What is the role of a professional athlete in its community?

In the summer of 2020, many incidents occurred, including the suspension of professional sports due to COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. Those events left the United States in shambles and professional athletes’ lent their names to legislation using their platforms to create a change.

Behind many great athletes, today are the communities that built them. Professional athletes such as Demario Davis and Malcolm Jenkins use their platform to fight social justice, but what is the professional athletes’ role in their communities?

Over the past few years, controversy has been in the NFL when players have gotten heavily involved in social politics. The NFL blackballed former NFL player Colin Kaepernick for taking a kneel during the National Anthem to stand against police brutality. Kaepernick has impacted sports’ social justice movements, sacrificing professional opportunities for his values.

After six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, NFL player Malcolm Jenkins, a co-founder of the Players Coalition, rejoined the New Orleans Saints, strongly advocate for social activism. Jenkins joins a long list of former professional athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Jim Brown all used their voices to fight against systemic inequalities in the United States.

During an interview with ESPN, Jenkins describes how he had to overcome before he can lead. Jenkins told ESPN, “All of a sudden, I found myself in a place where I was prepared to step up. I was just like, ‘OK, enough is enough.’ Like, ‘I do not want just to tweet. I do not want to wear a T-shirt,’” said Jenkins. “And that was a lifetime of, you know, people planting seeds and people pruning me. “And then I found myself ready to be a leader, not only on the field, not only for myself but for the community. And I credit that to everybody who has been a part of my upbringing.”

However, Malcolm Jenkins has received backlash for agreement with the NFL, and some have called him a “sellout.” Jenkins’ teammate, Benjamin Watson, told ESPN, “You listen to them talk, they always say, ‘We are not the experts. Here are the experts. I am going to learn from them,’” Watson said. “You know, players take a beating sometimes for speaking out on certain issues that may not be popular with fans or certain demographics, whatever it is. Yet, no one can say, ‘OK, you guys talk about it, but you do not do anything.’ Even though you have a right to talk — everybody has a right to speak simply merely.

The world is changing for black athletes and politics; however, many athletes have contradicting opinions against Black movements. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees changed his perspective on Black Lives Movement and other Black issues. During an interview with Yahoo Finance, Brees was asked about kneeling during the national anthem. He said,

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”

Brees was immediately called by his fellow teammates and other NFL players. How could the city of New Orleans’ beloved star surrounded by Black teammates comment on that? Brees later apologized for his actions and showed his apology was sincere in response to President Donald Trump’s tweet on June 5, 2020.

Brees tweeted, “We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform.”

Responding to Brees’ initiative, New Orleans Saints linebacker, Demario Davis told ESPN Undefeated, “That is the biggest action that you can have. You know how much courage it takes to speak out against the president,” said Davis. Davis also said, “Be the example.”

Davis, along with several other NFL players, is a part of the Players Coalition, which is about improving how the league deals with issues affecting the black community and communities of color.

Overall, this is vital to the community and takes advantage of the player’s privileges. It is uncertain if Black athletes will compel teams to change the economic relationship with the black community, but Black athletes have more power than ever before.