We have seen time and again how sport, especially on a global stage; can have an impact for social change. Whether it is caused-based programs like wearing pink for breast cancer awareness or blue for prostate cancer initiatives, or larger scale calls to action like anti-bullying, athletes, the brands they work with, and their massive broadcast partners have found the platform more now than ever to use their influence to drum up awareness and invoke massive change. The passion of sport can help move opinion and get casual fans engaged in causes they might not know about.
So as we reach Mother’s Day, it will be interesting to see with the NBA and NHL Finals, and European soccer reaching its end, if athletes rally to draw awareness for the atrocities going in with the kidnapping of hundreds of girls in Nigeria by the terrorists of Boko Haram. Politicians, including First Lady Michelle Obama, have now taken up the cause to find the missing girls and have begun to put pressure on the Nigerian government to address this tragedy, and sport now has a window to step up as well.
There are few things that motivate athletes to take a stand than atrocities with children, and the influence Nigerian athletes have had on global sport; in athletics, soccer, basketball, even football and now baseball in the States, is very powerful. However this is not a Nigerian issue; it is again a humanitarian issue that sport can help raise awareness for, and the time to do so is now, especially leading into the World Cup. In the States, as the U.S. team gets ready to make its way to Brazil, there will be a reality show done by ESPN following the members of the team, so maybe, maybe, there will be a window where an athlete, one who is white, not of color, speaks out or wears a t-shirt talking about the atrocities going on. Over the weekend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took a stand to draw awareness, maybe WWE with its massive outreach and its influence on parents, can organize a call to action. Could LeBron James or Paul Pierce or and NBA athlete who is a father, step up and make a statement or subtly say something during a media access period? Could the WTA or the LPGA, or the WNBA be the massive group that starts the process? That type of awareness, as we have seen in the past, is massive and very impactful. It moves politicians and governments to act faster than almost anything the common man can do.
Now this is not to say that any other charity or humanitarian athlete going on today should be given short shrift because of the goings on in Nigeria. This is also not to say that massive dollars needs to be put towards this issue as would happen with an earthquake or flooding. It’s also not to say that this should be a statement of military intervention by the U.S. What it is is a chance for athletes, who have used their massive influence before, to take an immediate stand and help ratchet up the attention meter. Starting today, Mother’s Day, would be a great place.
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