Sports and politics: strange bedfellows
As the son of Brooklyn Dodgers fans, sportswriter Dave Zirin developed an appreciation for the power a single act can have on not only sports, but the larger community as well.
“I grew up in a house that revered Sandy Koufax, and I heard the story of him ducking
out of the World Series [in 1965] because of the High Holy Days,” Zirin told NJ Jewish News in a phone interview. “For me, being a proud Jew and big sports guy, these [concepts] were never seen as antithetical. People who grow in such an environment never have any hang-ups about the ‘Jews and sports’ stereotype,” he said.
Zirin, 32, is author of Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports (Haymarket Books), an edgy examination of how sports and politics mesh. It’s a stark examination of the “isms,” including racism and sexism, as well as homophobia that insinuate themselves into what is essentially an entertainment industry.
What about Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, and Bill Russell? According to Zirin, today’s athletes are “far less” politically and community-oriented than previous generations’. “Why aren’t they more political? Why aren’t people in general more political?” he asked.
Nevertheless, there are those who will always be ahead of the curve, he said, citing contemporary athletes like NBA star Etan Thomas, a vocal opponent to United States involvement in Iraq, and ultimate fighter Jeff Monson. “We’re seeing for the first time a small layer of athletes begin to use their hyper-exalted platform…. It’s a good group of people who are beginning to find their voice.”
While Zirin doesn’t believe athletes should be given special status as opinion-makers, he
does think “we’ve swung way too far in the other direction, to a place where if they’ve signed a contract, it’s assumed they’ve signed away their right to have opinions about the world. It’s a knee-jerk response any time an athlete dares say something other than how many yards they’ll rush for or how many rebounds they’ll get.”
Such a philosophy can have a detrimental effect on sports fans, he says. “It sends a message that people have no right to be heard, and I think that’s a feeling that can seep into the broader consciousness, and people start to think politics is just what people do on Capitol Hill and we have no right to do or say anything about it.”
Minority athletes can face a double standard, he said, citing the recent ascension of Barry Bonds to the all-time home run record. Zirin is among several writers who believe that at least some of the antipathy toward Bonds, who has been accused of using performance-enhancing supplements, was racially motivated, because of his caustic personality with the press.
“If you’re a white athlete, as long as you’re performing, you get carte blanche regardless of how you deal with the media,” Zirin said; but if Ken Griffey Jr. — a popular African-American power hitter — had been the one to break the record, Zirin said, he doesn’t think he would be the target of the same animosity. “Fast forward a generation from Hank Aaron” — who broke Babe Ruth’s record in 1974 — “someone like a press-friendly African-American can be accepted on a mass basis. But if you’re surly, it really pays not to have black skin.”
Despite all the dark words, Zirin maintains, “I love, love, love sports. There are parts that drive me batty, but I don’t believe in giving it up. Sports are awesome.”
Zirin, 32, lives in the Washington DC , area and played basketball and baseball in high school. A history major at Macalister College in St. Paul, Minn., he’s “very proud of the fact that I’m the school’s only four-time sports trivia champion.”
He began his journalistic career as a “conventional” sports writer, but with his interests in politics, “I didn’t want to keep those parts of my life separate.” He didn’t think there would be an audience for his particular slant, but “the fact that there is just shows me there are a lot of alienated sports fans out there.”
This story originally appeared in New Jersey Jewish News, Sept. 27, 2007
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