Mixing politics and sports

[Valcazar]

When there are athletes from competing countries I think it is a nice tradition of respect and sportsmanship for each other as I have explained before.

Which is the place where I have the least objection to it.

It doesn’t bother me that they sing the national anthem ( actually I find the US anthem to be quite pleasant to listen to the Canadian also, even though I am not fond of Russia their anthem is one of the best) I just don’t see the relevance to it when teams are from the same country.

It's pure performative nationalism. Really no point to do it in these contexts.
It doesn't become a tradition of doing it in front of all sports until WWII.

Anthems I can live with it is all this political garbage and political correctness that commentators feel they must educate the public on that gets my goat, I wish they would just shut the fuck up and talk about the game and the players abilities and the players also should leave their political views to interviews that are for political reasons not when they are interviewed about the game they just played in.

Players have been making political statements for decades. If you just object when it is a political position you disagree with, you might want to look at that.
But really, if someone is famous and they want to use that fame to make a political comment, that's just the way it is.

 

[Fradi]

Players have been making political statements for decades. If you just object when it is a political position you disagree with, you might want to look at that.
But really, if someone is famous and they want to use that fame to make a political comment, that's just the way it is.

I don’t think you will ever understand what it means to an amateur athlete or a kid playing sports to put on his countries jersey, have the national anthem playing while they raise his countries flag.
People who have never been there or had athletes in the family who have cannot comprehend that.

Yes unfortunately famous athletes use that fame to make political statements, and as long as fans don’t band together and tell them to shut the fuck up and concentrate on the sport they will keep doing it.
This happens much more in the US than anywhere else.
I object to all political statements made during sports, for me there is no place for it period, don’t give a shit whether I might agree with it or not, I dont go to a Habs game nor do I fly to Europe for a sports event to listen to political BS.

 

[Valcazar]

I don’t think you will ever understand what it means to an amateur athlete or a kid playing sports to put on his countries jersey, have the national anthem playing while they raise his countries flag.

But we're not talking about that. We're talking about no longer playing the national anthem in North American professional sports, where it isn't international competition.
Who the fuck would want to ban national anthems in international competition? The whole point of international competition is that you are representing your nation.
It's a totally different beast.

Yes unfortunately famous athletes use that fame to make political statements, and as long as fans don’t band together and tell them to shut the fuck up and concentrate on the sport they will keep doing it.
This happens much more in the US than anywhere else.
I object to all political statements made during sports, for me there is no place for it period, don’t give a shit whether I might agree with it or not, I dont go to a Habs game nor do I fly to Europe for a sports event to listen to political BS.

Right. So you agree that if you want to reduce the amount of political statements in American sports, a good place to start is to stop playing the national anthem. They don't do it in Europe.

 

[Fradi]

But we're not talking about that. We're talking about no longer playing the national anthem in North American professional sports, where it isn't international competition.
Who the fuck would want to ban national anthems in international competition? The whole point of international competition is that you are representing your nation.
It's a totally different beast.



Right. So you agree that if you want to reduce the amount of political statements in American sports, a good place to start is to stop playing the national anthem. They don't do it in Europe.

No that is not what I said, what I said was it makes no difference to me whether they play it or not when there is no other country involved like the NBA, NFL.
I don’t think playing the national anthem is political at all, it is probably meant to be patriotic. Kneeling not kneeling I don’t give a fuck what I do care about is all the bullshit surrounding it. You want your voice known write a book or give interviews not on game day.
What I don’t like is all the political bs by both commentators and athletes during and in interviews right after the game.
Don't care what colour you are or or whether you are a republican or democrat or whether you are religious or not.
Shut the fuck up about politics, religion, and your cause and talk about the game.

 

[EagerBeaver]

For some reason, when Joe Buck admitted recently that he and Troy Aikman drank tequila in the booth, it reminded me of their various controversies over political statements made in the booth including the military flyovers, and I could not help but think a few shots of tequila prompted some of their assorted controversial comments through the years.

First the statements Buck made on drinking in the booth: https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2021/02/17/fox-joe-buck-troy-aikman-broadcast-booth-tequila

Whether this was done intentionally to promote an authentic sense that they were a pair of "college buddies" who were yakking it up while having drinks watching the game, it occurred to me that drinking while commentating does have a tendency to loosen the lips, as was the case here. FWIW, I completely agree with the comments of Buck and Aikman on military flyovers being a colossal waste of money and fuel:

https://www.9news.com/article/news/national/military-news/joe-buck-troy-aikman-facing-criticism-over-military-flyover-comments/507-78e301c3-abf6-47c5-a0f5-979cc88ac302

 

[Valcazar]

No that is not what I said, what I said was it makes no difference to me whether they play it or not when there is no other country involved like the NBA, NFL. I don’t think playing the national anthem is political at all, it is probably meant to be patriotic.

Right. So they should stop doing it since it is political. How is "let's do this showy public thing and call it patriotic"not political?
There is a reason it came in post WWII and there is a reason all the pro-military flyover stuff came in for the NFL post-9/11.

Kneeling not kneeling I don’t give a fuck what I do care about is all the bullshit surrounding it. You want your voice known write a book or give interviews not on game day.
What I don’t like is all the political bs by both commentators and athletes during and in interviews right after the game.
Don't care what colour you are or or whether you are a republican or democrat or whether you are religious or not.
Shut the fuck up about politics, religion, and your cause and talk about the game.

Ahh. "Shut up and play."
Yeah, that's never totally going away.
As long as people are famous, they are going to weigh when they decide to use that fame to talk about politics.

 

[Fradi]

Right. So they should stop doing it since it is political. How is "let's do this showy public thing and call it patriotic"not political?
There is a reason it came in post WWII and there is a reason all the pro-military flyover stuff came in for the NFL post-9/11.



Ahh. "Shut up and play."
Yeah, that's never totally going away.
As long as people are famous, they are going to weigh when they decide to use that fame to talk about politics.

No it is not going to go away unless fans take a stand and let team owners know they won’t stand for all this political BS.
If owners would enforce the policy of no political bs that is the only way, if a few of these famous athletes got canned and nobody would pay them then they would think twice about flapping their mouth of and stick to playing the sport, but unfortunately this will never happen.
Like I said I don’t give a crap whether it came in post WWII or whenever, that is not why I watch sports.
Singing a national anthem is patriotic, if you were from immigrant roots you would know what I am talking about, it is about who you are, about your culture about where you were born, about having some pride in your country, if you don’t get that well you never will.

 

[Valcazar]

No it is not going to go away unless fans take a stand and let team owners know they won’t stand for all this political BS.
If owners would enforce the policy of no political bs that is the only way, if a few of these famous athletes got canned and nobody would pay them then they would think twice about flapping their mouth of and stick to playing the sport, but unfortunately this will never happen.
Like I said I don’t give a crap whether it came in post WWII or whenever, that is not why I watch sports.
Singing a national anthem is patriotic, if you were from immigrant roots you would know what I am talking about, it is about who you are, about your culture about where you were born, about having some pride in your country, if you don’t get that well you never will.

Yes, singing the national anthem is explicitly political, we agree.
As far as I can tell, your only objection to the politics is "don't talk about politics I don't want to think about".
If it bothers you so much, just ignore it and watch the game.
Political action by sports people (or any famous people) comes and goes in and out of fashion and always has.
This wave will fade. It's never been the end of fucking civilization and the fact so many of you seem to think it is boggles the mind.

 

[Fradi]

No we do not agree, you do have a hard time understanding or is it so important for you for someone to agree with you.
I think singing the national anthem is patriotic and not political at all.
You are solely the one making an issue out of the anthem.
It becomes political when people want to use it as such with this kneeling and other bs.
What I said was that I don’t find it necessary to sing it when competing teams are from the same country.
It does not bother me one bit, I like the US national anthem and the Canadian as a song not just an anthem it has nice lyrics and a good tune.
It is the political bullshit that commentators insist on educating us on during the game and the interviews following the game of athletes pushing their cause that I object to not the national anthem.
I don’t have a problem ignoring it, I do better than that I watch European sports channels mostly where there is little of it and most I don’t understand anyway because of the language.
Let me say it to you once again I object to all politics during sports even the one I might agree with I don’t know how many times you want me to repeat that.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

^^^^^ Too much cancel culture these days, you must agree or, well there is no or, you must agree.

 

[Valcazar]

^^^^^ Too much cancel culture these days, you must agree or, well there is no or, you must agree.

You guys really are into cancel culture, it's true.
You want to cancel all sports people that don't agree with you.

 

[GaryH]

I don't think the original intention of playing the national anthem before a sporting event was meant to be political. It started at the World Series during WWI as a means to bring people together during a time of national crisis. In the movie "The Deer Hunter", people in a small community after experiencing some tragic losses caused by the Vietnam War, gather together at the end of the movie and sing "God Bless America"'. Now some movie critics at the time blasted the director for this scene - calling it a political tactic to justify America's actions in the Vietnam war. But the director said that was never the intention. The singing of the song was a community trying to pull itself together to be strong.

I never thought much of the singing of the anthem before games one way or the other, but I was always respectful. But then 9/11 happened in NYC. If you had lived in NYC then, you could feel the fear in the air. There was a sense of tension and fear everywhere in NYC. All the transit sites had armed military personnel. It was like a war zone. I went to the first World Series game played at Yankee Stadium on October 30 of that year. The U.S. President threw the first pitch strike. They raised the torn American flag that had been flying over the Twin Towers and recovered from the ruble. They played the anthem and "God Bless America". There were chants of U.S.A. U.S.A. from the crowd. When I left that game, I wasn't feeling I had been given a political message. I felt the strong sense of community, that we were all in this together. And yes patriotic. Whenever I hear the national anthem played now, I remember that night. I will never take it for granted again.

 

[Fradi]

If you were ever torn from your homeland and grew up in different countries, perhaps you would understand what a national anthem means.
Unfortunately most just like to post crap about politics and have no idea what a country , your culture and your mother tongue means because they have never had to fight for it or be without it.
I love this generation in North America, that has never had to live through a war, a revolution in their own back yard but know all about patriotism, I guess it is so easy to post bullshit on a website and act like highly intelligent educated know it alls.
Perhaps some should maybe talk to members of the armed forces who were sent off to far away lands to fight for things they will probably never understand what the national anthem means to them and if they would use it as a political tool to further their cause like some of these millionaire athletes do.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Captain Renault,

You may be interested to know that the Russians have exactly the same view as you on mixing sports with politics, and they respond to that "improper" mixing by their athletes with "appropriate measures":

Artemi Panarin taking Rangers leave of absence after Russian hit piece

Rangers star Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team in the wake of a seemingly politically motivated accusation from Russia, in which his former KHL club head coach alleges that …

www.google.com

I think Artemi should plan on sticking around New York City for the near future and not go back to Russia until there is a regime change. I am sure the Rangers, at this point, have probably talked to him about not going back to Russia for a while.

 

[thegreatwalooo]

Rudy Giuliani just can't seem to shut up:

Golf world rallies around Michelle Wie West following Rudy Giuliani's 'highly inappropriate' comments

The golfing world has rallied around Michelle Wie West following comments made by Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani "objectifying" the five-time LPGA Tour winner.

edition.cnn.com

Opinion: Rudy Giuliani's disgusting 'funny story' about Michelle Wie

It took Trump's former lawyer running his mouth again to remind us that women -- whether on the golf course (like 5-time LPGA winner Wie) or the pitch -- face the same scrutiny women do just walking down the street, writes Amy Bass; their appearance, indeed their sheer physical existence...

www.cnn.com

 

[EagerBeaver]

I did read that and it's the kind of locker room talk that should never be made public. That being said Wie is very hot, but Rudy comes off sounding like a horny old perv.

 

[thegreatwalooo]

Problem with Rudy is that he doesn't know when he's on a podcast or in a locker room. Wie is an absolute babe, I got to see her play up close at a US Open qualifier a few years ago and did not see her panties. lol.

 

[thegreatwalooo]

This is definitely mixing politics and sports:

Trump wishes Tiger Woods a speedy recovery after LA crash

Former President Trump is wishing golfing legend Tiger Woods well after he experienced a tragic car accident on Tuesday.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Flabert]

Captain Renault,

You may be interested to know that the Russians have exactly the same view as you on mixing sports with politics, and they respond to that "improper" mixing by their athletes with "appropriate measures":

Artemi Panarin taking Rangers leave of absence after Russian hit piece

Rangers star Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team in the wake of a seemingly politically motivated accusation from Russia, in which his former KHL club head coach alleges that …

www.google.com

I think Artemi should plan on sticking around New York City for the near future and not go back to Russia until there is a regime change. I am sure the Rangers, at this point, have probably talked to him about not going back to Russia for a while.

There is speculation that this was also to get him out of the russian olympic team for 2022. Staying in nyc would accomplish just that.

I doubt Russia accepts extradition requests of Russian citizens to Latvia in general but they could make an exception for him. They arrested Navalny for running away from a state assasination attempt so you know they have creative police...

China of course does not even pretend to be fair so we can be thankful Russia at least tries to keep appearances up!

 

[GaryH]

February 4 , 2022 the Winter Olympic games begin in Beijing China. I think we will hear a lot of talk of mixing politics and Olympic sport in the year leading up to this.

From the Toronto Star (Feb 17) :
On Tuesday, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole called for the games to be relocated — accusing the Chinese government of committing genocide in Xinjiang, where the minority Uighurs have been detained in state-run concentration camps.
“(China) is committing genocide. It has established a police state in Hong Kong. It has kidnapped two Canadians and held them hostage, without cause or due process for two years,” O’Toole wrote in a column in the Star.
“We should not hesitate to say that a nation that does these things does not get to appropriate the Canadian flag for a two-week sporting event that will be used to promote itself on the world stage. If we allow that to happen, then our flag stands for nothing.”

From YahooSports (Feb 15):
"The 21st century has further proved the notion that sports and politics are separate things is a lie, that sport is escapism insulated from the rest of life. If anything, sports are one of the clearest mirrors of society and, consequently, politics. The stated aim of apolitical Olympics has rung hollow for decades, perhaps ever since the U.S. and the Soviet Union boycotted and counter-boycotted one another in 1980 and 1984 over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
But for as long as the IOC is willing to keep up this pretense, the Olympics will also continue to be used as an expensive veneer to obscure any ugliness hiding beneath.
China doesn’t deserve to host another Olympics. There is plenty of evidence that it hasn’t made the promised progress on human rights – that it has regressed if anything. If the IOC wants its signature event to remain the celebration of humanity that it purports it to be, it has to also make the effort to serve and protect that humanity by drawing a line at last."

I blame the corrupt IOC. When they awarded the games to China, they assured everyone that China was going to address the human rights issues in their country. It has only gotten worse. I think the IOC only really cared about the money China threw at them.