Ibukun Owolabi
Ibukun Owolabi
Dr. Monica Alvarez
Senior Thesis
04/12/24
Race is a Roadblock, Even in Sports Journalism
Introduction
Sports are a love for many. They are a passion, a burning fire, a way to build community. At the end of the day, however, many of these sports are just a business. Sociologists James Frey and D. Stanley Eitzen spoke about this, saying that as “sports become institutionalized, particularly at the highest levels of amateur and professional competition, they have come to reflect the corporate/commodity model. Sport is more like work than play. The locus of control has moved from the player/participant to the
manager and audience” (Frey & Stanley, 1991, 8). As sports are a business, the executives must play into what the consumers want to see, which is fed by their inherent prejudices. An industry that many do not think of as a business is sports media.
As the leagues begin to diversify, the way that the sports are broadcasted is also diversifying. Major sports networks are beginning to see the advantages of having a diverse group of people report and provide commentary on sports, whether it be Black sports analysts who have a college degree in sports communications or retired professional players, who can now provide perspectives on the game as a former player and a current fan. However, while more Black journalists have the opportunity to report on sports dominated by Black athletes, their careers as Black sports broadcasters are far from simple.
Racism has significantly influenced how sports commentators are perceived. Being a Black man in a field dominated by white men, Black sports broadcasters have added
difficulties in reporting on the sports they love. Compared to their white cohosts, Black sports broadcasters are accused of being biased during conversations that may concern race. In actuality, Black male sports broadcasters offer a unique and fresh perspective to analyze the on and off-court factors of the game.
Researcher’s Note
Anywhere in the paper that says “in the researcher’s interview” comes from interviews conducted by the author. All participants of these interviews consented to their quotes being used in this paper.
Key Figures
Stephen A. Smith may be the most popular voice in sports television. Whether on Youtube or Twitter, it is impossible to not have come across a viral clip of Smith shouting or making a slick remark. He is known for often raising his voice during debates with his cohosts. After graduating from Winston-Salem College in 1991, Smith has risen to the top of the game at all levels of sports
broadcasting. From newspapers to radio to being in front of the big lights, Stephen A. Smith has done it all.
Rob Parker is another big name in the sports television world. While his voice may not be as recognizable as Stephen A. Smith’s, he has worked on many of the same shows as him and they have even gone back and forth a few times. From Queens, New York, Parker has found a home for himself in Detroit, starting with the Detroit Free Press and being a sports news anchor for Detroit’s most popular news channels. Since being hired by ESPN in 2003, Rob Parker has cemented himself in the sports broadcasting game and now looks to mentor the next generation of sports journalists.
Jarrett Bell is a well-known sports columnist. He’s spent 30 years with news outlet USA Today, writing articles on various topics within the NFL, specifically. Although he remarks that the world of sports journalism has changed over the years, due to the innovation of technology and social media, Bell has stayed true to
his ethical practices when it comes to reporting. As a Black man in the world of sports communication, Jarrett Bell brings a unique perspective into what his experiences look like.
First Take is a sports talk show airing on ESPN. Hosted by Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim Rose, it features lively debates, analysis, and commentary on the latest happenings in the world of sports, particularly focusing on American football, basketball, and other major sports leagues. The show often delves into controversial topics and encourages the hosts to express their opinions passionately, leading to spirited discussions among the panelists.
How did Sports broadcasting come to be
In the early to mid-1900s, the only way to know what was happening in a sporting event was by physically attending the event. Attending the game/match was the only way the story could be spoken about again - even reporters had to attend the event to
write columns about it. This was a problem for sports fans around the world because if they missed out on reading the paper, they could only learn about the sport through word of mouth.
When access to the radio grew(whether portable or in vehicles), sports stations made it their mission to share what was happening during a sporting event on the radio. Broadcasting stations began to hire reporters simply to discuss what was happening in the games. This was the nation’s first attempt at sports broadcasting. The number of people who tuned in grew so much that certain sports teams and organizations began to restrict their team’s coverage on the radio because it was decreasing the number of ticket sales. Keeping in mind the impact of the radio, now consider the impact of television. People could watch the game live from the comfort of their homes, and pretend that they were sitting courtside at a basketball game just from inside their living room. As the game moved from radio to television, so did the broadcasting medium. Instead of 10-minute segments that radio
stations could run, sports reporters could now be blocked in for 30minute long broadcasts on television. Sports broadcasting moving to television only made the field more immersive. (Schultz, Wei, & Pedersen).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/290110/length-sports-tvprogramming-available-usa/
The question of whether or not live television shows are scripted or not has been debated for decades. While reality TV shows feature real, live people with real stories, it is undeniable
that certain moments are dramatized to draw in an audience. The same is true for sports talk shows. The ideas brought to the table are all real and most segments are not rehearsed, for the major networks at least. The only parts of the show that may seem to be scripted occur during the producer meetings before a show’s recording. In these meetings, hosts may bring discussion points to the table and receive approval from the production team to debate that specific topic. For the most part, hosts and guests are given free rein over what they can talk about, but in these meetings, executives at a network like ESPN have the power to tell TV personalities to either not talk about a specific topic or limit what is said about the topic.
Pat McAfee, once a hall-of-fame punter for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, has switched his profession to sports journalism. If you have not come across his YouTube channel where he discusses topics across all sports, then you have likely seen him on an ESPN panel before big College football games, or
have heard his voice commentating WWE matches. McAfee tackled the question of whether or not debate television is scripted during an episode of his YouTube podcasting series. He said, “those debate shows are setting you up to say things [...] potentially negative.” He continued, speaking on some of the preproduction meetings that analysts/co-hosts would have to attend before going live. While at first, he was suspicious of producers feeding hosts answers behind the scenes (which he, at least for his shows, found out was not true), he realized that producers instead have hosts share their opinions before the show and the producers decided which of those arguments would ignite the most passionate debates. So, instead of forcibly scripting the show, it was instead being playfully redirected.
Sports Media is a racist system like any other
While many think the divide between white and Black men around our country happens coincidentally, these divides are
indeed intentional. Studies conducted by scientists like Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, which were used to prove that Africans were biologically inferior and subservient to Caucasians, supported the idea of racism to many. Legislation like the “one-drop” rule and the Jim Crow Laws increased tensions between multiple demographics trying to find where they belonged in specific categories, causing problems between various people groups. Notions like colorism, which is the idea that people have a subconscious preference towards people of lighter skin, are what drive and enforce racism to become embedded in systems across society, like the healthcare system, the legal system, the incarceration system, etc. While this may not be new to many, all of this is to say that sports, or the NBA/NFL more specifically, is a system just like the ones mentioned above that has allowed racism to corrupt it.
Black men have been used to make white men look better for centuries. Decades ago, it was seen in the film industry.
Minstrel shows were created to use Black men (in actuality a white man dressed as a Black man) to make a mockery of themselves, then allowing a white man to come in and show just how barbaric and uncivilized the Black race is. The National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian notes that “[these minstrel shows] characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice” (Smithsonian). Once minstrel shows were created around the 1830’s, Black mockery became a spectacle for white audiences. For the next century and a half, movies and media would portray Black characters as a juxtaposition to the white protagonist. Henry and Oates sum this idea up, using the work of Robyn Wiegman, saying “The interracial male partnership was a familiar theme in entertainment, but often these stories recentered White characters in subtle ways a narrative pattern that “transforms the historical contestations between black and white men into the image of
democratic fraternity,” yet is undercut with tensions and contradictions” (Wiegman, 1995, p. 118) (Henry & Oates, 163).
In sports, people inside and outside the league believe that Black athletes make up large demographics of professional sports due to their inherent genetic abilities, whereas white athletes reach the highest level of their sport due to hard work and skill. A popularized idea by Jon Entine, a journalist for CBS, publicized that sports audiences “would have to suspect that there are a host of intertwined cultural and genetic explanations for black athletic success. And the dispassionate observer would be right” (Entine, 2000, p. 328). In essence, he’s trying to use “science” to conclude that Black athletes must have an advantage in athletic competition. While many believed this bizarre notion, journalists like Jonathan Marks quickly came out and publicly detested this myth. He wrote that the book is composed of “make-believe genetics applied to naively conceptualized groups of people” (Marks, 2000). Years later, Reagan Griffin Jr, a writer for the Guardian, rebutted
Entine’s claims. He referenced a study conducted by the University of Georgia, and found that “observers of basketball are likely to recognize a Black player’s strength, speed and athleticism before other traits such as leadership and IQ.” He continued, relating this to societal prejudices against African Americans, saying that “a recurring theme in the perception of the Black body. Elite Black athletes are ‘freaks of nature’ and ‘athletic specimens,’ rather than the products of years and years of blood, sweat, and tears put into their respective crafts” (Griffin, 2021). The fact that contemporary ideas of Black athletes are built upon racial stereotypes that were used to justify colonization centuries ago is quite frightening for what these athletes have to persevere through.
It may be hard to think of mere children's games as having such profound and hateful cultures underneath the surface, but that was exactly what was going on. Michael Bennet is a retired NFL
Defensive End. He was a member of the 2010s Seattle Seahawks defensive unit, which many NFL fans regard as the greatest NFL
team ever assembled. In his autobiography, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, he spoke about his journey to the NFL and some of the many adversities on that journey. Instead of focusing solely on how hard it is to become a professional football player, Bennett decided to speak on the racial discrimination that he faced each step of the way. While the autobiography focuses on the NFL, he still spoke about how racism has affected professional sports nationwide. In the chapter titled “Sports Are Not Integrated”, he broke down the racial disparity in ownership across the league. He wrote, “The NFL has no Black owners, and therefore this sport has yet to truly integrate. [...] Of the thirty-two NFL teams, two have Black or Latino head coaches, five have Black general managers. If the NFL were really integrated, those figures would be different” (Bennet, 2019, pp. 76-77). He continued on this topic by noting the language of “owner” in and of itself suggests that these predominantly older, white men have possession over these predominantly Black men. On top of this,
Bennett spoke about how the media reacts negatively to athletes or sports personalities who decide to be activists as well. In response to Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem, which many media outlets criticized him for, Bennet wrote “The stupidest comments about Colin–the part that sets my teeth on edge–were people in the media saying he can’t be an athlete and an activist at the same time. [... It’s] insulting because now many of us consider ourselves athletes and activists. That’s the reality of today, and the media needs to catch up to that reality” (Bennet, 2019, p. 81).
Bennet uses Kaepernick as an example to say that the very sport that is embedded with racial prejudices for Black athletes produces media channels that are also embedded with racial prejudices.
Seeing as sports journalism continues to be predominantly influenced by the white perspective, it is no coincidence that ideas that push a pro-white and anti-Black agenda are fueling the sports media field. In sports media, people still inherently build this divide, however, they do it in subtle ways that go unnoticed. David
J. Leonard notes four different ways that the media pushes a prowhite culture, promoting white athletes and white culture in sports: (1) “White nostalgia . . . (2) a celebration of (and belief in) the brains over brawn trope . . . (3) White athletes . . . celebrated for their work ethic,” and (4) a celebration of White athletes “as conveyers of fresh values who can redeem sports, save it, and make it great again” (Leonard, 2017, pp. 7-8). The last phrase is very reminiscent of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. The “MAGA” slogan was built upon the thought of America being once a “great” country, but losing its “status” due to the influx of immigrants and acceptance of diverse cultures nationwide. If this agenda were to be pushed further in sports, there is no telling how damaging it would be for Black athletes who want to get far in their careers. Unfortunately, this is not a “what if” scenario. Henry and Oates sum this idea up in a profound way. They write, “Commercialized sport in the United States has long been a stage on which racial tensions and
grievances have been expressed and contested [...] the unusual (compared with most other corners of U.S. popular culture) visibility of Black people in elite sporting culture has consistently produced tension, anxiety, and desire in the mainstream” (Henry & Oates, 2020, p. 157).
Knowing that audiences would be watching these shows with a racially prejudiced lens, producers knew that they could take advantage of this to boost ratings.“ESPN capitalized on preexisting racial tensions in sports to draw in viewers while containing these tensions to discussions of sports. When overtly racial issues in sports are discussed, such as the dearth of minority coaches in professional sports leagues or lack of Black starting quarterbacks in the NFL, the panelists often take sides along racial lines” (Henry & Oates, 2020, 166). Once producers were able to see how interested the audiences were in a racial distinction between two men, they decided to further capitalize on the success. Even though more and more Black men were being welcomed into
the field of sports broadcasting, they were being hired specifically to raise viewership.
It was clear what broadcasting networks like ESPN were intending to do by capitalizing on racial stress and it is a shame that it would go on to work so well.
First Take, through its recurring format and its retention of provocative panelists, serves as a means of focusing racialized outrage in the sports world to the parameters of debate on the program, whereas ESPN offers programs such as SportsCenter [, a show typically featuring white hosts,...] as more legitimate and serious forms of journalism and opinion”(Henry & Oates, 2020, 166). After recently having the show’s most successful ratings year ever, Bob Williams wrote this about the impact of a Black and white host on the show at the same time on First Take: “When Stephen A. joined Bayless on the show on Wednesdays on a trial basis in 2012, ratings began to climb. Soon afterwards, Stephen A.
was brought in full time for the two-hour debate show – and sports TV changed forever” (Williams, 2023).
ESPN producers took advantage of the positive engagement that Black viewers brought to these shows and the negative engagement that also came with hearing about these social issues. In all honesty, Black men were used as a token to illicit the reactions from viewers who had negative opinions on African Americans, and they were used as a carrot-on-a-stick (for lack of a better phrase) to lure in the Black demographic to watch the early morning talk shows. With all the systems in place to force them into a designated role, Black sports broadcasters have multiple challenges and obstacles put in place to silence them from speaking about their unique perspective. It was up to the Black journalists themselves to figure out how to go against the racist system that they are in.
The Case Study of Stephen A. Smith
In 2023, Stephen A. Smith published Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes. In the book, he recounts his journey to ESPN. The memoir has an inspirational message but does hint at the challenges of being a Black man trying to climb the rungs of the sports broadcasting world.
One chapter, specifically, talks about Smith’s relationship with former NBA superstar, Allen Iverson. Although he was born in New York, Smith began his career with The Philadelphia Inquirer. In this position, he wrote columns on the Philadelphia 76ers and was sort of a beat writer for the team. Around the same time, Allen Iverson was a highly-touted draft prospect out of Georgetown. He was selected with the first overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft. While his skills on the court were undeniable, many names in the sports world questioned how Iverson would hold up in the NBA because of some of his off-the-court choices.
The NBA hated Allen Iverson. While league executives punished him behind closed doors, the media scrutinized him publicly. Antwan Brown, a writer for Bleacher Report wrote, “Iverson did not do what the league wanted him to do. Iverson did not say the right things on TV. Iverson decided he was going to be real and not be an angel just so the NBA could look better than the rest of the pro leagues. [...] Iverson did not market the NBA like James does and Iverson did not love everybody like Steve Nash. Iverson hung around with "thugs", Iverson had a "scary" entourage everywhere he went. Iverson started the "evil" trend of tattoos and cornrows” (Brown, 2017). Everything in quotations is simply a lie pushed forth by the media that hindered Iverson’s ability to be as successful in the league as he could have been. No one cared about him and no one cared to listen to his story.
Since so many people in the sports world despised Allen Iverson for his off-the-court, not many journalists stepped up to interview him. That’s where a young, hungry, driven Stephen A.
Smith steps in. As a Black man who comes from a similar background as Iverson,
A notable quote from the memoir reads: “Wherever the story was, I’d go, often staying up all hours of the night. Being connected to the same street element that a lot of the players were connected to helped make me an unorthodox journalist. [...] Places most white journalists wouldn’t go into–I didn’t hesitate. No matter what time of day or night” (Smith, 2023, 100). Stephen A. Smith refers to himself as an “unorthodox journalist”, but in reality he was a journalist who was willing to challenge what was expected of him. Due to his upbringing and the racial adversity he faced in his career, all of which he beautifully details in the memoir, he saw through the media’s negative portrayals of Iverson and was able to see the player for what he truly was. Smith even noted that because of how friendly he got with Iverson, he was able to understand his style of play on a deeper level, noting that if Iverson was having a late night or dealing with a death in the family, Smith could
analyze how that would affect Iverson’s performance on the court. This is just one of the many stories of how being a Black man in sports media can bring a unique voice and perspective to the sport as a whole.
The Stories of Jarrett Bell and Rob Parker
Basketball is more than 10 guys bouncing a ball up and down a hardwood floor. Each player, coach, trainer, and fan who comes to an NBA game brings their own unique experience. Players have unique skills, coaches have varying styles, and even executives think differently about the game. The orange ball is simply a language that brings all the experiences together. Basketball should be commentated on with the same difference of perspectives that the game is played with.
Combining one’s own experience with the reporting that they are doing was a focal point of the new journalism movement. The new journalism movement encouraged reporters to add their
own subjective lens to what they would be reporting on. In a sport that is dominated by Black men, Black sports broadcasters can relate to the lives that these athletes lead. This is why it is so important that Black men get the opportunity to become sports broadcasters so that they can share the perspective of what Black men in the world of basketball have on the game. Peter Dooley, an Irish journalist, writes that “traditional journalism is the outside looking in. [Journalism run by citizens] is the inside looking out. In order to get the complete story, it helps to have both points of view” (Dooley, 17). With fewer restrictions as to what constitutes a journalist, more sides of the story can come to light.
In the researcher’s interview conducted with Jarrett Bell, he spoke about the importance of having sports broadcasters bring in their own experience on the subject they are reporting on. He said, “Whatever way you can use to strengthen stories outside of the sports backdrop, helps [writers] in the sports backdrop.” Bell emphasizes how his experiences as a news reporter fresh out of
college have enhanced his sports broadcasting ability because he has learned the fundamental skill of looking at stories from multiple angles and perspectives. Unfortunately, not all networks have seen the benefits of looking at sports stories from different angles.
In 2012, Robert Griffin III gave a response to an interviewer’s question that sparked many debates in the NFL. In a response to a question about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Griffin remarked, “For me, you don't ever want to be defined by the color of your skin. You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That's what I've tried to go out and do” (Corbett, 2012). While his comments were not necessarily dismissing his race, many people were worried that such a prolific star not wanting to engage in his racial identity would make conversations of race in sports less likely.
Rob Parker was very shocked to hear about Griffin’s answers and spoke on the topic soon after on First Take. Parker said, “For me, personally, for me, this throws up a red flag… we’ve heard a couple of times of a Black guy distancing himself away from Black people… my question is: is he a brother or is he a ‘cornball brother’?” After posing what seemed like an out-of-pocket question, Parker explained his use of the term “cornball brother” as someone who chooses to act Black, but does not truly care about Black empowerment or what Parker described as “the cause.” While many viewers singled out this specific clip and caused it to go viral, Rob Parker was asking a genuine question that raised awareness of a larger topic. He went on to compare this topic with that of Tiger Woods. Woods, arguably the greatest golfer in history, made headlines in 1997 when he created the term “cablinasian” to represent his multi-racial identity, rather than just his perceived Black identity (Fletcher, 1997).
Although Parker admitted, in the researcher’s interview, that First Take’s producers had approved this conversation coming up before the show went live, the network was far from happy with the direction the dialogue went in. Rob Parker was placed on immediate leave from the network due to his comments and would eventually have to come out with a public apology. Likewise, sports journalists and reporters nationwide reacted strongly to Parker’s comments. Mark Fitzgerald, a writer for Bleacher Report, remarked “Misguided sports television personalities like Parker and Bayless have been guilty in multiple instances of projecting an ignorant, individual ideology just to generate a reaction from people and make a buck. [...] Sports debate should center around the sport itself, what the players do on the field and not on character judgments or psychoanalysis of a sound bite or a quote using race as a cultural determinant” (Fitzgerald, 2017).
While it is safe to say that Rob Parker may have taken the conversation too far, which is something that he would later admit,
Fitzgerald’s voicing that “sports debate should center around the sport” completely deprives Black sports broadcasters of the uniqueness that they bring to their field. Rob Parker would not have brought the discussion to the table if he thought that it could not affect Robert Griffin’s gameplay in some way. As a Black man in the sports world, Parker is more than aware of how one’s race can impact their career in the most significant of ways and should be praised for being willing to start a dialogue on this very topic. If anything, audiences should be grateful that Black men in their field are brave enough to go against what is expected of them and speak on social/racial issues in sports.
The backlash that Black reporters face is not limited to writers like Fitzgerald publicly shaming them. On top of being seen as over-the-top, their integrity begins to be questioned when they speak about Black athletes. Not only are Black media personalities in sports discredited because they are Black, but when they speak on other Black people in sports, whether that be
players, coaches, executives, etc., audiences question if they are biased. There is a fine line that Black media personalities have to walk to ensure that they are not allowing their own personal, racial biases to inflict on their reporting. Even if they make sure their racial biases do not impede on their journalism, which is an important, fundamental rule that most journalists follow, audiences still believe that these Black sports broadcasters allow race to bias their reporting in some way.
When asked if he felt that audience members would discredit his opinions because of a racial lens, Jarrett Bell said in the researcher’s interview “I write about Black athletes, white athletes, Black cultures, white cultures [...] what I have seen a little bit of, if you do criticize a Black athlete and you’re a Black writer, people think that you should give them a pass because they’re Black.” He went further, saying that he’s experienced the representatives of Black athletes privately messaging him to praise their athletes instead of slandering them.
Rob Parker experienced a similar situation when he was just starting as a columnist for the Detroit Free Press. In the researcher’s interview, he spoke about some of the backlash he faced when he first joined the Detroit Free Press. As a sports writer, he tried to stay as unbiased as possible when it came to his reporting, but Rob Parker quickly realized that people would question his integrity as a writer due to his being Black. He says, “If I wrote something that was negative about a white coach or a white player, it was because I was racist and I hated white people. And if I wrote something positive about a Black person, I’m just taking up for them because they’re Black. It was really sick to see some of the things people would write, solely based on their prejudices and preconceived notions of who I was and my integrity.” No matter what, it seemed as though society would diminish the hard work of these Black sports journalists. Parker and Bell both agree, however, that these situations only emphasize the significance of having these Black perspectives on the talk
shows, in the radio stations, and featured in the columns. Without these Black sports broadcasters, these conversations on race would never happen.
Conclusion
In their conclusion, Henry and Oates wrote that First Take went on to inspire a variety of shows. They conclude that people of color have suffered the most from this drastic change in how sports television operates (Henry & Oates, 2020, 171). It is common for Black Americans to inspire the next generation of Black youth to make an impact in their respective fields. Commonly, Black musicians try to inspire musicians from similar walks of life to follow their dreams and sponsor those aspiring musicians, knowing that those young Black artists will face much adversity in their field. Luckily, the same is true in the field of Sports Broadcasting. While there are few Black reporters in the sports broadcasting world, they are keen on making sure that
up-and-coming Black broadcasters can have support in their field. In the researcher’s interview, Rob Parker spoke heavily on his mentorship strategies, saying that he tries to help out any young Black men pursuing a career in the industry and guides them because he knows how unfair the industry is. While this seems like the run-of-the-mill networking job, these Black broadcasters, in particular, are using one another to create a pillar of credibility in the field that future broadcasters of color can lean on. By bringing more and more Black broadcasters into the field, there will be fewer and fewer deniers of their capabilities to accurately report on sports. To fully wrap up the significance of having Black sports broadcasters in sports television, read the following quote from Smith’s book.
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