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Athletes using their platform to speak out is a good thing
I would like to talk about the rights of athletes and sports teams as a whole to protest.
In recent history, we have seen many athletes protest for their beliefs and feelings, whether that be Black Lives Matter or whatever else they believe in.
Colin Kaepernick comes to mind right away as one of the most prominent protesters in the sports world, known for kneeling during the national anthem to display his belief of racial and ethnic equality.
The NBA playoffs from a few years ago also come to mind. Three games were postponed as players chose not to play, protesting against innocent killings that have happened way too often in our recent history.
I believe these protests from athletes and teams in general are extremely important and a basic right to everyone. Everyone has the right to disagree and protest in a peaceful manner.
I believe athletes need to have more ways to voice their opinions if they disagree with something going on in the world. Back in the NBA bubble while Covid was raging in 2020, the NBA allowed players to put quotes on the back of their jerseys, along with their names.
Some of these included "Black Lives Matter," "Equality" and "Say Her Name" and some are still on warmup uniforms today.
The NBA was ahead of the other major leagues in allowing this to happen, and this is just one of the many ways that major sports leagues need to allow their players and athletes to dissent against anything they want to, helping change occur in our country and our world.
Noah Fries, Altoona