The presidential election has always brought celebrity endorsements and, thanks to MTV, Hollywood's bombardment of commercials and rallies. This year, however, we saw more sports figures finding a voice when it came to supporting our first "black" president. (As an aunt of two bi-racial children, I wish the media didn't make President Obama choose which part of his heritage he would be labeled as.) Being that the media has deemed this powerful man African American, rather than bi-racial, however, influences society greatly. Magic Johnson was seated in the front of the mall crowd for the day, and even Mike Tomlin had to hold off his Super Bowl press conference, acknowledging that the day was beyond football-or anything else. Interestingly enough, I don't feel that the endorsements helped elect Barack Obama and I don't think that he has a great influence over the sporting world, despite his brother-in-law being a college basketball coach.
Perhaps what is most inspiring is the fact that sports has already experienced what our government is going through, a shift in racial representation. Sports has seen MVPs of color, coaches of color, and other sport authority figures of color. There is a pride swelling in all of America, a kinship with the struggles of civil rights that sports saw starting in the sixties. As was touched upon on the Tirico and Van Pelt Show, on the field/court/track/whatever venue, the athlete is now a representation of a team. In this super bowl, Kurt Warner will be hyped by the media as an aging white guy who has engineered a Super Bowl victory with a previous franchise, but on the field, he will be the Cardinal's quarterback throwing to a Cardinal's receiver, not an African American called Larry Fitzgerald. The only colors that day will be the white and red versus the black and gold. It's about time America caught up.
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