Davis: Tyreek Hill’s escapade becomes another troubling example of politics and sports colliding

If only we could “Stick to sports!”

Thanks, Tyreek Hill. The Miami Dolphins receiver was handcuffed by police en route to his NFL game Sunday, accused of speeding and subsequently disobeying an officer’s orders for not rolling down his car’s window. At least two of his teammates — one who was formerly the NFL’s man-of-the-year — stopped to “de-escalate” the situation before being manhandled by police.

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It’s all captured on officers’ body-cams and other videos, leading to another political discourse in a divided, powder-keg country that looks ready to explode while heading into its Nov. 5 election. We can’t be high and mighty here in Canada, deriding the U.S. while divisive politics are also becoming prevalent in Canadian jurisdictions that discriminate against preferred pronoun usages, alternative lifestyles and religious freedom.

Politics cast a wide net, catching everything from racism to sexism to freedom of speech to enforcing the law.

This column will likely illicit some familiar, “Stick to sports!” comments, but those are impossible to heed because life, politics and sports keep colliding. They have been intertwined since the ancient Olympics, when only naked men were supposedly allowed to vie for olive wreaths in wrestling, running and chariot races, at least until a female driver won an event for the horse’s male owner.

For more current political intersections with sports, check out Jesse Owens and Adolf Hitler during the 1936 Olympics. At least five Olympic Games have since been boycotted for political reasons. Ponder why Cuban-born players are very rare in Major League Baseball. And understand that contract negotiations are political battles, as owners and athletes vie to make themselves the more appealing side in a dispute.

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Right here and now, Regina’s city council is involved in a three-way dispute involving a kids’ hockey academy and senior hockey players unhappy with the way they’re being treated by the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. There’s a much bigger battle on the world stage, where neither Russia nor Belarus are represented these days at international sporting events because they invaded Ukraine.

Politics are becoming typically ugly, including when they frequently infringe upon the sports world. Hill’s case is another troubling example.

With a few exceptions among the public commentaries one person could absorb, it seems like many social-media supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump are arguing that Hill should have been more obedient, just to ensure nothing more serious would have happened. The “woke” community decried the police brutality familiar to anyone who has empathy about George Floyd. It’s impossible to watch a controversial video or a presidential debate and not judge who was right, who was wrong. Politics, pfffft! At least sports provide a real scoreboard.

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Discussions surrounding Hill might not be as important as Tuesday’s televised debate between Trump and his opponent in the upcoming presidential election, Vice-President Kamala Harris, but it’s still an issue that keeps arising in America. It concerns race and policing in the U.S.

Anyone who follows sports — and crime or politics — knows that in the U.S., Hill was in considerably more danger than golfer Scottie Scheffler, who spent time in jail after disobeying a cop during a traffic tie-up leading into a PGA tournament in Louisville. Charges against Scheffler were quickly dropped.

That disparity is something most of us don’t understand. It’s what Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel told the media when talking about Hill’s arrest.

“I think the thing that f—- me up honestly, to be quite frank, is knowing that I don’t know exactly what that feels like,” said McDaniel, who identifies as bi-racial, admitting he has never felt endangered because of his appearance.

Hill — plus the two teammates who intervened — is Black. His question afterwards to the media was, “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?” His point: Star athletes get recognized, so he and Scheffler — who is white — may get treated differently by the police than Floyd, who was suffocated during an arrest by a Minneapolis police officer.

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According to the Associated Press, Hill was fined $309 for the driving altercations. During his college career he pled guilty to assaulting his girlfriend, plus another incident of domestic violence did not result in charges being laid.

Hill immediately vowed to use his athletic platform for “positive” actions. That’s good to hear, especially if he follows through, and it inevitably leads sports right back into politics.

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