0:00

So the King's new lemonade lineup

0:03

is here. Name and a lemonade

0:05

The Smoothie King Way try strawberry.

0:07

Guava Lemonade ask refresher over

0:09

ice a power up in

0:12

it can energize, or a

0:14

blueberry lemonade smoothie lead it

0:16

up being. Made

0:18

with real fruit. Real juice for

0:21

a real sipping good summer. Yeah

0:23

yeah, Data is no Smoothie Kings

0:25

New lemonade lineup of for a

0:27

limited time. Who. Stars Day.

0:58

About the political and cultural forces

1:00

that are fracturing American sports. Okay,

1:03

here's Jerry. Already

1:28

there. Prime for manipulation.

1:34

Seven years ago, during a

1:36

political rally at the Von Braun Center, Trump

1:39

used his presidential privilege to

1:42

finish the job. With

1:44

one vulgar and meandering diatribe

1:47

against protesting NFL players, he

1:50

made American sports civility collapse.

1:53

It seems no one cares to

1:55

rebuild it. The

1:58

president shouted. I'd love to see

2:00

one of these NFL owners, when

2:03

somebody disrespects our flag, to

2:05

say, get that son of a bitch off

2:07

the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's

2:11

fired! His

2:20

taunt became the soundtrack

2:22

for Sports Discord. It

2:25

spawned a counter movement that politicizes

2:27

the arena in ways more

2:30

blatant than athletes railing

2:33

against inhumanity. On

2:35

September 22, 2017,

2:38

an early autumn Friday

2:40

night, Trump invited

2:43

right-wing grievance to the fight. An

2:47

intractable adversary that

2:50

continues to haunt the environment long

2:52

after his presidency. When

3:05

we gather for sports now, some

3:08

Americans root against the United States in

3:10

international competition, for reasons ranging

3:12

from too much bravado to

3:14

too many vocal equality seekers.

3:19

In 2018, people started burning

3:21

their Nike attire after

3:23

the company released the promotion featuring

3:26

former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose

3:36

kneeling protest shook the

3:38

nation and cost him his career. Quarterback

3:42

Aaron Rodgers persists, reputation

3:44

be damned, with

3:46

misinformation campaigns. The

3:49

slogan, Save Women's Sports,

3:52

invigorates an aggressive, nationwide

3:55

political effort to

3:58

banish transgender people for the next year. from sports.

4:04

The grievances are everywhere, spreading

4:07

insidiously, challenging our

4:09

core beliefs about social interaction and

4:12

fair play. I

4:15

used to have no doubt about the unifying superpower

4:17

of sports, how they turn

4:20

strangers into teammates and teammates in

4:22

the family, how they

4:24

make community out of motley spectators,

4:27

how they raise the curtains for

4:29

societal progress. I

4:32

used to believe it was an imperishable kind

4:34

of magic. I don't anymore,

4:37

or rather, I can't. Division

4:40

has seized too much control. It

4:54

is the embrace of these divides, rather

4:56

than the newness of them, that

4:58

spoils our ability to unite around

5:00

anything, even the fun stuff. There's

5:04

almost nothing fresh about the issues barricading

5:06

us, except for the

5:08

commitment to be angry and inhuman, vindictive

5:11

and regressive, insincere

5:13

and obtuse, to

5:15

feel threatened and become

5:17

a threat in response. The

5:21

sports world did not create these attitudes. Neither

5:24

did Trump for that matter. Yet

5:26

for as much as we celebrate the

5:28

positive, transcendent impact of these games, we

5:31

either chose or allowed the landscape

5:33

to be flooded with insecurity, resentment

5:37

and petty behavior. Some

5:39

relish the grievance. Others

5:42

chase it for clout. The

5:44

worst find perverse joy

5:46

within the conflict. Before

5:51

Super Bowl 58, the romance between

5:53

music icon Taylor Swift and

5:56

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce

5:59

filled a wild. conspiracy theory.

6:02

Swift, the Chiefs, and the NFL were

6:04

in cahoots to rig the title game

6:07

and help President Biden win

6:10

reelection. Leading

6:12

many to speculate without evidence that

6:15

the Super Bowl outcome is quote

6:17

rigged to give Swift a bigger

6:19

platform to endorse Biden again. So

6:21

is Swift a front for a covert political

6:24

agenda? The belief

6:26

was strong enough that NFL Commissioner

6:28

Roger Goodell addressed media

6:30

questions before the game. I

6:34

don't think I'm that good a scripter. He

6:36

joked. When humor did

6:38

not suffice he scoffed. It's just

6:41

it's nonsense. This

6:45

is what our sports world has become. So

6:47

full of lunacy and suspicion. So

6:50

devoid of galvanizing

6:52

spirit. I

7:00

came to Huntsville to chase a ghost returning

7:02

to the site of the explosion and

7:04

conjuring those raw feelings once more. It

7:08

was late February just after President's

7:10

Day and the rocket city

7:12

could not decide whether it wanted to drizzle, gust

7:15

wind, or defer to sunshine. The

7:19

multiple personalities of an

7:21

expiring Alabama winner seemed appropriate

7:23

for the dissonant new sports era.

7:27

Samantha Nielsen, the Von

7:30

Braun Center Marketing and Public Relations

7:32

Director, guided a tour

7:34

of the city's downtown centerpiece. With

7:36

a soft Alabama drawl, she

7:39

stitched a blissful image of all the

7:41

fame and fellowship the complex

7:43

has experienced. All

7:45

the culture and enrichment it has provided

7:48

for her hometown. This

7:50

is a melting pot, Nielsen insisted.

7:53

Different people, different cultures, different backgrounds,

7:56

they come here, they fall

7:58

in love with it. it's

8:00

a melting pot. That description,

8:03

melting pot, is

8:05

a mossy old American concept now. But

8:08

the innocence in her voice made

8:10

it sound aspirational again. Framed

8:15

photos on the walls memorialize

8:17

signature events, as well

8:19

as music icons who brought thousands

8:21

together. Johnny Cash,

8:23

Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Lionel

8:26

Richie, Reba McEntire, Prince,

8:29

Elton John. There

8:31

is no recognition of Trump, the

8:34

iconoclast who made a thunderous noise seven

8:36

years ago. Nelson

8:42

walked me through the back entrance that Trump took,

8:44

the lounge where he waited, the

8:47

hallway that he strode through to take the stage.

8:50

It opened an eerie emotional portal

8:52

to the past. The

8:58

roar of the crowd that night prefaced

9:01

the madness. Trump shook his

9:03

head and lifted his hands. Chance of

9:06

USA, USA, USA filled the

9:11

arena in blood red

9:13

Alabama. The audience received

9:15

his words like poetry. I'm thrilled to

9:17

be here with

9:19

the really great person that

9:22

I've gotten to know Luther Strange. Trump

9:24

came to Huntsville to support Senator

9:27

Luther Strange, who was

9:29

trying to fend off Roy Moore

9:31

in a GOP runoff. Maybe most

9:33

importantly, he shares our agenda. Remember,

9:36

he's gonna win the race. Despite

9:38

the endorsement, Strange would lose a few

9:40

days later. Still, Trump

9:43

accomplished something greater or worse.

9:47

He recalibrated the power of sports

9:49

for his own agenda. He

9:52

tapped into the central racial grievance that

9:55

keeps athletics ensnared in American

9:58

polarization. The

10:00

resentment that the largest fan faction, most

10:03

of them white and many of them conservative,

10:06

holds towards black athletes who

10:09

have the nerve to complain about injustice

10:11

despite all their fame and fortune.

10:15

Those fans see the

10:17

athletes as ungrateful, disrespectful,

10:19

race-baiting contrarians whose mothers

10:21

must not have raised them right. When

10:25

the athletes, many of whom

10:27

rose through poverty, articulate a

10:29

heart-wrenching desire to represent marginalized

10:31

people who look like them

10:33

and have no voice, those

10:36

fans scoff at their cries to be seen

10:38

as full humans, to be

10:40

accepted as worthy of respect when they're

10:42

not entertaining. Fire

10:44

them. They make too much damn

10:47

money anyway. The

10:59

To understand that attitude is to

11:02

understand how one off-script snippet

11:04

of a speech can carry such

11:06

significance. It was

11:09

the opening through which all kinds of

11:11

regressive conduct entered what many of us

11:13

thought was a safe space to model

11:15

the nation's potential. The

11:19

tension has always been there, but the

11:21

history of American athlete protest

11:23

is filled with solitary acts,

11:26

isolating the recoil. However, we have

11:29

been on this path since 2012 when Trayvon Martin's death sparked

11:31

a movement that stirred black athletes and led to an era

11:38

of widespread protest.

11:41

The controversy peaked when Kaepernick protested

11:44

the entire 2016 season.

11:48

The activism persevered even after he

11:50

was forced off the stage. For

11:54

all the public discomfort, there

11:56

had been no true organized

11:58

backlash. So

13:07

the King's new lemonade lineup is

13:09

here. Name and a lemonade The

13:12

Smoothie King Way try strawberry. Guava

13:14

Lemonade ask refresher over ice

13:16

a power up in it

13:18

can energize, or a blueberry

13:20

lemonade smoothie lead it up

13:23

being. Made with

13:25

real fruit. Real juice for a

13:27

real sipping good summer. Yeah yeah,

13:29

Data is no Smoothie Kings New

13:32

lemonade lineup of for a limited

13:34

time. Who. Stars Day. convince

30:00

people to vote. But

30:04

America didn't vote out grievance. The

30:07

bitterness has lingered, tempering the

30:09

progressive spirit of a sports world

30:11

built around striving to improve. It's

30:14

one more place to confront divisiveness.

30:17

Quote, we're in a moment

30:20

where education has been politicized, where we're not

30:22

all receiving the same sort of news, where

30:25

movies and theme parks aren't

30:27

happy, simple entertainment, said

30:29

Jackson, the Arizona State professor. Sport

30:33

becomes a potent, dangerous

30:35

place for these battles to play.

30:38

Sport makes them explicit. You can't

30:40

turn a blind eye in

30:43

sporting spaces. The ideas

30:45

held through society always

30:47

play out most explicitly through

30:50

the bodies of athletes. End

30:52

quote. White

30:58

has tried to build the most responsible space

31:00

for his team without imposing

31:02

his political beliefs on the students.

31:06

They have bonded while talking about life's

31:08

challenges. His message always comes

31:10

back to a theme, stay together.

31:13

When the team discussed whether to protest, he

31:16

demanded only that they make a group

31:18

decision and stick with it. They

31:21

decided against a pregame demonstration.

31:24

Their nickname is the Patriots and they lived

31:27

up to it, not

31:29

because they obey the right wing rules

31:31

of behavior, but rather they

31:33

supported each other. It's a lot

31:35

of good in this world and a lot of evil too. White

31:38

said, you know, but you know we just gotta

31:40

love each other man and we're all here at eight

31:43

o'clock in the morning and to twelve o'clock

31:45

and ninety degree heat working towards the same

31:47

goal. It kind of goes back to unity

31:50

and just us being brothers.

31:52

So no matter what you

31:54

see on television and you know don't judge

31:57

a person. In

32:01

a suburb of Huntsville, 11 miles

32:03

from where the unity fractured, a

32:05

coach holds onto a relic of

32:08

a decayed dream. He

32:10

would be wise to stash it somewhere safe. His

32:27

story was written and narrated by Jerry

32:29

Brewer. It was produced and

32:31

mixed with original music by Bishop San. I'm

32:34

Elahe Isadi, and we will be back tomorrow

32:37

with more stories from The Washington Post. Smoothie

32:41

King's new lemonade lineup is

32:43

here. Lemonade, lemonade, the Smoothie

32:46

King way. Try a

32:48

strawberry guava lemonade SK refresher. Over

32:50

ice. A power up in a cup.

32:53

Energize. Or a

32:55

blueberry lemonade smoothie. Put it up

32:57

in your cup. Made with

32:59

real fruit, real juice for a

33:01

real sip in good summer. Yum,

33:04

yum, gotta get some. Smoothie King's

33:06

new lemonade lineup, all for a

33:08

limited time. Who's thirsty?