I love a celebration after a good play. I love athletes who pump their fists, high-five fans and add a little showmanship to the game. I loved it when Terrell Owens scored a touchdown and then pulled a Sharpie marker out of his sock, signed the ball and gave it to a fan. I loved watching John McEnroe throw his emotions—and racquets—all over the court. I eat that stuff up.
That is part of why I like watching Cam Newton play football. Dabbin’. Pretending to rip open his shirt like Superman. Giving footballs to little kids in the stands. I mean, how can you not like that? The guy has fun. I get caught up in his fun. Everybody wins. Not everyone sees it that way, and that is fine. As long as the objection is to his behavior, rather than his behavior coupled with his race.
If the people criticizing Newton didn’t also previously criticize Aaron Rodgers, then there might be a problem. Both players have a great deal of swagger on the field. Both have provided some great one-liners in post-game press conferences. Both have some form of end zone dance. Rodgers has turned his gesture of pretending to put on a championship-wrestling belt into a national ad campaign for State Farm and its “discount double check.” Celebrations on the field span many demographics.
With less than a week to go before Super Bowl 50, sports writers are looking for stories—and students are eager to talk about the big game. We educators can take advantage of this moment. Some stories of the past week or so seem to revolve around Newton’s celebrations and people’s disproportionate objections to them. Newton himself has raised the question of a double standard. “I’m an African-American quarterback and that may scare a lot of people,” Newton said. The quarterback position has historically been dominated by white players. I have heard people say that is because it is the “thinking” position and that black athletes are better at the “athletic” positions. Because this narrative is out there, perhaps the negative attention given to Newton’s Superman shtick has problematic underpinnings that need to be discussed.
There’s a unique opportunity here to use mainstream sports to open the door for classroom discussions of prejudice. I don’t know how many people object to Newton’s behavior because they simply don’t like athletes who celebrate on the field of play. I don’t know how many object because, whether they are cognizant of it or not, they don’t like black athletes who celebrate on the field of play. I do know that both exist. That is what we should discuss with students.
The key to discussing this topic in the classroom is to remind students that the conversation is not about condemnation, but about critical thinking. If we examine various criticisms of athletes’ behaviors, is there evidence that people object disproportionately to showboating by black athletes? If so, what does that mean about the ways our implicit biases influence how we interpret behaviors? While discussing these questions, we’re prompting students to root out these discrepancies in their own perceptions of others.
From the Super Bowl and race, we can move to other venues and considerations.
I was watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament at a friend’s house last summer, and Serena Williams was making a run through her side of the draw, destroying opponents. She plays with intensity. She pumps her fist after hitting an important winner, yells at herself when she fires off an unforced error. She is aggressive in her play.
A friend who was watching with me commented that he does not like that aspect of her game. “She should just go back and get ready for the next point, rather than yelling and carrying on,” he said. We had just watched a men’s match filled with such displays, and he had no objections. I asked if the issue was that he did not like the display of emotion or if he didn’t like it coming from a woman. Women, after all, should be “demure” and “feminine,” at least according to pervasive cultural messages.
During the ensuing conversation, no one condemned my friend or piled on him by calling him a misogynist or sexist. Instead, it was a conversation in which he questioned his own intent. He was surprised to see the bias he may be harboring. From there, our conversation went to other biases we might all hold.
We can raise similar discussions with our students. Talking about these issues makes us more thoughtful, fair-minded people.
The Super Bowl will capture the attention of many of our students. As educators, we can use our country’s fascination with football to move the conversation beyond running backs to an examination of race, from touchdowns to confronting bias.
Knoll is a writer and English teacher at a public school in New Jersey.
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