Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
Keep Your Politics Out Of My Rink
by Mike Chen on 10/11/08 at 10:00 AM ET
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A wise man once said that if you don’t bring up religion or politics, you can get along with anyone. I’m a pretty firm believer in that philosophy, and that’s why the whole notion of Sarah Palin dropping the puck at tonight’s Flyers/Rangers game as part of a “promotion” doesn’t sit right with me.
Sports, by and large, are supposed to bring us together. We go to our home teams to cheer together, regardless of age, race, religion, politics, or any other demographic denominator. You like Team A, I like Team A, we both hate Team B, then we can put everything else aside and high-five an awesome goal. I’m sure I don’t totally agree with the politics or philosophies of the people who sit around me at Sharks games, but I know when Jonathan Cheechoo makes the Anaheim Ducks look stupid, we can all cheer with each other.
Now, when you bring a politician into this world, you’re going to cause a divide—a divide that can be anywhere between uncomfortable to downright ugly. And it doesn’t help that Sarah Palin is currently one of the most polarizing figures in the United States.
It’s no secret that Palin’s supporters and detractors are equally ferverous. Just bring up the name to almost anyone and you’re bound to elicit a love or hate response. According to the latest poll numbers, about 45% of people don’t approve of Palin, 40% of people do, and the remaining people don’t care. That means that about half the people at the Flyers game, in theory, will be somewhere between uncomfortable to disgusted. The most extreme of those fans will probably boo, yell, or do something worse depending on how many beers they’ve had—this is, after all, the city that booed Santa Clause, a much less polarizing figure.
On the other hand, you’ve got probably about half of Flyers fans who do like Palin and they’ll cheer her. This will only incite the angry fans, which will then ignite a vigorous defense by her supporters, and on and on. Basically, you’ll have a certain percentage of fans yelling and angry at each other when they’re supposed to be gathered together for a fun time cheering their team’s home opener.
And, for what it’s worth, Pennsylvania’s currently polling strongly in favor of Barack Obama. That might make the scene even worse.
Is this a worst-case scenario? I don’t think so. People tend to be pretty vocal when their political beliefs are challenged, especially during a crazy propaganda-driven election season. For evidence of this, check out any hockey blog post that has mentioned Palin since she came on the national scene; while the actual post may not have had any partisaned content, the comments turned into a near-instant flame war between both sides. It’s not pretty.
Ultimately, I’m really against mixing politics and sports, especially during election season. If you want to celebrate Palin as a hockey mom, do it after the elections (regardless of the outcome) when the agenda-filled commercials and 24/7 media attention disappears. I want my hockey highlights on sports networks, not cheesy photo ops that can be construed in some circles as semi-propaganda on CNN and Fox News (especially since Ed Snider is a big GOP donator).
Now before anyone jumps right to the comments and starts calling me un-American or any sort of curse-word synonym for liberal, hear me out. I think if you look over this post carefully, you’ll find that I haven’t advocated any candidate or agenda. I’m just saying that politics should stay the hell out of sports because it divides rather than unites.
To counter any haters, I’ll say this in all honesty: if John Kerry tried pulling this stunt in 2004 had there been an NHL season (Kerry played defense for his college team and is a big Bruins fan), I’d be saying the same thing. And I bet the way people would have felt about that would have been the exact opposite of their current position (Palin supporters = Kerry haters, and vice versa). In other words, you’d have the same amount of people pissed at each other and really, that doesn’t belong in sports.
Any way you cut it, whether you’re red or blue (not Red Wings or Rangers), mixing politics with sports simply does an injustice by inserting a dividing wedge into a fanbase. Any topic that can turn fan on fan just shouldn’t be introduced into the arena.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Philadelphia+Flyers,
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