Today marks the 50th anniversary of Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman’s iconic protest at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
I was only a few months old at the time, but that moment, when Smith, Carlos and Norman brought international attention to social justice issues in America, has had a lasting impact on me.
My career has taken me to many different places, but every time I begin a new venture, there is one constant you’ll see in my office; the powerful picture of Smith and Carlos standing on the podium raising a fist, covered in a black glove, along with Australian Peter Norman, proudly wearing the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, standing in front of them.
The decision to take a stand by Smith, Carlos and Norman had consequences, especially financial.
“Oh, the fallout,” Smith remembered in an interview with USA Today. “I could not find a job when I got back. All the promises and all the endorsements disappeared. The phone never rang. Never rang.”
Both men faced death threats and hardships when looking for employment, but for Carlos, the scrutiny took a toll on his personal life.
“I didn’t think people would strike out at my wife and kids. I thought that they would just come after me.” Carlos said during an interview with an Australian news outlet. “I lost my wife in the process — she took her life — and my kids were scorned in school based on the fact that I was their father.”
NFL players, such as: Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid and Malcolm Jenkins are facing comparable backlash today. I’ll get to that shortly.
Before them, the late-great Muhammad Ali encountered similar circumstances when he refused to be inducted into the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. He was stripped of the world heavyweight title and denied a boxing license in every state. The punishment cost Ali three-and-a-half years of earnings.
After Ali, Major League Baseball player Curt Flood took owners to court over the reserve clause, which tied a player to whichever team held his rights for the duration of his career. This was not an economic protest, but one of liberty. Flood believed it violated the 13th amendment, which bars slavery and involuntary servitude.
He penned a letter to then MLB Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, writing “After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several States.”
Flood filed a lawsuit against the MLB and eventually lost after the Supreme Court sided with the owners, essentially ending his career. He knew the establishment wouldn’t forgive him for challenging the status quo.
He may have lost the battle, but he won the war. Flood’s fight against MLB culminated with an arbitrator abolishing the reserve clause three years after the Supreme Court ruling, paving the way for modern day free agency in sports.
Flood’s determination resulted in the average salary going from $45,000 in 1975 to $289,000 in 1983 and helped give professional athletes the freedom of choice of where they want to play when their contracts expired.
Today, we are witnessing more athletes speak out on social issues and causes.
During the 2016 NFL preseason, Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality in America. He significantly restored the athlete-activist stance and brought it to the forefront of political, social and everyday discussion.
No one knew at the time that Kaepernick would lose his career as an NFL quarterback and the multi-million dollar salary that comes with it. Unable to sign with a team, Kaepernick’s supporters questioned why exercising his first amendment right would cost him his job.
Over his six years with the San Francisco 49ers, his salary averaged out to $7 million a season. He remained unsigned through 2017 and now it is unlikely he will be signed to a team in 2018.
Several NFL players joined Kaepernick in demonstrating during the anthem prior to games, and it cost them too.
Denver Broncos star linebacker Von Miller lost his endorsement deal with a Colorado Ford dealership after he kneeled before a home game. Teammate Brandon Marshall lost two Denver-area endorsement deals, one with CenturyLink, the other with Air Academy Credit Union.
Just when it began to look like athletes who use their platform to raise awareness on issues they find important were being pilloried for their choice, we saw Kaepernick would be athletic apparel giant Nike’s spokesman for the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” campaign.
This showed me progress. Gone are the days of the 90s when global superstars like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, who were regularly among the top earning endorsers, steered clear of controversial topics, just so they didn’t ruffle any feathers with sponsors.
The times have changed. An example of this is one my personal favorite athletes of all time; tennis great and longtime activist Billie Jean King. When she was outed as a lesbian in 1981, her lawyer and publicist told her to deny it. King refused and let the world know she wasn’t ashamed.
The backlash was fierce. King recalls she lost all of her endorsements within 24 hours of her sexual orientation becoming public.
In contrast, Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy was celebrated for coming out as gay in 2015. Since then, Kenworthy has signed endorsement deals with worldwide brands, such as: Visa, Toyota and Ralph Lauren.
The cost of being an athlete-activist isn’t what it used to be, and that is a great thing. Smith, Carlos, Norman and Ali gave up guaranteed money for something bigger than them. Though they were maligned for their decision at the time, all four men are now revered for the stance they took.
Dr. Harry Edwards, the highly respected sociologist and activist who also worked as a consultant to professional sports teams such as the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors believes that in today’s age, athletes must use their platform to help facilitate change.
“If LeBron James speaks up, if Steph Curry speaks up, if Colin Kaepernick speaks up, if Michael Bennett speaks up, people in the community listen,” he said. “The people walking in the footsteps of the last civil-rights leader to get a Nobel Prize, Dr. King, you better look for someone in gym shoes or football cleats.”
It didn’t look like it at the time of their protest, but things eventually worked out for Smith and Carlos career-wise in the long run.
The cost of being an athlete-activist might hurt the pocketbook less today than in the past, because more corporations are seeing the payoff in doing well by doing good.
It has been 50 years since three brave men took a stand at the 1968 Olympic Games, without them, today’s generation wouldn’t have rejected the notion that they should just “shut up and dribble.”
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