The murder of George Floyd apparently has become a tipping point for plenty of NFL players who are choosing not to stick to sports. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has addressed the situation in a tweet posted earlier in the hour.
“The black community needs our help,” Burrow said. “They have been unheard for far too long. Open your ears, listen, and speak. This isn’t politics. This is human rights.”
Unfortunately, human rights are politics for those hope to keep human rights in check, or for those politicians who hope to blow a dog whistle (or, as the case may be, a bullhorn) for those who typically keep their racism to themselves -- but who definitely carry it with them into privacy of the ballot box.
Treating people with justice and fairness shouldn’t be a political issue. It’s one of the fundamental rights on which this nation was founded, even if those fundamental rights routinely have been and continued to be denied when it comes to African-Americans and other minorities.
This is a simple, binary issue. Either you care about the rights and the well-being of others, or you don’t. Many of those who don’t prefer not to be called out for it or otherwise made to feel uncomfortable about it, prompting them to shout “stick to sports” when confronted with an approach to their fellow men and women that warps the freedoms for which the Founding Fathers fought, and that perverts the teachings of the God they claim to worship.