After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year, players, coaches, and organizations from all major American sports leagues took to social media to speak out on the killings and their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Soon after, many sports leagues came out voicing their support for BLM, but not all. 

American sports leagues such as the NFL and NBA have shown their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and their support of their players through many means. These include the NBA imprinting BLM on their courts during the bubble that occurred due to Covid-19. They also allowed players to have their own social justice messages on the backs of their jerseys. While NFL teams have been putting social justice statements in each of their end zones. Both leagues are letting players wear custom shoes with messages of social justice. It may seem like the NFL is truly woke, but it is now due to them that Colin Kaepernick is out of a job for expressing his disapproval for the police by kneeling during the national anthem. Even with leagues such as the NFL, who do not have good track records with racial issues, it is still very important for them to be doing this. It just seems their intentions for doing this aren’t for the right reasons. With all the viewers these leagues will attract though, the movement will be able to inform more people as well as attract more supporters.

With many of these leagues in full support of Black Lives Matter and Social Justice, it is now mostly accepted and supported when players and staff speak out against racial injustice.. The world has become a better place now that it is now more socially accepted for these organizations, as well as players to speak out. It is just sad that it took this long.

 One organization not in support of the movement is actually the UFC. This became very apparent after fighter Colby Covington voiced anti-BLM remarks. Such as calling Tyron Woodley, who is an African American and UFC fighter, “a communist” after Woodley showed his support for the BLM movement. He also called him, “[someone who] stands for criminals.” What made the UFC’s stance even more obvious was when UFC President Dana White, came out after Covington’s comments saying, “he would not muzzle anybody.” This is absolutely disgraceful on behalf of the UFC for letting Covington’s racist remarks just slide. What makes this even worse is that the league’s president thinks what he said is not a problem. With a decent amount of fighters being African American, it does not help knowing that the league you fight for does not support you through this rough period in time.

A person may mention that the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t belong in sports because it may scare away viewers that don’t support the movement. I disagree and believe these things that the leagues are doing to affiliate themselves with the movement are helping the sport in the long run. The NFL for example being down 13% in viewership with a good portion of those people being non-BLM supporters. I believe after this year the viewership will go back up, due to these people who have stopped watching to miss sports. Also I doubt that players and organizations care that a few racists are no longer tuning in to watch them play. 

The Black Lives Matter movement is only growing in support, and now with it being a huge part of sports it will only continue its growth. This should have started sooner, but at least leagues are now realizing what needs to be done.