Baltimore Orioles

Athletes like Adam Jones deserve to be heard with open ears

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:57 p.m. ET

Ken Rosenthal

Everyone on Twitter has an opinion, and by golly each and every one of them is going to be heard.

So Colin Kaepernick can’t have an opinion? Adam Jones can’t have an opinion? Athletes who face constant scrutiny must act like docile servants?

Please.

If anything, we need to hear more from our athletes, who are in positions of influence. Whether they like it or not. Whether that is a good thing or bad.

You do not have to agree with Kaepernick and other NFL players who are staging silent protests during national anthems, objecting to the treatment of minorities in the U.S.

Nor do you have to agree with Jones, who in an interview with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale called baseball “a white man’s sport” in explaining why no major leaguers have made similar demonstrations.

But don’t tell me that either discussion is inappropriate.

Fact: Many African-Americans remain concerned about racial inequality and police brutality.

Fact: African-Americans comprised only 8.3 percent of Opening Day rosters this season, according to the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

The two issues, obviously, are quite different, and far too complex to be reduced to the “I’m right, you’re-wrong” shouting matches that are so prevalent in today’s public discourse.

Jones himself stands for the anthem – he cited multiple reasons for that in a conversation with reporters in Boston on Monday night, the military service of his father and brother among them. But he eloquently defended Kaepernick’s right to take a stand.

“Sometimes, we just need to talk about it,” Jones said. “(Athletes) are the ones people listen to, we’re the ones people bet on all the time. This was the right opportunity. I know I’m going to get backlash from it, that’s just part of it whenever you speak up. But at the end of the day, if more conversations are being started, I’m happy.”

Bingo.

Too much is being made about Kaepernick’s protest and not enough about what his protest is about. As Jones pointed out, Kaepernick is receiving far more criticism than his now former San Francisco 49ers teammate Bruce Miller, who last week was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery against a 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son.

Priorities, anyone?

Jones should not be the only baseball player talking about these issues. If anything, major leaguers – and not just African-American major leaguers - should be at the forefront of social activism, honoring the tradition of Jackie Robinson.

The problem for African-American players, Jones said, is that they fear the game will reject them if they speak their minds.

“We already have two strikes against us,” Jones said, “so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us.

“Baseball is a white man’s sport.”

Jones, if he was referring solely to the playing population, was not entirely accurate – whites comprised 59.07 percent of the Opening Day rosters and Latinos 28.5 percent. But the sport’s ruling class - managers, general managers and owners - is overwhelmingly white. So, for that matter, is the baseball media.

In any case, this isn’t a presidential debate, where fact-checkers hold candidates accountable. No, this is mostly a discussion about the way blacks are treated by police in America – not all police, not even the majority, but a certain percentage that crosses the line.

And if you are not African-American, sorry, your opinion carries less weight than those who actually experience abuse, those whose perceptions cannot simply be ignored.

Here’s a thought: Let’s stop talking and listen. To Colin Kaepernick. To Adam Jones. To anyone with the courage to speak out, and the eloquence to provoke thought.