Trump, the Super Bowl, woke in sport and sport’s shift to the right

Sunday 02 February 2025 1:00 pm
 |  Up to date: 

Friday 31 January 2025 10:50 am

It could be the identical man sitting in The Oval Workplace, however lots’s modified since Donald J Trump first presided over a Tremendous Bowl eight years in the past. 

In 2017 America was perilously divided, with a newly-elected Trump within the White Home and protest marches happening on the streets outdoors it.

This rigidity was mirrored in Houston’s Superbowl LI. This was the season when NFL athletes had began taking the knee, and even the much-loved commercials featured thinly veiled political statements like 84 Lumber’s Mexican wall advert.

Play Video

It marked the start of a brand new age of activism in sport. Politically motivated athletes, backed by purpose-led manufacturers, began standing up for progressive values.

Activism in sport

After Colin Kaepernick, got here LeBron James, Lewis Hamilton, Naomi Osaka, Marcus Rashford and plenty of others wanting to make use of their platform to make change. Prefer it or not, sport was overtly political once more. 

I, like many individuals who wrote about this, celebrated it. I argued that sport has all the time had political energy, and athletes ought to recognise their potential to wield it. 

The naive assumption, nonetheless, was that this pattern would transfer solely in a single path, with sport changing into a rising voice for progressive values in an more and more progressive society. 

Eight years later it’s a distinct America and a distinct world.

We’re seeing a backlash to the perceived ‘wokery’ that was normalised during the last decade. The Overton window has shifted and it’s alarming how rapidly the pillars of development are collapsing round us. 

Key Trump pillars

Whether or not it’s a reversal of DE&I (variety, fairness, and inclusion) initiatives or Meta’s rowback of its moderation coverage it looks like right-wing populism now has the higher hand. It’s a comeback that in some way manages to be each solely predictable and totally stunning on the identical time. 

On this altering of the winds, sport too has moved to the appropriate – additional proof that it will probably’t be separated from politics regardless of how onerous we strive.

In actual fact, sport was a key pillar of Trump’s reelection marketing campaign, spearheaded by golf and UFC specifically.

Bryson DeChambeau seemed sheepish when a jubilant Trump invited him on stage on election evening. Maybe he had Michael Jordan’s notorious phrases ringing in his head and was pondering “Democrats purchase sneakers too”. 

There’s little doubt, nonetheless, that Bryson did deserve credit score, along with his extremely efficient Breaking 50 video racking up greater than 13m views on YouTube alone. 

Play Video

Political masculinity

UFC CEO Dana White was far much less reserved within the limelight, accepting the mic and reinforcing the ‘powerful man’ connection. UFC has long-been entwined with a brand new period of American political masculinity, with fighters like Jim Miller strongly backing the brand new president by thick and skinny.

The Republican connection is not contained inside the octagon. The Trump celebration dance turned an enormous pattern throughout the NFL and soccer on the finish of final yr, with gamers equivalent to Nick Bosa, Zach Sieler and Christian Pulisic simply a number of the superstars to affix in. It’s a celebration that has additionally infiltrated American youth sport.

Some athletes like Bosa are doing this with clear intentions – the San Francisco 49ers defensive finish was additionally fined for sporting a Maga hat, however others like Pulisic claimed “it was only a dance… I simply thought it was humorous”.

Actually that is the view of the NFL, which has “no challenge with a celebratory dance”, however we ought to be cautious with this.

Tremendous Bowl stunt

These actions could also be much less overt than taking the knee but it surely doesn’t imply they aren’t political. As we noticed with one other Trump champion Elon Musk, it’s straightforward to minimize the significance of gestures, but it surely’s not often wholesome to take action.

The proper aspect of the political divide has rising confidence to be extra vocal and anticipate sport to be a part of that. 

An fascinating factor to regulate is whether or not male sport and feminine sport will diverge on this challenge. Internationally we’re seeing the identical sample of a rising ideological divide between women and men, significantly in youthful generations.

Whereas ladies’s sport has a powerful connection to LGBTQ+ communities and may be very progressive, male sport could be drawn within the different path. British golfer Charley Hull bucked this pattern just lately by declaring her admiration for Trump, however she may simply be the exception that proves the rule. 

What’s undeniably true now’s that the subsequent political act on the pitch is as prone to come from the appropriate because the left. We’re in a brand new period of political debate the place progressive and populist athletes will battle on the sector in additional methods than one. Maybe we’ll even see that as quickly as Sunday in Tremendous Bowl LIX?