ESP-Em
An athlete, whether professional, college or recreational, means complete immersion in your favorite sport. Much of your time is spent in football practice or running basketball drills or going for longer and longer runs.
Being a professional — or even college athlete — also means you have lots of people watching your every move (sports or not). And having hundreds or thousands or even millions of people watching you means you have a huge platform simply for being really, really good at whatever sport you play.
There’s a lot of dispute over athletes using their platform and celebrity status to make statements, whether political or not. Some people say athletes should just shut their mouths and play ball, while others wholeheartedly support whatever their favorite athletes have to say.
This dispute was highlighted when Nike teamed up with Colin Kaepernick in September. Much of the nation was divided over one man’s face on an athletic apparel advertisement. A portion of the country welcomed the ad’s statement with open arms, while another portion rejected it with equal enthusiasm.
September is nowhere near the first time an athlete used his platform to say something, and it’s definitely not the last. Just like anyone else in a position of influence, it’s incredibly easy for an athlete to misuse his platform.
However, there are also plenty of athletes and teams doing great things for their communities that often aren’t heard about. Lebron James fully supports and partially funds better schooling for low-income kids and their families in Cleveland. Serena Williams is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and her foundation has helped build two schools in Kenya.
Liberty’s men’s basketball team is working with LU Send and Virginia Tech to raise money for hurricane disaster relief victims, too. The team has also participated in past events like the Paradise Jam, which Liberty volunteered to host after the original site for the tournament in Jamaica was damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
I think that’s something to celebrate. Often the last thing you hear about is a team’s donations and positive impact on the world. Instead you hear about which players knelt for the anthem and which player made a hateful comment this week or which player was arrested for a violent act.
There’s a lot of value to a team’s contributions to society — they’re going above and beyond their requirement to play ball and instead giving to people who need it. Whether it’s funding a hometown school or hosting a tournament or, like Liberty’s baseball team, traveling to the Dominican Republic over fall break.
In the end, a charitable donation or activity might not make the most news, but it will make the most difference to the people involved. The athletes participating get the benefit of serving others, which I think brings tremendous fulfilment, and those being served get the benefit of, well, being served.
It takes the athlete’s role beyond playing ball and into something much more personal with fans and people in his or her community.
Regardless of the news coverage, a team’s charitable donations will make a much longer lasting impact on those involved. The news will only last for a little while, but the memories and the help will last a lifetime.