We need a break sometimes

I am not a controversial person.

I don’t like awkward situations. I don’t like drama. When people are arguing, I turn and go the other way. When people are confronting one another, it makes me uneasy.

For all of those reasons, I am not afraid to say: I don’t like politics.

Not at any level.

I follow them, sure. It’s my duty as a citizen to check my government and make sure that it is representing me well.

But the debating and constant pressure to take a public stance on issues constantly? That’s absolutely exhausting and is one of the biggest turn-offs for me in this world.

It’s the reason I like sports.

As a child, sports were an outlet from all of that hoopla. I grew up during Operation Desert Storm. I didn’t understand war, nor the concept of killing people to protect freedom. So I tuned into sports to escape it all.

As a teenager, there was 9/11 and then the cycle started over again. I remember sitting in a World History class during high school and our assignment for the day was to debate whether George W. Bush or John Kerry should be president.

I loved school, but remember vividly my disgust at being in that class. Everyone was arguing. Friendships were getting compromised. It was just a mess.

So now, flash forward into the present and I’m in a compromising position.

President Donald Trump is in office and he’s as polarizing a figure as we’ve ever had in the political realm. His comments, combined with the comments of those in opposition to him, have erased all the gray area that we have in our world.

Everything is either black or white. There is no in between. And those hard, sharp edges are starting to invade the world of sports and that has me very, very nervous.

The latest controversy surrounds a Nike ad involving embattled quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

In the ad, the quarterback says that aspiring athletes should be willing to “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”

The history behind the ad centers around the national anthem and NFL players (with Kaepernick’s lead) kneeling for the anthem out of protest. The protest started because of police injustice toward minorities and several young men being killed by authorities in the past several years.

Since that time, opponents have challenged the protests and said that they are disrespectful to the country — specifically to the United States Military, who have fought for our country and sacrificed their lives to retain our freedom.

I am not writing this column to support Kaepernick, nor am I writing it to throw shade on his protest.

I stand for the national anthem, but realize that as Americans, we have the freedom not to if we so choose. I also understand that, if offended by that, we also have freedom to disagree with that stance and think that it’s in poor taste.

That’s the beauty of being in America.

My concern is more than we are losing our ability to escape and our ability to hide. I fear it’s causing political exhaustion in people like me.

EVERYTHING is political today.

Of course, the news covers it, but that’s expected.

On TV, the comedy shows are all political. The daytime talk shows are all about presidential politics and social politics. The sitcoms are all over it. The late-night talk shows are all over it. Saturday Night Live is a 2-hour political comedy with 100 percent of the skits involving politics.

In sports, there’s is a little bit of a natural buffer. Most of the competitive activity on the field is free from the chaos.

But on and off the field, we are being bombarded.

And enough is just enough.

There needs to be a safe haven for people to escape and avoid this constant, 24/7 pressure to take a side.

I think it’s time that ESPN and Fox Sports 1 and all of the other major sports networks take the baton and carry it, allowing sports to be that champion that we need for a little freedom from the politics.

Ratings are down in sports around the country and I think the reason for that is because people (like me) are beginning to tune out.

I love sports because it’s a three-hour escape from the world. When watching a football game, I don’t want to be reminded of all of that stuff.

Some of the major networks have agreed to avoid showing the national anthem during broadcasts. I think that’s the correct thing to do until things cool down.

The next step would be to eliminate any and all talk about these issues from SportsCenter and all of the talk-radio programming in the world of sports.

Look, I am not trying to be that “stick to sports” or “shut up and dribble” guy. I truly am not.

I, myself, talk about political issues in my own social media from time-to-time.

But there are networks for politics and there are networks for others things.

Let’s eliminate the blur. I want my sports to be sports and I want my politics to be politics.

Anything else, and it’s just too exhausting to enjoy.

And a world where we can’t enjoy sports is one that isn’t quite as fun.

Colin KaepernickCOURTESY

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