Is Black Lives Matter support hurting sports?

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   Stevennix2001posted 4 years ago

   Since various leagues across the country started to reopen, many athletes have been kneeling during the national anthem in support of Black Lives Matter, and to protest against police brutality, to follow the example of what Kap started years ago in the NFL.   Some sports leagues like the WNBA have taken it a step further, with their athletes just walking off the court during the national anthem in protest.
   
   And the NBA being the most woke sports league in the USA took things even further than that by not only having most of their coaches and players kneeling during the anthem, but they have their courts literally decorated in support of black lives matter, and some players are volunteering to wear special jerseys like "Peace", or "Equality" or something like that.  And of course, you have players like LeBron James and others constantly voicing their opinions citing social justice for all and such, even though I could cite reasons why he's a hypocrite, but I don't want to get cancelled, so I'll let someone else in this forum bring it up on how he's a hypocrite.   
   
   Anyways, according to various sources, sports ratings are down significantly this year.   Hell, the NBA is constantly losing in the ratings battle to Fox News and the PGA, which is the least woke sport right now.   Seriously according to the ratings, people would rather watch Fox News or GOLF than they would watching the NBA, which normally wouldn't happen, but it has this year.
   
   In MLS, players were mostly booed at the stadium, when they chose to kneel during the anthem, which caused one of the players protesting to say how disgusted he was with the fans' reactions to their protests in support of Black Lives Matter.
   
   This has lead to some media outlets like Outkick on YouTube and various others to speculate that the reason sports are falling in the ratings because fans just want to see sports, and don't want to see politics in them because they see sports as an escape from politics.  Not to be reminded of it.   
   
   I can't speak for all sports fans, but my main reason why I've chosen NOT to watch another live sporting event again has nothing to do with the protests per say, as I believe every athlete and person has a right to protest peacefully in this country.  Free speech is free speech after all, even if you agree with it or not. 
   
   Nor does me refusing to watch sports has anything to do with Black Lives Matters, as I fully expected almost every major sporting venue in America to endorse them in some way.  No, my reasoning is a lot different than that.
   
   While I do support all athletes and people in their right to protest peacefully, I also support those that don't want to protest and would rather stand during the national anthem as well, as that's their right to do so as well.  However, since sporting events have reopened, I've seen players like Sam Coonrod of MLB get vilified for not kneeling during the anthem like everyone else is, and Jonathan Isaacs of the NBA didn't kneel either, yet he was openly condemned as not caring about black lives....even though he's black himself but I digress.
   
   However what really made me give up sports was after Jonathan Isaacs refused to kneel, he immediately blew out one of his knees if I'm not mistaken, and this lead to ESPN's Dan Le Batard making fun of Jonathan Isaacs with a new sports poll for fans saying "Isn't it funny that Jonathan Isaacs knee blew out after he refused to kneel during the anthem?"  Seriously why the hell would you even ask something that fucking insensitive?   After that poll, I decided not to endorse sports anymore.   Not because of the protests, but because I don't think it's fair to vilify and mock those who don't want to protest as that's wrong. 
   
   However, what are your thoughts on this?   Is Black Lives Matter killing our sports?  Or do you think there's another reason for it?  Please discuss.

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