I am a boxing fan. Recently, Philadelphia’s own Jaron Ennis successfully defended his welterweight championship in the city. But who knew the undercard was this past weekend with two of Philly’s favorite centers, Jason Kelce and Joel Embiid with their separate fights… well maybe not fights. Maybe a scuffle or kerfuffle.
Joel Embiid reportedly shoved Philadelphia Inquirer sports reporter Marcus Hayes for referencing his deceased brother and son in an article criticizing his lack of play this season. The insinuation is that they would disappointed in his lack of playing basketball. Jason Kelce took the phone of a fan and smashed it due to him launching a homophobic slur at his brother Travis for dating Taylor Swift.
I am guessing Kelce’s interaction with a knucklehead fan was more a kerfuffle and Embiid’s more scuffle?
We can’t be too sure about these things. What we can be sure about is this: the protections to freedom of speech do not come with any protections from the consequences of said speech; especially when talking about or evoking someone’s family. Growing up, talking about or evoking someone’s family, especially someone’s mother, could lead to the one who did that getting a beat down.
Those are considered fighting words.
The same rules apply in adulthood… so if you speak of someone’s siblings, spouse, parents, or children, you could catch a beatdown; whether walking to or from a Penn State game or if you write a sports column for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The First Amendment only protects your right to say what you want, but it does not protect your speech when the speech harasses or puts someone in danger. Nor does it protect you from receiving a beatdown. But the cases of Embiid and Kelce speak specifically to something else and that something else is that Joe Public believes he can say whatever he wants to professional athletes because he “pays his salary” because he buys a ticket. Your ticket purchase doesn’t necessarily do that, but I digress.
But even if it did, saying vile things to athletes isn’t a benefit of purchase. Several fans have made that mistake. The fans calling high school, college basketball, NBA, WNBA, and international players the N-word is a prime example. Bleacher Report did a report asking players about the first time this happened to them.
Those fans get kicked out of games and now, more players are ensuring that happens… as they should.
Additionally, having a press pass or media credential doesn’t give you the right to evoke the personal circumstances of players and knowledge of their families to justify criticism of their play or lack thereof. There shouldn’t be a shock when a player is justifiably upset when it happens. For example, DeMarcus Cousins confronted a reporter who spoke ill of his brother.
The low-hanging fruit is to criticize the athlete for failing to handle the situation without measure… and of course, putting your hands on someone or destroying their property isn’t the ideal response. But it’s gaslighting to say that you hold the behavior of athletes to a higher standard than sports fans and sports reporters.
It ignores that violence isn’t only physical. Violence also comes in the form of words, which inform what we believe about people, and… the politics and policies we vote for. Talking about or negatively evoking families in a critique is violence. You cannot be shocked when that violence is returned in kind, whether verbal or physical. Fighting words start fights. More importantly, they aren’t protected by the First Amendment.
So, a word to the wise… we should be mindful of what we say and how we say it; to athletes and each other. Because a hot take for approval or affirmation of any kind: likes or views could get you a hot beatdown.
In other words, don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing.
