Alabama Football: College football is secondary to other concerns

Other concerns come between Alabama football and me

It is August in Alabama. In a normal year, a rapidly approaching Alabama football season would captivate my attention. But this is no normal year. It has been made abnormal by COVID-19. Virus risks cannot be ignored but they are not foremost in my mind.

Something else is happening, in Tuscaloosa and across the nation. That something else has my fullest attention. Americans are struggling with old wounds, searching and demanding a cure. The American legacy of racial inequality may be bumping into a persistent, staunch resistance. It is too soon to know, but maybe, hopefully, this moment can reach a tipping point.

The NBA players boycotted the Playoffs on Wednesday in protest of the needless killing of Jacob Black in Wisconsin. Two more needless deaths happened in the aftermath. There are countless issues that you can focus on in 2020, but the most serious of them have nothing to do with a football season.

The NBA didn’t play for many reasons. One of them is that distractions are not needed right now. Racial injustice has been prevalent since the founding of America, but we look away from it every chance we get. It’s not easy to have these conversations, but they must be had. Widespread change is an enormous task, and it takes the nation’s focus to achieve it. Sports are a healthy palliative. Sports can also be a distraction.

The reason why the tragedies regarding George Floyd grasped the nation is we had to focus on it. We could not distract ourselves with work or culture. We just had to live in that moment. The protests that stemmed from that brought progress, but we still have so many steps to take.

Specifically, as a white male, I must use this moment to try and gather knowledge and stories that I can never experience. But this moment is not about me and others who look like me. Our empathy is required to help us understand what we have not experienced.

There is little empathy in the world of sports. We use sports to distract and entertain ourselves. Some voices suggest this is a moment when distraction and entertainment are undeserved.

We need to amplify voices calling for change. They have been suppressed for so long. People say to keep politics out of sports, but this is not a political issue. This is a human issue. Sports are a microcosm of society, and this is truly a societal issue. With this elephant in the room rearing its head, Heisman odds or position battles are trivial.

I love the Alabama Crimson Tide and the sport of football, but there are more pressing matters at the moment. College athletes are speaking out in words and deeds. I encourage all their voices. We need to listen and join them. We can do that and still love Alabama football.