NFL’s Harrison Butker, Nick Bosa, in the Spotlight for Supporting Trump, Fortunate They’re Not Being Treated Like Colin Kaepernick

Fox News host Laura Ingraham once told NBA superstar LeBron James to “Shut Up and Dribble” and not talk politics. This year, she said Kansas City placekicker Harrison Butker showed “courage” for publicly endorsing President Trump in the upcoming presidential election and she hasn’t complained about Nick Bosa promoting a “Make America Great Again” hat after a recent NFL game. The double standard is not going unnoticed.“Literally the people who told LeBron to ‘shut up and dribble’ and stick to sports, are now saying nothing about Bosa,” the author of “It Was Always a Choice: Picking Up the Baton of Athlete Activism,” David Steele, told the Sun. “There were whole shows about ‘Shut Up and Dribble.’ Yet, Bosa and Butker haven’t caught any sort of malice, nothing like any of the other athletes do.”When Mr. James called Trump “laughable and scary” during a wide-ranging sit-down interview with ESPN in 2016, he quickly caught backlash from the right. “Keep the political comments to yourselves,” Ms. Ingraham said in response. “Shut up and dribble.”Ms. Ingraham told her viewers she didn’t care for any political advice from “someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.”Yet, no one is telling Mr. Butker or Mr. Bosa to shut up about their political activism leading up to next week’s Presidential election. Mr. Butker spent the Kansas City Chiefs’ bye week publicly campaigning for Missouri senator Josh Hawley. He also endorsed Trump during a Fox News segment.“I’m supporting the President that’s going to be the most pro-life president and I think that’s going to be Donald Trump,” Mr. Butker said.After last Sunday’s game at Levi’s Stadium at Santa Clara, California, Mr. Bosa wore a MAGA hat and pointed to it while briefly interrupting a television network interview with quarterback Brock Purdy and tight end George Kettle. “Bosa with a message there,” broadcaster Melissa Stark said on air.Mr. Bosa, who is one of the top defensive ends in the NFL, reportedly faces a fine from the National Football League for breaking game-day rules prohibiting “wearing, displaying or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League Office.”Mr. Bosa makes $34 million a season, so the fine amounts to a slap on the wrist. That and criticism on social media is about all the push back he has received. Certainly, no one from Fox News or any other conservative outlet has suggested he and Mr. Butker “Shut Up and Play Football.” In fact, Mr. Butker was praised. “That takes courage because speaking out may actually mean that you lose everything,” Ms. Ingraham told him.An NFL analyst for ESPN, Ryan Clark, sees a double standard. “I’m just waiting for all the people who comment under political and sports things to ‘shut up and dribble’ or to ‘shut up and play football’ to tell him to ‘shut up and rush,’ but they ain’t going to say it because they feel the exact same way he does.” Mr. Clark said on his podcast.Mr. Clark added that a former quarterback with the 49ers, Mr. Kaepernick, “legitimately lost his career” for taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality. Mr. Clark, who is an African-American, said “Shut Up and Dribble,” only applies to “athletes that look like us, to the people that are speaking for the marginalized and the minorities, as opposed to the majorities, because when (Donald Trump) called Colin Kaepernick and other people who kneeled “sons of bitches,” nobody told him to keep politics out of sports.”Mr. Butker and Mr. Bosa are among the few high-profile NFL players to publicly wade into the presidential election. Athletes were heavily invested in social activism and the political process four years ago when the murder of George Floyd, the killing of Trayvon Martin, and Black Lives Matter were hot button issues.“You couldn’t go five minutes four years ago without a player saying or initiating something in relation to the election,” Mr. Steele said. “Now the only ones speaking out are Butker and Bosa.”The NFL is currently promoting its NFL Votes campaign, which encourages participation in voter education, registration, and activation. Several players are featured in PSA encouraging voter turnout. Yet the initiative seems more tempered than what it was four years ago. “They let it slide,” Mr. Steele said. “It’s really the opposite of what you thought it might be.”This weekend is the final slate of NFL games before the election.

NFL’s Harrison Butker, Nick Bosa, in the Spotlight for Supporting Trump, Fortunate They’re Not Being Treated Like Colin Kaepernick

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