on-best every night. While the idea has more holes than Swiss cheese (do players remain owners after they retire?), there is something to be said for the talent people getting a bigger slice of the enormous pie.
Similar arguments are being made in other sports (although hockey’s timid players aren’t as bold as the others) . While the recent labour peace was bought in most of the leagues with longterm TV contracts and collective labour agreements, the next five years will bring highly contentious negotiations meant to free up more of the profits for the players.
Just look at the squabbling in MLB over the division of their limited revenues for 2020 to get a foretaste of what promise to be nasty negotiations— made even more nasty with the almost certain #BLM overtones in MLB, NBA and NFL affecting the talks.
We asked last week tinyurl.com/ycxrmcda how much political theatre fans will be willing to put up with as a price for their favourite sports. If Mike Gundy’s humiliation is any barometer of what lies ahead the optics will be uncomfortable n the extreme.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.