The day before midterm elections, the Miami Dolphins tweeted a photo encouraging Florida voters to vote against Amendment 3, an act which blurred the line between politics and sports. Floridians voted in favor of the amendment, giving Florida voters, not politicians, control over casino gambling. With one tweet, the Dolphins told fans that they wanted Florida politicians to control state gambling. Sports teams should not use their platform to publicly endorse political candidates and policies. It is time for sports teams to keep their head in the game.
The Dolphins should be focused on gameday, not election Tuesday. They should not be using their platform to persuade their fans to vote a certain way. They have more important issues than interfering with politics. If they want a happy fanbase, they need to keep adding to the win column. The Dolphins are currently ranked second in the AFC East behind the New England Patriots. They need to focus on how to end the Patriots’ reign and bring the Lombardi trophy back to Miami. Die-hard Dolphin fans do not care if their favorite team supports or opposes Amendment 3, they care about winning the Super Bowl.
This is not the first time this year that sports teams have meddled in politics. On July 9, Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwell endorsed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Bidwell was exercising his right to freedom of speech, but his endorsement was announced on the team’s website. The story was then shared on the team’s Twitter account. Bidwell’s endorsement should have remained personal, and not promoted on the team’s media platforms. This made it look like the Arizona Cardinals were endorsing Brett Kavanaugh. It is hard to differentiate between the team itself and the person that makes the team decisions.
On May 17, the Nashville Predators CEO Sean Henry endorsed Nashville mayoral candidate David Briley for election in a video on Twitter. The video started off harmless and was simply encouraging the people of Nashville to vote. Then Henry, standing next to Predator mascot Gnash, informed viewers that “we” support Briley for mayor. Gnash is a Nashville Predator mascot. The video was originally tweeted on Briley’s account, not by the Predators, but by using Gnash in the video, Henry insinuates that the Nashville Predators are taking sides in local elections.
On Aug. 13, Atlanta, Ga. news station, Fox 11, reported that an event flier listed the Atlanta Braves as co-hosts for an event that supported Brian Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign. Although the event was not held at the Braves’ stadium, they were listed as hosts, and according to the flier, those hosts each donated $13,200. The Braves released a statement that they contribute to candidates of both parties and have been doing so for years now, but by the public releasing of their political contributions, the Braves are telling their fans that they support Brian Kemp for governor.
As entertainers, sports teams have a private and public side that needs to be kept separate and that includes the release of their political contributions. Teams have their platform because they are paid entertainers. They are paid by the fans, so the fans can have a good time. The fans are not paying their favorite teams to make public statements and contributions to political campaigns. They should not be using the platform that sports fans have given them to make public political statements. Sports teams need to keep their focus on winning and entertaining their paying fans not the issues on the ballot.
