Behind The Shield: A reflection on the intersection of sport and social issues through film

As storytellers, we have great power to create and convey a message to the masses. I want to reflect on a film I recently watched that dove into the intersection of sport and politics with a focus on the National Football League. This film was titled Behind the Shield.

Poster for Behind the Shield: the Power and Politics of the NFL

The film opened up by highlighting the ways in which ideals of American nationalism are woven into the very fabric of the National Football League, combatting the myth that politics are/ should not be an innate part of sport. The film makes it very clear that the crowd calling for the separation of sport and politics is in reality only calling for the division of sports and a “certain kind of politics.” While acts of protest and statements supporting a more leftist policy are vilified, the displays of American militarization and masculinity are celebrated as the NFL prides itself on selling a brand identity of Americana. Pointing out the hypocrisy and fallacy in calling for athlete activism not having a place in sport creates opportunity for meaningful and necessary discourse throughout the film.

Starting in 1996 with NBA player Abdoul Rauf, who did not come out for the national anthem and elicited anger and culture wars from audiences., and continuing 20 years later with the powder keg that is Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 kneeling, the timeline demonstrates that the villifying of athlete activists is a phenomenon imbedded within sport. If a player protests, they are shameful rather than the inequities causing them to protest being the recipient of the shame. When Colin Kaepernick protested against police brutality, he was characterized as Anti-american and vilified by a mass society ignorant to the socio-political context of rampant anti-Black racism.

The film spoke of how, In the NFL, 70% of the players are Black and yet there are 0 BIPOC owners and 90% of NFL head coaches are white. In the words of one of the players highlighted in the film, we are “good enough to use our [Black] body, not our mind.” This is political.

Colin Kaepernick kneeling to protest police brutality in 2016

It is pieces of media like this and the conversation they ignite that show just one of the many ways that sport truly cannot be separated from politics. The platform that sport has truly has the power to create narratives and impact the socio-political landscape.