Black Athleticism Leading Liberation

In this year’s Super Bowl, two Black quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, led their teams to face off for a championship. Before them, only six Black quarterbacks had ever started a championship game in NFL history.

Although this achievement may seem trivial, Mahomes and Hurts are doing a lot more for the Black community than just playing sports. Quarterback is one of the most well-respected and glorified positions in football, which is shown by the fact that their salaries are often two or three times higher than their teammates. Watching so many inspiring athletes on TV, I realized that sports can be a unique and efficient medium for Black activists to utilize.

Why? Firstly, Black people stand out on the field in ways they often cannot in other spaces. There are examples of Black success in politics, music, art, and education, but in the sports arena, the public cannot turn away and ignore what we have to say. Black people create the revenue. Black people have the power. Activism always comes with risk, but athletic power often makes it so we can have a voice without facing quite as severe consequences.

Black athleticism begins with people like Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised their fists during the national anthem after winning Olympic medals in 1968. They did this in protest of racism around the country, shortly after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. At this moment, Smith and Carlos earned everyone’s attention, and their protest is still widely remembered today.

There are more contemporary examples as well. LeBron James, a Black athlete, is arguably the best basketball player of all time. LeBron was allowed to kneel during his games, and wear Black Lives Matter t-shirts freely, perhaps because the NBA knew they would suffer without him.

Football player Colin Kaepernick also kneeled in protest of the national anthem, but paid the price for it, eventually losing his job; he is still working to be on a team again. Despite this personal cost, Kaepernick made a significant impact — we will never forget his name, and his actions reverberated far beyond his own fate.

Secondly, athletes’ relatability and accessibility give them the power to fuel activism in Black youth who watch sports. Many Black boys today want to be football and basketball players at least in part because those leagues give them the representation they need. They believe that they can be great because they see people who look like them doing great things.

Because of their platform, athletes have the chance to be role models for children watching, not just sports idols. LeBron James grew up in a single-parent household and in poverty, and faced a lot of difficulties in his youth. Because of this, he learned how to save and didn’t indulge in many materialistic things, educating Black kids and his younger peers about budgeting and money management.

James also built a school in Akron, Ohio, to support at-risk kids, funded by his personal foundation. In addition, he has managed to largely avoid scandals, proving to be a great role model to those who admire him. Through his character, his actions, and his activism, LeBron does a lot more for young Black kids beyond just playing basketball.

The Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, are also great examples of Black role models in the world of professional sports. Richard Williams, their father, became famous for the way he raised his daughters to be stars, with discipline and determination. Serena and Venus Williams display unwavering confidence, even while playing professional tennis at a very young age. I have noticed the rise of young Black women in tennis, like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, because the Williams sisters inspired them to believe that they could make it too.

Black athletes can make change on the collegiate level as well. Deion Sanders, the former football coach at Jackson State University, has recently been encouraging leading black athletes to go to Historically Black Colleges and Universities — schools that have been underfunded due to a long history of oppression. He intends to restore the HBCU-to-NFL pipeline, starting by encouraging the top-ranked football prospect last year to sign with Jackson State, an HBCU, rather than at a school in one of the NCAA’s flagship conferences. This increased Jackson State’s revenue, and many other HBCUs and coaches followed suit in strengthening athletic programs for advancement of these colleges.

Activism is inefficient without strategy, and we must apply pressure where we have power. Although it sometimes has adverse consequences, like Colin Kaepernick losing his job after kneeling during the anthem, activism through athletics has proven to be a widely successful endeavor. LeBron James, Serena and Venus Williams, Simone Biles, Colin Kaepernick, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and many others have had a huge impact on Black activism by dominating their sports, and Black athletes should continue to use that power to advance the cause of Black liberation.

When we become dominant, we cannot be silenced, we cannot be ignored, and we cannot be erased. Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts leading this Super Bowl is a win beyond football, and we must continue to make strides for Black people through this medium.

Angie Gabeau ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Sociology concentrator in Winthrop House.