by Virgil, Breitbart:
Kaepernickism

On September 3, 2018, former football player Colin Kaepernick tweeted, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt.”

That was the beginning, of course, of a hugely ambitious Nike ad campaign, making Kaepernick a wealthy man—probably far wealthier than if he had somehow managed to eke out another season or two in the National Football League.

Yet now, two years later, it’s obvious that Kaepernick’s version of woken sports politics—we might dub it “Kaepernickism”—has radiated across our culture and society. Moreover, as we shall see later, Kaepernickism has some interesting intellectual antecedents.  

Yet first, let’s focus on the impact that Kaepernickism has had on pro sports.  

The NFL season opened on September 10, as the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Houston Texans. The spectators in the stands—it might not be accurate anymore to call them “fans”—booed both teams. As Jason Whitlock explained in Outkick, “The booing you heard at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday night isn’t hard to understand. Black Lives Matter is toxic and divisive.”  

In fact, TV ratings for the debut game were down more than 16 percent from the year before. And for all the games on Sunday, September 13, ratings were down as well.  

These data are worth mulling over, because, after all, at a moment when so many Americans are spending more time at home, one might expect that TV sports ratings would be rising.

We might find some clues about this ratings-tumble from another kind of rating, as measured by Gallup. On September 8, the opinion-survey firm reported that the favorability rating for pro sports had plunged over the last year. Having surveyed public sentiment on 25 industries and sectors, the company found that esteem for some industries, such as health care, has risen, while others have fallen in esteem. And yet, Gallup reported, “The biggest slide . . . has been for the sports industry, with its positive score falling 15 points—from 45% to 30%.” Notably, if one looks at the partisan “internals” of the poll, one finds that positivity among self-identified independents fell 36 percent, while among Republicans, it fell a whopping 46 percent. 

As Gallup observes oh-so-politely, it’s likely that “controversies swirling around the industry” are responsible for this “slide in popularity.” If so, then the events of the NFL’s opening week are likely to accelerate that slide.  

To know what’s been happening lately, we might consider this headline from the Associated Press: “Racial injustice themes fill empty NFL stadiums.” The September 13 article offered a wrap-up of the non-game activities that have gotten in the way of the game:   

Jason Myers kicked off to start the Seahawks’ season-opener against the Falcons, and the ball sailed through the end zone for a touchback. No one moved a step.  Instead, the players all dropped to one knee.

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