Sports have been the thing that my life has revolved around ever since I was young. Sports, and soccer in particular, are what eventually turned my attention towards journalism as a career path, and even as I have expanded my view to encompass other possibilities, it is still at the root of nearly everything I do.
As with anything that you develop some level of attachment to though, the faults become even clearer. As universal as athletics are, there are invariably a wide array of opinions, thoughts, and approaches that are used in covering the topic. The result is a variety of shortcomings that can lead to a level of coverage that simply isn’t up to the highest standard.
One such shortcoming that has always been problematic to me is the assigning of values to athletes. In almost no other profession are salary numbers published as widely as they are in the world of sports. That alone isn’t much of a problem, but the resulting commentary often toes the line of what I find to be acceptable.
When new contracts are announced it isn’t uncommon to hear analysts and talking heads comment on the agreements with phrases such as “they aren’t worth that much” or “they aren’t a $5 million player.” Even if the commentator didn’t intend to these statements can come off as assigning a certain monetary value to a human life which feels crude.
The situation gets even more objectionable when you add in the context that most sports feature a disproportionately high number of brown and black athletes compared to the general population where they are playing while the management and ownership positions are almost exclusively held by white men. Recently players, most notably Draymond Green of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, have not been afraid to call out a system which they say is reminiscent of a plantation mentality.
The connections between the decision of some people in the sports news world to put monetary valuations on human lives, the racial disparity within the sports system from top to bottom, and the racial history of many of the elite countries in terms of athletic competition, are all too tangible for this to be dismissed as millionaire players being pampered even more (there is actually a conversation to be had about how most athletes are underpaid not overpaid). There is virtually no way for teams to hide contract numbers, so the onus is then on us as journalists to be more responsible and precise in our choice of words when talking about this subject so as to avoid any moral missteps.
J4804 Laird 