The International Cricket Council Champions Tournament, beginning this week, highlights how national rivalries and geopolitical tensions can meet on playing fields

Courses in the Critical Sports Studies program in the Department of Ethnic Studies often start with the, a term coined by Jay Coakley, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. The myth is that sports are inherently good, and most experiences in sports are positive and do not need to be studied critically.

In combating this myth, we examine sporting nationalism with the playing field serving as a symbolic battleground between nations. As Pakistan prepares to co-host the beginning this week, the nation's nationalistic rivalry with India comes to the forefront and reminds us that the competition on the field is often reflective of political tensions off of it.

India and Pakistan鈥檚 political tensions date back to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, although ethnic and religious tensions predate the end of Britain鈥檚 colonization of the region. of the ICC since 1926, with .

Sporting relations between the nations have faced a number of stoppages, while other countries have canceled test matches because of threats and actual violence against cricket teams, .

The New Zealand cricket team canceled their remaining 2002 matches in Pakistan after a , while other countries like Australia refused to tour due to similar concerns. in Lahore during their test tour, which was scheduled after India pulled out of . As a result, Pakistan lost the opportunity to ; the 2025 ICC Champions Tournament is the first international cricket tournament to be hosted by Pakistan since the 1996 ICC World Cup. being named as a co-host for India鈥檚 matches in the tournament, exemplifying continued tensions between the nations.

Yet diplomacy has been fostered through sport as well, including the peace initiatives of former, which led to the first matches between the nations in Pakistan in 15 years in 1999 and the Friendship Cups in Canada in the 1990s and 2000s.

Colonization and sporting tensions

Colonization has been at the core of sporting tensions between dozens of nations, including Britain and members of the Commonwealth like Ireland and Australia. Ireland in particular has used international sporting events as a forum for protest against Britain鈥攎ost famously at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. After being denied the gold medal in what many felt was a biased ruling by a judge from the United States, which followed the decision to force Irish athletes to compete on behalf of the United Kingdom, track and field athlete Peter O鈥機onnor scaled a flag pole and unfurled, a symbol of the movement for Irish home rule.

The Olympics also have long been a nexus for sporting nationalism. One of the most distinct examples of this was at the . In spite of rising concerns over antisemitism under Hitler, the United States, led by , and others agreed not to boycott the games in exchange for Nazi Germany suspending antisemitic messaging and the full enactment of the Nuremberg Laws until after the games.

Hitler saw the games as a forum to display Aryan supremacy through victory and spectacle. Television was introduced at the games along with the torch relay and the . The entire games were a primary example of 鈥渟portwashing,鈥� which uses sport to improve public opinion of a nation or group.

Much like the India-Pakistan rivalry, a number of other geopolitical tensions have played out on various sporting fields and courts around the world. George Orwell published in December 1945, a few months after the end of World War II, warning of the use of sport to encourage hyper-nationalism. Orwell was particularly critical of the Stalin regime鈥檚 use of sport to exhibit the Soviet Union and communism鈥檚 鈥渟uperiority鈥� over capitalism after the soccer team FC Dynamo Moscow toured Britain.

In 1952, the Soviet Union participated in its first Summer Olympic Games, setting off decades of displays of Cold War sporting nationalism on both sides of the Iron Curtain, but particularly exemplified by the competition between the U.

The Olympics became the largest stage for nationalistic competition. Every four years, the Cold War rivalries played out on the global stage of the Summer and Winter Olympics. Some of the most famous moments in Olympic history include the controversial end of the final, during which the Soviet Union beat the U.S. team by one point under questionable rule interpretations, and the in the semifinal of the ice hockey tournament, when amateur U.S. players defeated the Soviet Union.

Both events exemplified the rivalry between these superpowers. The 1972 Olympics also included the militants, leading to the murder of 11 Israeli athletes鈥攁n example of how ethnic-nationalism, sport and violence can intersect.

Boycott and protest

Boycotting sporting events and protest actions during competition have also been responses to various forms of nationalism and political tensions. The pending boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow by the United States intensified the attention on the competition between the USSR and the United States in Lake Placid during the Winter Games that year.

Recently, hockey reemerged as a forum for nationalism as the United States and Canada faced off twice in the . The tournament was limited to NHL players, so the teams were not technically the national teams of the countries included in the tournament. It did feature four of the five countries with the largest representation in the NHL (Russia was excluded due to the invasion of Ukraine), with the league leveraging nationalistic feelings between Finland and Sweden and United States and Canada. The heightened tension between the North American teams was due, in part, to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the annexation our northern neighbors. This may serve as a preview of the heightened nationalism around the 2026 Olympic men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 ice hockey tournaments, especially if Russian athletes are permitted to compete.

The Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries in turn boycotted the . The invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

White nationalism and racial discrimination have also been a frequent motivator for protest and boycotts. promoted a boycott of the 1968 games in Mexico City, with several athletes鈥攊ncluding 鈥攄eciding not to go based on continuing discrimination of Blacks in the United States, lack of African American representation on the coaching staffs of Olympic teams, Muhammad Ali鈥檚 loss of his heavyweight championship due to his refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War and apartheid policies in South Africa and Rhodesia.

Track and field athletes did decide to compete but famously raised their fists in protest after winning gold and bronze respectively in the 200 meters.

Apartheid policies also led to the South African Olympic Committee being . Prior to South Africa鈥檚 expulsion, several other organizations had banned the nation from hosting events as far back as 1934 due to their policies forbidding non-white participants to compete. After the New Zealand rugby team toured South Africa in 1976, 29 mostly African nations boycotted the Montreal Games that same year after the IOC refused to ban New Zealand.

This put pressure on Commonwealth countries to adopt the to expand the sporting boycott of South Africa. Taiwan also boycotted the 1976 games the day before the Opening Ceremony after the Canadian government鈥檚 refusal to

Sports like cricket and football are important cultural experiences in countries like Pakistan and India, but their presence is evidence of those countries鈥� colonial past and of . Most British colonies around the world adopted the sport soon after occupation, serving as historical examples of cultural imperialism.

Since international competition started in the 19th century, sports like cricket and events like the World Cup can simultaneously bring people together and promote community while also inflaming nationalistic tensions. For over 70 years, has done both.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Fifty years after Frank Robinson became the first Black manager in Major League Baseball, the league is struggling with a significant decline in Black players and leaders

As Black History Month begins Feb. 1 and Major League Baseball celebrates the making his debut as the first Black manager, the sport is at a point of introspection with the lowest number of African Americans players in

The milestone is both a reminder of how far baseball came since segregation and how delicate inclusion efforts are in baseball and other institutions in the United States.

As the United States emerged from World War II, and continued to keep the country largely segregated. The war, however, was also a turning point for African Americans, who demonstrated that their service was of equal value to others who fought in the war.

One such soldier was Jackie Robinson, the first athlete to letter in . His teammates broke the color barrier in the NFL in 1946, while 鈥攕even years before determined that 鈥渟eparate but equal鈥� thresholds for segregation were unconstitutional. Jackie Robinson鈥檚 last season as a player was 1956, the same season a young Frank Robinson debuted with the Cincinnati Reds.

In 1972, the Reds played the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. By that point, Frank Robinson had been traded twice and spent the season playing for Jackie Robinson鈥檚 former team, the Dodgers.

During Game 2 of the series in Cincinnati, . During his speech accepting the honor, , an opportunity he never got despite his expressed desire to manage a team. Jackie Robinson died nine days after his speech鈥擮ct. 24, 1972鈥攏ever seeing Frank Robinson hired as the first Black player-manager two years later.

during the 1974 season after openly campaigning for the manager position with the Dodgers. Cleveland was the first American League team to sign a , and broke ground again 28 years later by hiring Robinson. He was the first player to win MVP in both the National and American League, but had a rocky tenure with the team, often being pushed to play when he wanted to focus on managing and . He did lead the team to its first winning record in eight years in 1976, the last season he played, before being fired during the following season.

Inclusive Sports Summit

We change the game: Embracing the value of inclusive sports and recreation

When: 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5

Where: Dal Ward Athletic Center and Main Student Recreation Center

During this summit participants will

• Identify challenges, opportunities and best practices for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion work as practitioners and supporters.
• Learn tangible takeaways to build bridges and build unity across similarities and differences.
• Build skills and practice techniques for addressing inequities to help increase student retention, engagement and success.
• Connect with departments and programs across campus that are available to support students, staff and faculty.

The Inclusive Sports Summit is free and open to faculty, staff, students and community members.

Robinson went on to manage the San Francisco Giants and his former team, the Baltimore Orioles, winning manager of the year in 1989. He was fired from the Orioles during the 1991 season鈥攖he year Major League Baseball had the highest percentage of African American players in the league, 18% of all players. The following season, to win a World Series.

Robinson continued to work in the league office after his time with the Orioles, returning to the dugout after being tapped by , which the league owned at the time. The team moved to Washington D.C. in 2005 and his final season as manager was the first season for the newly founded Washington Nationals.

Declining youth participation

The dearth of opportunities for African Americans to coach and assume leadership positions in sports is not new; however, baseball has seen the most precipitous drop in participation, .

Contributing to this drop is the lack of African Americans in leadership positions, with only two African American managers, , and one ). In spite of these paltry numbers, three of the last five World Series winners have been

The numbers are even worse in college baseball, with ; of these 26 managers, 17 were from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The lack of visible leadership affects scouting, mentorship and even participation when players cannot see a career in the sport they love if they do not make it to the major leagues.

The low numbers of African American athletes in the college pipeline to the major leagues is only one of the reasons for the continued decline of African Americans in professional baseball. Like many sports, the privatization of youth sports is forcing many lower- and even middle-income families to reconsider their . Local governments and schools have slashed recreation and athletic budgets, leading to more expensive sports like baseball to be cut, which in turn leads to a higher reliance on private leagues.

Many families ultimately balk at the cost of playing baseball, steering their children into more accessible sports as . The relatively low number of Division I 13 maximum scholarships across This also leads some families to encourage their children to focus on other sports to earn a college scholarship.

Even if amateur baseball players get drafted and signed, minor league salaries are so low that the same issues can arise that exist in youth baseball: players who cannot afford to remain in the sport. Minimum salaries are between just under , when minor league players unionized and negotiated a raise from a minimum salary between $4,800 and $17,500.

Salary expectations have led many scouts to focus on international players, particularly from Latin America, where teams will make verbal agreements with children as in spite of the fact that teams . MLB turns a blind eye to these agreements that often push children as young as 10 from countries like the Dominican Republic to leave school to pursue baseball. These players may be given performance-enhancing drugs to make them look more mature and artificially improve their athleticism. These players are ripe for exploitation, including lower salaries since they are beholden to Major League clubs with which they make these 鈥渉andshake鈥� deals鈥攚hile their families take out  loans based on future earnings, . 

Hope for long-term results

Economics and leadership are not the only factors in the decline of African Americans in professional baseball. The sport has declined as 鈥淎merica鈥檚 pastime鈥� for decades, and for many is considered less 鈥渃ool鈥� than sports due to its slower pace鈥攁s well as kids鈥� alternative activities in the summer months鈥攍eading to a drop in viewership, .

African Americans have also been historically discouraged from playing certain positions, particularly the on-field leadership positions of catcher and pitcher, the latter of which is the most visible position in the sport. has historically impacted all sports, including basketball ( and football due to discriminatory and false assumptions that African American players were not intelligent enough to play those positions. Basketball and football have seen dramatic shifts at these positions while baseball still sees limitations for

As with viewership, some of the issues pushing African Americans from baseball are emblematic of the decline in baseball鈥檚 overall popularity. However, there are some glimmers of hope for the future of African Americans in the sport. The House v. NCAA settlement will allow schools to increase the number of student athlete scholarships up to the roster limit, which is 34 in Division I鈥�

The opportunity to earn compensation directly from schools may also support continued involvement in the sport. Much like , however, revenue sharing will disproportionately go to the top-earning sports: .

Outside of the college ranks, MLB has been actively involved in a number of initiatives to try to increase participation among young players, including that was started in 1989 and is now sponsored by Nike. Players like Jimmy Rollins and recent Hall of Fame inductee C.C. Sabathia are both alumni of the program, but results have been less impactful in recent years with fewer alumni from the United States advancing to professional baseball. , a training academy focused on African American pitchers and catchers, in conjunction with USA Baseball during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. , named for the Hall of Fame player, is a round-robin tournament for HBCU baseball programs that runs every year at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Florida.

There is hope these efforts will yield long-term results and reverse the decline of African American players in baseball. The sport still needs to address its in the United States and the lack of African American mentors and leaders in the sport, but some of the structures are there to encourage a renaissance of great Black baseball figures 50 years after Frank Robinson broke the managerial glass ceiling.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

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The success of simulcasts means that fans can expect to see more creative takes on traditional sports, including SpongeBob SquarePants calling Saturday鈥檚 NFL Wild Card game

As the final seconds of Super Bowl LVIII ticked off, according to social media, the biggest star was not MVP Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce or even Taylor Swift; it was a sea sponge and his starfish best friend. l starring SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star as commentators was a huge hit, with on-field graphics and animations featuring Nickelodeon stars and, of course, slime.

This was not the first time a media conglomerate aired or streamed a simulcast as a companion to its main broadcast to attract more fans. ESPN鈥檚 first basic simulcast was in 1987 after the network gained partial rights to the NFL鈥攖he first cable network to air the NFL鈥攁greeing to simulcast the game on . When ESPN2 launched in October 1993, it offered a second ESPN network to sports fans and within a year ran its first alternative broadcast, bringing in-car views to .

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

In 2006, the network created later renamed the Megacast, leveraging the popular basketball rivalry between Duke University and the University of North Carolina to offer local broadcasts and alternative camera views for the game. The previous year, ESPN had launched its college-focused ESPNU and ESPN360, its broadband broadcast service, and used these newer platforms along with its .

ESPN offered statistics and other data on its high-definition networks, which were still separate from the standard-definition networks, and even offered polling through ESPN mobile before social media exploded.

These simulcasts and 鈥淢egacasts鈥� aimed to give dedicated fans a more in-depth look at the game or event that was being broadcast. At the same time, leagues and sports broadcasters were looking for different ways to attract young and casual fans who enjoyed sports but were not the obsessive fans at which these Megacasts were targeted.

Courting younger fans

For a long time, leagues took young fans for granted, In today's expanding media environment, young and casual fans have infinite options for entertainment, so leagues and their broadcasting partners have had to strategize new ways to attract new audiences.

One of these efforts debuted in 1973: Peter Puck, an anthropomorphic hockey puck created by NBC executive Donald Carswell and animated by Hanna Barbera. NBC had just obtained the rights to the NHL, which was struggling to grow its audience in the United States. Carswell thought Peter would be a great way to teach U.S. audiences the rules of professional hockey through three-minute shorts between periods. Although NBC stopped airing the NHL in 1975,

The 1980s brought a sea change for sports as cable and improved marketing began to create the enormous sports media environment we experience today. As networks competed for viewers, sports became a reliable form of entertainment to attract audiences who had more choices than ever. As football continued to dominate the sports landscape, buffered by the 1984 Supreme Court decision to allow college football broadcasting to , other leagues strategized to draw fans to television, stadiums and arenas.

Throughout the 1970s, teams had built larger stadiums and debuted mascots like the to entertain fans. The following decade, as the NBA struggled to find a broadcaster to air its championship games live, David Stern鈥攚ho took over the league as commissioner in 1984鈥� the NBA experience, making attending games more family friendly with more timeout and halftime entertainment.

It just so happened that same year that the most marketable athlete of all time came into the league. Michael Jordan was not only a boon for adult basketball fans, but also kids who wanted to In 1992, Jordan co-starred with Bugs Bunny in the Nike advertising campaign He retired the next year to play baseball before returning to the NBA in March 1995. The following summer, Bugs and Jordan reunited to film which grossed more than a quarter of a billion dollars after it premiered early into the NBA season in November 1996.

As a part of this effort to draw new fans, leagues also produced shows aimed at younger fans like which debuted in 1980 and featured MLB players and managers teaching baseball fundamentals. Ten years later, 鈥�premiered on NBC鈥檚 Saturday morning schedule, joining a growing sports media industry aimed at kids that included publications like Sports Illustrated for Kids and video games like the Madden, FIFA and NBA 2k series, among the most popular video game series of all time.

Primetime slimetime

The consolidation of the U.S. media system throughout the 1980s and 1990s led to massive media conglomerates. Unsurprisingly, NBC held the network broadcast rights for the NBA when 鈥淣BA Inside Stuff鈥� aired. As broadcast and cable networks came under the same corporate umbrella as film and animation studios, new opportunities for cross promotion emerged. Disney bought ESPN and opened the , named after the anthology series that aired under one of their other subsidiaries, ABC, from 1961 until 1997     . Disney also founded an NHL team, , in 1993鈥攏amed after the popular 1992 kids hockey movie鈥攁nd in 1996 debuted 鈥� on ABC, which featured anthropomorphic hockey playing superhero ducks.

The success of Space Jam and the continued media conglomeration strengthened the relationship between animation and sports. NASCAR rights holder FOX debuted an animated action series featuring NASCAR branding, a day before the 1999 race season finale. Cartoon Network aired the marathon in 2003, featuring interstitial interviews with NBA players in the lead-up to the All-Star Game, which aired the evening of the game on TNT (both networks were owned by Warner subsidiary Turner).

In 2016, appeared on the Cartoon Network series the same night as a TNT basketball doubleheader and a few days before the All-Star Game. Later, the of the 2023 NBA Slam Dunk Contest in the lead-up to the NBA All-Star Game airing on TNT.

Although these series and specials expanded the visibility of league branding and special events, the engagement with actual games was limited. When Viacom and CBS merged again in 2019, after splitting 14 years earlier, they began strengthening the relationship between former Viacom network . They began featuring Nickelodeon content on CBS All-Access, now Paramount+, and in 2021 Nickelodeon aired an between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints featuring Nickelodeon live-action and animated stars joining the real-time NFL broadcast with alternate announcers Nate Burleson and Noah Eagle. Current Denver Broncos coach , similar to the traditional Gatorade shower.

The following season, premiered on Nickelodeon, a highlight show hosted by Burleson that strengthened the relationship between the NFL and Nickelodeon. This relationship exploded during last years鈥� Super Bowl as the Nickelodeon simulcast on the cable network and Paramount+ was credited for a growth in game viewership, especially among younger and casual fans who appreciated the

A pineapple under the arena

As media conglomerates continue to leverage sports rights to attract audiences and increase subscriptions to their streaming services, they have also leaned into the popularity鈥攁nd meme-making possibilities鈥攐f these simulcasts. Several months after the Nickelodeon simulcast of the Wild Card Playoff, Disney leveraged its Marvel Cinematic Universe to produce a simulcast, on ESPN2 and its streaming service, which was similar to the Wild Card game on Nickelodeon and featured special graphics and superhero-themed content related to the real-time NBA games between the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans. the company behind augmented games like the Arena of Heroes simulcast, extended their contract in the summer of 2024.

In 2023, Disney aired its own fully animated simulcasts with the NHL broadcast in March and the Toy Story-themed NFL game in September. Both regular-season games included a rendering of the real-time broadcasts featuring stars from its animated franchises. Disney followed this up in December 2024 with another featuring 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� and the Christmas Day animated simulcast featuring classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. In between these two games, NBC鈥檚 Peacock service offered an alternate stream of the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans featuring graphics from the

As SpongeBob and Patrick prepare to announce the Nickelodeon simulcast of the 2025 NFL Wild Card game between the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers Saturday, fans should be prepared for more of these simulcasts as networks and streaming services try to market these games to young and casual fans, boosted by social media memes like   and .

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Fifty years after the famed 鈥楻umble in the Jungle,鈥� Muhammad Ali is remembered not only as the heavyweight champ, but as a champion of civil rights

It is hard to imagine, but coming off of his more than three-year exile from boxing, Muhammad Ali spent four years regaining his position as the top heavyweight in boxing. He lost everything by 鈥攏ot just his boxing career and his promotional business, but also derailing his budding advertising and media career.

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, winning the  before turning professional as a heavyweight. A myth emerged that he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after returning to his home city as .

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

His experiences negotiating racism and segregation as an Olympic hero would inform his outspoken approach to civil rights and make him a hero to millions across generations.

Ali won his first 20 professional matches鈥攁nd became heavyweight champion鈥攁t age 22, defending the championship across nine challenges before he was stripped of his championship and exiled from the sport in 1966. He appealed his draft reclassification, which happened in spite of his dyslexia and his position as a conscientious objector. Other athletes who were draft-eligible were placed with National Guard units or protected by their teams, , so it was particularly curious that the most popular athlete in the country was reclassified and drafted.

Conscientious objector

, the boxer then known as Cassius Clay changed his name first to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali. He had , but did not reveal his conversion until he was secure in his boxing career after winning the championship. He fell out with Malcolm X after the civil rights leader left the Nation following revelation that leader Elijah Muhammad had children out of wedlock; Malcolm assumed Ali would support him, 

In 1966, to promote his fights and oversee the closed-circuit broadcasting of his fights. The Nation of Islam held many of the shares in Main Bout Inc., including through Ali鈥檚 manager, Jabir Herbert Muhammad, third son of the Nation鈥檚 leader; other shareholders included football legend Jim Brown. To help forge relationships, boxing promoter Bob Arum was included and after the company folded due to Ali鈥檚 arrest, 

Ali鈥檚 religious conversion and his perspective that America should not be involved in the Vietnam War led to his refusal to be inducted. He was arrested and convicted of breaking Selective Service laws, and he continued to protest the war as he appealed. His conviction was , although he returned to boxing in late 1970 as sentiment against him softened and boxing commissions granted Ali licenses to fight again. He fought three matches before the Supreme Court ruled in his favor,

As Frazier and Ali worked toward a rematch, a young boxer rose up the ranks after winning the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. George Foreman entered the fight against Joe Frazier at 37-0, . Ali also lost his second match, this time against Ken Norton, but after Foreman beat Norton,

Defending world champion George Foreman goes down in the eighth round during his Oct. 30, 1974, bout against Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. (Photo: Richard Drew/Associated Press)

King did not have the money on hand, and the huge monetary promise to both boxers led other promoters to avoid working with King to organize the event. King, who had been released from jail in 1972 after being convicted of second-degree murder, forged a relationship with Ali after promoting a charity fight, but was unable to come to agreement with any venue in the United States to stage the fight. As a result, he looked at other countries to stage it. Fred Weymar, who was an advisor to Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, convinced  support for his regime, . King also pulled in funding from , with Hemdale and Video Techniques Inc. as official co-promoters. Color commentators included Brown, Frazier and journalist David Frost.

Rumble in the Jungle

Promoted as the Rumble in the Jungle, the fight was an incredible spectacle, even by today鈥檚 sporting standards. Originally scheduled for Sept. 25, 1974 (it would have been broadcast Sept. 24 in the United States due to the time difference), it was pushed back to Oct. 30 due to a . A three-day music festival called , originally scheduled to precede the match, which included James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners and Celia Cruz alongside more than a dozen African artists.

Although Ali arrived in Zaire as a 4-1 betting underdog, he was the overwhelming favorite of the Zairean/Congolese people. , which was the dog breed used by the Belgian occupying forces against the Congolese people, further cementing his status as the villain. Foreman and Ali were polar opposites, with Ali seen by many as unpatriotic in America, but a hero in Africa. Foreman, on the other hand, represented Cold War nationalism after beating Soviet Jonas 膶epulis in the 1968 Olympic gold medal match, leading to the famous image of the very large 

. Although the event itself did not go as planned鈥擪ing assumed hundreds of high-profile boxing fans would travel to Zaire, but only a few dozen ended up making trip鈥攖he fight is seen as one of the greatest. The match  from closed-circuit broadcasts in U.S. theaters and other broadcasts rights globally, leading to an estimated audience of more than 500 million people worldwide.

The legendary status of the fight was cemented by Ali鈥檚 upset win against the younger and stronger Foreman. Ali and his trainers understood that he would be unable to outpunch Foreman, so they relied on Ali鈥檚 skill and speed. By the second, round Ali was leaning against the ropes, avoiding and absorbing blows with his arms and body, which did not earn Foreman points with the . Eventually, Foreman exhausted himself and Ali took advantage, knocking out the future grill entrepreneur in the eighth round.

In one of the most famous photos of Muhammad Ali ever taken, the boxer stands over Sonny Liston during a May 1965 bout in Lewiston, Maine. (Photo: John Rooney/Associated Press)

Approaching retirement

In his next bout, Ali fought Chuck Wepner and was knocked down in the ninth round, at least partially due to a light training schedule. Ali still won, and the fight would inspire Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky,

Ali retained the heavyweight title for more than three years, , the third match in the trilogy between Ali and Frazier that saw the champion employ the 鈥渞ope-a-dope鈥� again, as both fighters struggled in the heat of Quezon City, near the Philippine capital of Manila. Ali lost to Leon Spinks in February 1978 on a split decision, before beating 

Ali sent his letter of retirement to the World Boxing Association before returning to the ring to face his former sparring partner Larry Holmes for the vacant World Boxing Commission title, reportedly taking the fight . Before the fight, he was ordered to undergo examination at the Mayo Clinic because there was a concern as to whether he was fit to return to the ring鈥攈e had begun to .

The fight was so one-sided that Holmes went on to win after Ali鈥檚 long-time trainer finally stepped in to stop the fight. Stallone attended the fight in Las Vegas and compared it to  Ali fought one more time before ultimately retiring.

As time went on, Ali struggled with the impact that Parkinson鈥檚 had on his health鈥攁 condition related to taking an . He continued to make public appearances, including his inspiring lighting of the Olympic torch in the 1996 Atlanta Games. He continues to be a , considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Fernando Valenzuela, who died Tuesday, was more than just the first Mexican superstar in Major League Baseball; he helped soothe longstanding resentments in a displaced community

Wednesday that Fernando Valenzuela passed away late Tuesday night at the age of 63. The legendary pitcher debuted late in the 1980 season as a 19-year-old, but it would not be until his first full season when the rookie would initiate 鈥�,鈥� fascinating not only Dodgers and baseball fans, but people throughout the United States and Latin America.

Valenzuela helped the , the last time the two teams met. At a time when the Dodgers struggled to soothe their relationship with Mexican American fans, Valenzuela was not only the balm, but also initiated a wave of players from Mexico that continues today.

The Dodgers鈥� relationship with the large Chicanx community in Los Angeles had long been fraught after the building of Dodger Stadium. Following passage of the Federal Housing Act in 1949, then-Mayor Norris Poulson chose Chavez Ravine, a shallow canyon in Los Angeles, as the location to build 10,000 housing units, promising the Mexican American community living there that they would have their first choice of housing.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

Yet after most of the neighborhood was razed, the project was delayed, and when the Dodgers decided to move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, . The broken promises led to decades of resentment between the team and the Mexican American community in the city, as the remaining residents were forced out of the neighborhood.

Selling out stadiums

Valenzuela was scouted by several teams, but when legendary Cuban-American scout in , he convinced the Dodgers to buy out Valenzuela鈥檚 contract in the summer of 1979, just beating out the Yankees. He worked his way up from the minor leagues, debuting with the Dodgers in September 1980 after learning what became his signature pitch, the screwball, which breaks the opposite direction of a curveball or slider.

He spent the final month of the season as a reliever, helping the team contend for the .

The following season, the 20-year-old Valenzuela was tapped to be the Dodgers鈥� opening-day starter after pitcher Jerry Reuss was injured the day before the game. This set off , as he went 8-0 with five shutouts and an earned run average of 0.50. in June, but when the season resumed in August, Valenzuela helped the team win the World Series, becoming the first pitcher to win both the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards in the same season.

Valenzuela sold out stadiums both at home and away, becoming a phenomenon only a few years after first signing to the Mexican league from his small, rural hometown in Sonora. An international Horatio Alger story, Valenzuela鈥檚 rise is one of the most unbelievable in modern sports history.

Valenzuela spoke very little English and struggled to communicate with many of his teammates; however, team manager Tommy Lasorda spent time in the Caribbean winter leagues and helped Valenzuela鈥檚 transition to the major leagues, while Mike Scioscia learned enough Spanish to become the young pitcher鈥檚 personal catcher. Valenzuela would go on to make six straight All-Star games before derailed his career. He ultimately played 17 seasons and threw a no-hitter for the Dodgers in 1990, but his legacy goes far beyond his phenomenal rise.

The first Mexican superstar

Walter O鈥橫alley had owned at least a minority stake in the Dodgers since 1944, accumulating a larger stake in the team and eventually becoming its president in 1950. He was part of the ownership group that signed O鈥橫alley was tired of the Brooklyn Dodgers living in the Yankees鈥� shadow鈥攖heir Ebbets Field had less than half the capacity of Yankee Stadium (32,000 vs. 67,000) and the Dodgers lost six of the seven World Series matchups with the Yankees in the 1940s and 1950s. O鈥橫alley saw a business opportunity in moving to the West Coast and building his own stadium in spite of the displacement of the Mexican American community there.

Fernando Valenzuela, known for his signature 'screwball' pitch, winds up during the Dodgers' April 8, 1986, home opener. (Photo: Tony Barnard/Los Angeles Times)

Much like Robinson brought Black fans to the Dodgers, and baseball more generally, O鈥橫alley who refused to watch the Dodgers not only because of resentment over the displacement, but also because the Dodgers were seen as a team for the white community in Los Angeles. Walter O鈥橫alley died a month after the organization signed Valenzuela, so he never saw the impact of the first Mexican superstar in baseball.

Though famous, Valenzuela still faced many of the same issues other Mexican immigrants faced coming to America. The language barrier led to isolation early in his career, and after his historic rookie season, he was threatened with deportation as he held out for a It was said that partly due to meeting Valenzuela in 1981.

Despite the disappointment of being cut by the Dodgers during 1991 spring training, Valenzuela maintained his legendary status with the team, becoming their color commentator in 2003 and having his number, 34, retired in 2023.

His jersey is still one of the most popular, with Valenzuela jerseys seen throughout Dodgers stadium In spite of his status as the greatest player from Mexico to play in the Major Leagues, he has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although many artifacts from Fernandomania sit in the museum in Cooperstown.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

Top image: Fernando Valenzuela pitches a two-hit, 4-0 victory over the Montreal Expos at Dodger Stadium May 21, 1986. (Photo: Marsha Traeger/Los Angeles Times)

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The recent death of Dikembe Mutombo and the start of the NBA regular season today highlight the fraught realities of building a talent pipeline between lower-income countries and the NBA

On Sept. 30, Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo passed away after a two-year battle with brain cancer. As a young NBA fan, I looked at Mutombo as someone both figuratively and literally larger than life.

Even as a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers, one of my favorite basketball memories was when Mutombo helped lead the Denver Nuggets to an upset of the No. 1-seed Seattle Supersonics, which featured an iconic highlight of Mutombo holding the final rebound as he celebrated on the ground. I later had the joy of watching him as a Sixer when the team made a run to the NBA Finals in 2001.

Mutombo鈥檚 legend went beyond his size, with an incredible backstory that might seem too unbelievable for a Hollywood script. academic scholarship at 21, originally . But after being recruited to play basketball, and knowing very little English, he majored in linguistics and diplomacy, earning internships with U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui and the World Bank.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

My sister attended Georgetown, and Mutombo stories were common鈥攚ith his intelligence, gregarious nature and success on the court making him a legend at the university. He was drafted by the Nuggets on the day after his 25th birthday and played 18 years with several teams, including the Houston Rockets, where he was a mentor to another international player, Yao Ming.

During his playing career, Mutombo began , started his own foundation to support his native Congo and served as the He also began working with , a program started by the NBA to encourage friendship and tolerance through basketball camps run globally.

The program was first introduced in 2001 in the Balkan states after the Yugoslav Wars, before entering Africa in 2003. It has become a pipeline for future all-stars like Pascal Siakam and Joel Embiid to earn college scholarships and be drafted into the NBA.

In 2023, the NBA had a record 125 international players on team rosters, with 19 of those players from African nations. The last six MVP awards have been won by three international players, two of whom, (born in Greece to Nigerian parents) have deep ties to Africa. Mutombo followed as a part of the first wave of African players to enter the NBA. There was a dramatic increase of international players entering the NBA that began with the fall of the Soviet Union and accelerated after the

Still-rare success

The success of players like Olajuwon, Mutombo and Embiid is still fairly rare in spite of the internationalization of basketball. 72% were from Canada or Europe, representative of the strong basketball pipeline within the Global North and evidence of the developmental resources maintained by these Western nations with strong youth programs and professional leagues.

Players who emerge from outside of these pipelines are often exceptional in , overcoming a lack of developmental support. Recent evidence of the wide gap in resources was the relative success of the , which challenged top teams in spite of there being no in the nation. , whose family escaped the war-torn country and settled in Great Britain before Deng enrolled at Duke for a year, becoming a two-time All-Star during his 15-year NBA career.

For every Deng, Antetokounmpo or Mutombo who make it to the NBA or other professional leagues around the world, like the , there are thousands of others who don鈥檛. It is a lottery that creates competition domestically among lower-income groups, including members of the African diaspora in the United States, where social mobility only seems accessible.

The now-iconic image of then-Denver Nugget Dikembe Mutombo celebrating an overtime win against the Seattle Supersonics May 7, 1994. (Photo: Bill Chan/Associated Press)

The desire to leverage sports to achieve social mobility is not new, but it has become increasingly international as domestic sports leagues continue to globalize, driven by access through

Earlier efforts to globalize were focused on wealthier nations in Europe and Asia, with the NBA and NFL holding exhibitions in countries like . Since the 1970s, the NFL has attempted to expand beyond the United States, which officially launched in 1991. After NFL Europe folded in 2007, the league looked toward expanding beyond U.S. borders鈥攕elf-tasked with expanding not only the NFL brand but American football in general.

The NBA, on the other hand, has focused on expanding as the top basketball league in the world, leveraging the international popularity of the sport. This growth was supported by the fall of the Iron Curtain and growth of professional basketball globally, driven both by television and the popularity of players like Michael Jordan. to allow their professionals into the Olympics led to the 1992 Dream Team, which only accelerated this growth.

Big in China

Understanding of how international players can expand the game, and brand, was further evidenced by the success of Yao Ming in popularizing the NBA in China. that can arise, considering the Chinese government鈥檚 requirement that Yao hand over half his earnings to the government, and later conflicts ignited when

The growth of basketball in Europe and has opened opportunities for American players to continue their professional basketball careers outside the United States and for top European athletes to play in the NBA. The stability of this pipeline, and the success of players like Olajuwon and Mutombo, led to Basketball without Borders. The NFL has run several international development and scouting programs since 2007, leading to the current . Dozens of international NFL players have entered the NFL through this program, creating a strong pipeline in countries like Nigeria, and supported by Osi Umenyiora, a Nigerian-British former NFL All-Pro.

However, the high cost of entry and potential for injury has limited this growth, leading the which will make its Olympic debut in the Summer 2028 Games in Los Angeles. NFL officials have mentioned hopes that it will have the same impact as the Dream Team had for NBA basketball. In a similar vein, FIBA has also been working to leverage 3x3 basketball to expand

Several NBA players participated in the 2017 NBA Africa Game, including then-Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki, center. (Photo: )

This growth is not without complications. Along with walking a fine line between free speech, politics and growth鈥攁s evidenced by the conflict between the over Daryl Morey鈥檚 tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters, as well as 2024 鈥攖here are also claims of cultural and economic imperialism as leagues and their sponsorship partners leverage the sport and operate in other nations.

One of the clearest examples of this imperialism and cultural disconnect is represented in the , which is overseen by NBA Africa and FIBA. Early investors included Mutombo, with . These corporations are looking to leverage the league to expand their brand recognition, which furthers criticism regarding exploitation of labor and resources, .

There is clearly a disconnect between expectations and realities on the African continent, with and European leagues. Unsurprisingly, the BAL and NBA Africa are headquartered in South Africa, in the shadow of apartheid and colonialism.

Ethically fraught global expansion

In spite of these issues, NBA Africa is reportedly valued at over $1 billion, and similar to NBA China, much of the value, and investment, is based on access to potential consumers on the continent, whose population is nearing 1.4 billion. Also, similar to NBA China, there have been issues with the relationships formed to create these subsidiaries. Leaders in nations like Rwanda, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been accused of investing in sport to distract from human rights violations and improve their reputation on the world stage.

The NBA and NFL are far from the only corporations engaging in ethically fraught global expansion; however, the long Western history of exploiting of groups of color, particularly African Americans, only exacerbates concerns regarding globalization of North American sports leagues. Programs like Basketball without Borders present themselves as philanthropic but are actually investments to help expand corporate footprints and open pipelines to talent that removes players from their communities鈥攎irroring similar pipelines between lower-income communities in the United States and major college athletics programs.

Mutombo鈥檚 passing reminds us of the positive and negative potential of global sports: the opportunity for social mobility, philanthropy and community, and the risk of widespread exploitation.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

Top image: Men play basketball in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Photo: )

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In just a few decades, Fox went from being 鈥榯he fourth network鈥� airing The Simpsons and baseball to being a leading voice in U.S. politics

Every four years, Americans oscillate between sports and coverage of the presidential election, and outside of trash talk between competitors, many overlook the commonalities between the two.

The media corporations responsible for covering both sports and politics are the same, and as we experience increasing polarization, it鈥檚 important to highlight the direct link between the partisan media and sports media rights鈥攚hich has existed for 30 years, since for the broadcast rights. That winning bid helped legitimize the nascent broadcast network and establish the partisan cable news environment we are familiar with today.

Fox owner Rupert Murdoch is now known for overseeing one of the largest media empires in the world, but through the early 1980s he was known as a publisher of newspapers, specifically tabloids. He inherited a news publication after his father鈥檚 death in 1952, .

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

He expanded his news empire to New Zealand and the United Kingdom through the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s. Although he became known for his ownership of tabloids, his corporation also oversaw more traditional broadsheet newspapers,

By the 1980s, Murdoch had set his eyes on electronic media, particularly television. He struggled to break into the British broadcast market, so he focused his energy on pay TV, buying a controlling stake in . After being excluded from the consortium overseeing British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), he launched his own satellite-based service, circumventing British ownership laws by using the Astra satellite operating in Luxembourg.

Sky launched in 1989, 13 months before BSB鈥檚 launch in March 1990.  The two competed for the rights to the FA Premier League, with Sky鈥檚 bid, nearly double that of any competitor, seen as overpaying. However, Murdoch saw sports as a , helping to attract viewers who might otherwise balk at spending money for scripted shows and news.

During this time, Murdoch and News Corporation set their sights on the United States, purchasing after Rich became a fugitive for tax evasion and selling oil to Iran during the hostage crisis. He bought the stake from oil magnate and investor Marvin Davis, and 20th Century Fox was considering buying Metromedia, which owned broadcast stations. Davis opposed the purchase while Murdoch and executive Barry Diller pushed to expand the media reach of the troubled studio. Davis sold his stake in 20th Century Fox in 1985, incorporating Davis Petroleum in Denver the next year. Murdoch gained American citizenship, since legally he could not own a broadcast network as a foreign citizen, and in fall of 1986 the Fox Broadcasting Company launched with

The six original stations purchased from Metromedia were in major markets including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Fox Broadcasting Company, or FBC, was renamed , and it officially launched on April 5, 1987.

The fourth network

Fox was considered the fourth network, if people had access to its programming at all. Network programmers purposely scheduled just below the minimum number of hours required for network status to avoid federal regulatory restrictions, including .

As it built its affiliate base, Fox took lessons from ABC to boost its visibility, building a young audience through its programming, prime-time teenage and young adult soaps like and reality television, . However, following the precedent of BSkyB leveraging sports to accelerate growth, Fox made a bid for after ABC hesitated in renewing its contract with the NFL. Fox met the NFL鈥檚 asking price, but ABC came back and matched, due to ABC鈥檚 more extensive reach. The NFL renewed with ABC.

In November 1995, Fox obtained a partial contract for Major League Baseball. (Photo: Ryosuke Yagi/)

At the end of the 1993 season, however, both the NFC and AFC contracts were up for renegotiation, and Fox ultimately outbid . As a result, Fox executives made a major push to gain affiliates with stronger broadcast signals in major markets, since the network was still using lower-quality UHF frequencies in many markets. This led to a major realignment of affiliations, with stations in markets like Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Detroit and Cleveland switching from CBS to Fox.

In November 1995, Fox obtained a partial contract for Major League Baseball, airing 16 Saturday games as well as the By the end of the decade, Fox would also agree to air the Cotton Bowl and NASCAR.

Taking risks

Sports and risk-taking in its entertainment programming boosted Fox鈥檚 profile, and the network entered the cable market with as an interactive network embracing the then-emerging Internet. FX rebranded in 1997 as the network dedicated to Fox鈥檚 largest demographic, men 18-49, while also serving as a platform for its expanding sport portfolio and a place to rerun popular Fox series.

Throughout Fox鈥檚 early years, several other segments of the media were also quickly expanding. CNN had launched as the first 24-hour news network in 1980, but coverage of the helped Fox grow into a major news source on par with other national outlets. In 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was officially repealed, leading to an explosion of conservative radio personalities like . Lastly, the continued deregulation of the media鈥攚hich was further formalized through the 鈥攃onsolidated the radio market, allowing for more nationally syndicated shows like Limbaugh鈥檚 and motivating the major media corporations to further expand, including into cable.

In 1994, NBC spun the news network America鈥檚 Talking off from CNBC; it was created by former Republican strategist Roger Ailes, who was . Ailes left America鈥檚 Talking under controversy, after allegedly making antisemitic comments to NBC executive David Zaslav, who is now the CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Fox News launched Oct. 7, 1996, and has become a significant voice in U.S. politics. (Photo: Steve Bott/)

Ailes was hired by News Corp as founding CEO of Fox News, which launched on Oct. 7, 1996. Three months earlier, NBC had replaced a collaboration between NBC and technology company Microsoft. MSNBC sought its approach through programming with several conservative commentators, including Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson. MSNBC would not find its identity until after Microsoft divested, becoming the left-leaning alternative to Fox News and abandoning the balance it previously tried to find along the political spectrum.

Unsurprisingly, Murdoch and News Corporation took a more heavy-handed approach, paying cable companies to carry the network. Three days after Fox News launched, Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting, which owned CNN. Because of an antitrust consent decree (in which the government sues a company and the defendant agrees to stop alleged illegal conduct), Time Warner Cable was forced to carry a second news station and selected MSNBC, with News Corp claiming that this broke an agreement to carry Fox News.

Citing the fact that its U.S. headquarters were in New York, and leveraging connections, News Corp convinced Rudy Giuliani鈥檚 mayoral administration to pressure . Although Time Warner ultimately won the initial battle, Fox News won the war when Time Warner began carrying Fox News. The ordeal displayed Murdoch鈥檚 willingness to leverage his close relationships with the Republican Party to support his media empire.

This relationship is at the core of the seemingly real-life , as Murdoch attempts to rewrite his trust to ensure his more conservative son Lochlan takes over Fox Corporation upon his death and maintains the network鈥檚 current place on the political spectrum. Even as the media giant sold off some of its assets in the sale of , Murdoch retained Fox鈥檚 national sports and news entities鈥攊ncluding Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, along with its cable and broadcast networks鈥攁s he continues to leverage sports as a battering ram to protect his international media empire.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Fifteen years after Ed O鈥橞annon鈥檚 groundbreaking lawsuit, college athletes continue to benefit from greater control of their name, image and likeness

As an elder Millennial, I remember waiting each year for the announcement of the cover athlete for EA Sports鈥� collection of college sports video games. As inclusion on this year鈥檚 cover, it鈥檚 a good time to look back at the fight for student-athlete compensation that led to the reintroduction of the NCAA College Football video game series.

On July 19, thousands of video game players fired up their consoles and, for the first time in 11 years, could build a dynasty as their favorite college football program. However, the lawsuit that led EA Sports and other video game developers to to avoid further lawsuits helped college athletes gain control of their name, image and likeness (NIL) and further compensation, altering the financial power structure in college sports.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor and director of the Critical Sports Studies Program in the Department of Ethnic Studies.

In 2009, Ed, O鈥橞annon鈥攁 former UCLA standout named Most Outstanding Player in the 1995 NCAA basketball tournament, which UCLA won鈥攚as playing EA Sports鈥� NCAA Basketball 09 when had his same attributes, looks and number, even though he was not named in the game. It was common for sports video games to mirror classic teams鈥攊ncluding, in this instance, the 1995 UCLA Bruins.

Sonny Vaccaro, a legendary basketball marketer, t alongside 19 other former college basketball players, including athlete labor and civil rights advocates Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell. In 1970, Robertson, then-president of the NBA players鈥� association, filed an antitrust suit against the NBA to bring free agency to the NBA, while Russell led a boycott during a 1961 preseason game after several teammates were . Both Hall of Famers were part of the boycott of the that led to the NBA recognizing the player鈥檚 union.

Along with signing Michael Jordan to Nike, and being played by Matt Damon in the film Air, Vaccaro has long been an advocate for amateur athletes. O鈥橞annon was an ideal lead plaintiff given that the image in the game was undeniably him, not only matching his height, weight, shaved head and skin tone, but also his left-handedness. O鈥橞annon was no longer in basketball, so he didn鈥檛 risk the retribution that Curt Flood, and helped bring free agency to professional sports, both faced.

The case went to trial in June 2014, and on Aug. 8, Judge Claudia Ann Wilken of the Northern District of California ruled that withholding compensation to student athletes was a violation of antitrust laws. She cited , which ended the NCAA鈥檚 exclusive control of college football television rights 30 years earlier. Immediately before the trial, , while the NCAA was ordered to pay more than $42 million before appeal鈥攂ut more importantly, this set the stage for a radical change in college athlete compensation and the structure of college athletics.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals , but amateurism was an important concept to uphold and all compensation needed to be educationally related. As O鈥橞annon and the other plaintiffs waited for the trial, decision and results of the NCAA appeal, a number of other current and former student athletes also filed suit. Eventually, those lawsuits were combined into a class action suit, , with Judge Wilken ruling against the NCAA and confirming that the organization placed an unfair restraint on compensation.

In 2019, California passed the first state law that permitted athletes to be compensated for NIL; the NCAA began allowing such compensation in 2021, although

Ed O'Bannon as a UCLA player (left) and in video game likeness in EA Sports' NCAA Basketball 09. (Photos: Al Bello/Getty Images, left, and EA Sports, right)

In 2021, the Alston case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose majority decision stated that blocking compensation beyond educational benefits was an antitrust violation, ultimately ending the O鈥橞annon case seven years after Wilken鈥檚 original decision. Wilken also heard the recent case , in which the defendants鈥攊ncluding the power conferences ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 12鈥攁greed to a settlement allowing revenue sharing between schools, conferences and student athletes. The House case also ended scholarship limits, instead instituting roster caps and

Several cases are still undecided, including the Dartmouth College Basketball players鈥� lawsuit, , which is another effort for college athletes to be recognized as employees of the school, which is supported by the National Labor Relations Board. There is another lawsuit that was filed by former University of Kansas guard immediately after the House settlement. Chalmers and his co-claimants allege that the NCAA and media partners utilize the images of former athletes without permission to market college sports and March Madness.

No single lawsuit can untangle the web of NCAA control that schools and athletes have been challenging for nearly half a century. It is also important to note much of this has been driven by the growth of media money, first through television rights and now branding and expanded access through digital media, which includes video games, streaming and social media platforms.

The NCAA still remains one of the most influential sporting organizations in the world, as evidenced by the , in which hundreds of athletes earned medals in Paris after training at NCAA-affiliated universities. As these successful athletes bring attention鈥攁nd money鈥攖o their schools, they deserve a fair share of the revenue. It is important not to forget Ed O鈥橞annon鈥檚 role in facilitating a more equitable compensation system for student-athletes.

Top image: The cover of EA Sports' College Football 25, featuring Travis Hunter in the center. (Photo: EA Sports)

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As the 2024 Olympics begin in Paris, 兔子先生传媒文化作品 scholar Jared Bahir Browsh considers how nationalism can inform and influence the games

During the long jump medal ceremony of the 1906 Olympics in Athens, Greece, second-place finisher , an Irish athlete unhappy with having to accept his medal under the flag of Great Britain, climbed the 20-foot flagpole and waved a large green flag proclaiming 鈥�Erin Go Bragh (Ireland Forever).鈥� Two of his Irish teammates stood at the base of the flagpole to fend off members of the Greek military.

O鈥機onnor鈥檚 flag waving was seen not just as a political protest in support of Irish Home Rule, but a statement of nationalism.

Since the Olympic Games were revived in 1896鈥攁nd perhaps even in the ancient games when male athletes from various city-states competed鈥攖he Olympics have been touted, per the , as placing 鈥渟port at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.鈥�

鈥淪ports can be a symbol and a surrogate for what鈥檚 happening politically, socially and economically in a country and between one country and another," says Jared Bahir Browsh, a 兔子先生传媒文化作品 assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and incoming director of the Critical Sports Studies program.

However, when the 2024 Olympic Games open in Paris Friday, they are just as likely to be noteworthy for national anthems and national flags, for fans鈥� faces painted in homage to their countries and for national rivalries that can range from good-natured to tense and geopolitically fraught.

鈥淎t the international level of the Olympics, it can be really difficult to separate sports from nationalism,鈥� says Jared Bahir Browsh, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and incoming director of the Critical Sports Studies program. 鈥淪ports can be a symbol and a surrogate for what鈥檚 happening politically, socially and economically in a country and between one country and another.

鈥淪o, any time we have these big, international events鈥攖he Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, the Cricket World Cup鈥攜ou can see these interactions between nations, and see these issues bubbling up, in a way that might not happen on the floor of the United Nations.鈥�

Modern Olympic origins

Despite what author George Orwell 鈥攖hat they are 鈥渨ar minus the shooting鈥濃�攚hen Baron Pierre de Coubertin proposed reviving the ancient Olympic Games, he is generally credited with proposing them in good, if myopic and culturally appropriating, faith.

鈥淲ars break out because nations misunderstand each other,鈥� . 鈥淲e shall not have peace until the prejudices that now separate the different races are outlived. To attain this end, what better means is there than to bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility?鈥�

However, Browsh says, the notion that all are equal on the playing fields of sport ignores centuries of economic disparities and social inequity between nations. 鈥淭he infrastructure and systems that countries have to train athletes vary widely. High-income nations a lot of times are who you see represented on the medal stand because they鈥檙e able to spend huge amounts of money on getting their athletes there.

鈥淪o, that might reinforce this capitalist idea that wealthy nations are somehow more deserving of gold medals, which perpetuates inequity and the narrative of dominance.鈥�

The Olympics also, perhaps inevitably, are shaped by world events happening at the time the games take place, Browsh adds, citing the infamous water polo match between Hungary and the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The match happened a few weeks after Soviet forces violently quashed the Hungarian Revolution, and from the starting whistle it devolved into punching and kicking before referees halted the match early and named Hungary the winner.

And since the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Taiwan鈥攐fficially known as the Republic of China鈥攈as competed as Chinese Taipei as a result of the and International Olympic Committee concessions to the People鈥檚 Republic of China.

Thinking about the Olympics

The Olympic rings illuminated in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Photo: St茅phane Kempinaire/Paris 2024)

The Paris Olympics are happening at an interesting and fraught time around the world, Browsh says, with nationalism continuing to grow not just in the United States, but throughout Europe, Central and South America, Asia and Africa.

鈥淚n a way, we might see sports as helping define who we are as a nation,鈥� Browsh says. 鈥淲e might see our athletes as symbols of our national strength, and when they鈥檙e successful, that might get translated into a sense of rightness or even superiority.鈥�

While by the Norwegian School of Sport Science found that educational attainment and income correlate with levels of sports nationalism鈥攊n general, the higher both are, the lower the sense of sports nationalism鈥攖he Olympic Games are unique 鈥渂ecause suddenly, as a spectator, you鈥檙e really invested in a sport that you may never even think about the rest of the time,鈥� Browsh says. 鈥淔or these 16 days, you鈥檙e watching this sport and really cheering for your country.鈥�

In a , scholar David Clay Large observed of the Olympics, 鈥淚n part, it鈥檚 the beauty of supreme athleticism and the sizzle of carefully choreographed spectacle. But, more fundamentally, it鈥檚 the games鈥� capacity to dip repeatedly into a deep well of communal passion harbored by competitors and spectators alike. Whatever the organizational inadequacies and logistical screw-ups, these purported celebrations of one-world togetherness succeed because they indulge precisely what they claim to transcend: the world鈥檚 basest instinct for tribalism.鈥�

However, Browsh says, 鈥渢hese are going to be incredible games. I鈥檒l be watching and celebrating these athletes.鈥�

Perhaps more than any other international athletic competition, the Olympics have given rise to incandescent moments of achievement and perseverance, to athletes transcending their various nations鈥� politics and coming together in genuine fellowship, to fans at home pausing their desire to beat the commies and happily cheering for the athletes from another country.

As spectators, Browsh says, whether it鈥檚 a matter of compartmentalizing concerns about corruption in the IOC or fears of toxic nationalism or negotiating how to celebrate athletes鈥� hard work while not unquestioningly accepting nation building, 鈥渓ove of sport is a factor in that negotiation. We ignore some of the corruptions of the media, for example, to enjoy our favorite TV show. We negotiate these spaces in order to get some joy out of life.

鈥淟ike with a lot of things, I think there needs to be a level of criticality when we consider the Olympics. I鈥檓 not saying we should stop watching or stop enjoying them鈥攖hat鈥檚 not something I鈥檇 ever want to do鈥攂ut I am saying we should think about them and how we can do them better.鈥�

Top image: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

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Sports gambling creates a windfall, but raises questions of integrity, says 兔子先生传媒文化作品 researcher Jared Bahir Browsh

Sports betting is having a big moment across the United States. While gambling on sports has been legal for decades in countries such as the U.K., it wasn鈥檛 until 2018 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that . Before then, sports betting had been permitted only in Nevada.

After the Supreme Court decision, the floodgates opened. Many states were happy to legalize sports gambling, enticed by the opportunity for more . As of May 2024, sports gambling is  and Washington, D.C. Americans wagered  on sports in 2023 alone.

Until , sports leagues in North America were apprehensive about鈥攊f not totally against鈥�. The long history of  led many to worry that legalizing sports betting would tarnish their sports鈥� credibility and image. The NCAA was one of many governing bodies that .

Jared Bahir Browsh, a 兔子先生传媒文化作品 assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies, argues that the suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states, but it may also endanger the integrity of sports.

But now that the Supreme Court has blessed it, sports leagues have embraced gambling, forming partnerships with brands like . The sportsbooks and platforms have integrity monitors to track . Still, a number of scandals involving athletes and the people around them have emerged .

As a professor of critical sports studies, I teach students about the history of sports betting scandals. And I think they offer lessons for the present day.

Disgruntled players and pay disputes lead to temptation

The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 helped to further organize baseball, leading to the creation of the position of commissioner of baseball, which was first assumed by former judge  Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Along with maintaining the color line, arguably his most notable action was banning, for life, the players on the .

Early professional baseball regulations , but the money was too tempting for many players to ignore鈥攁nd that included members of the . The players hated the team鈥檚 owner, Charles Comiskey, and felt that they were underpaid. But they were unable to change teams due to the  in their contracts, which gave owners exclusive rights to their players in perpetuity.

A faction of the team agreed to . Those players were ultimately indicted by a grand jury and . They were acquitted of criminal charges, but Landis suspended all of the players connected to the fix鈥攊ncluding superstar 鈥淪hoeless鈥� Joe Jackson, who admitted taking money from a teammate but maintained he was innocent of game fixing.

This was the the most notable of several attempts to fix baseball games early in the 20th century, as the game grew in popularity and a number of people associated with baseball, including players, managers and even umpires, .

Addiction isn鈥檛 limited to substances

Athlete salaries have . However, this money hasn鈥檛 shielded players and others involved in sports from the grips of gambling addiction.

There are no rules banning athletes from  or . Numerous players have wagered millions of dollars, with some athletes building up .

These debts can lead to such desperation that athletes decide to risk their careers. Baseball legend and  Pete Rose continues to sit outside the .

The most substantial gambling scandal in modern sports came in the NBA during the 2000s, involving referee Tim Donaghy. He admitted to providing information on NBA games, including those he officiated, . Donaghy served time in prison as a result. So it isn鈥檛 just players who get in trouble.

Unpaid student-athletes are especially vulnerable to improprieties鈥揳nd harassment

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy on the court during a 2000 game between the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks. (Photo: Ronald Martinez /Allsport via Getty Images)

There have been  in college basketball history, most famously at the  and at 鈥攖he latter of which involved , the subject of the blockbuster film 鈥淕oodfellas.鈥�

The increasing use of prop, or proposition, bets, which  rather than the overall result, has created a new point of vulnerability for student-athletes. While influencing an entire team is hard, history shows that individual players are more susceptible to pressure. A point guard or quarterback can slow down the game and reduce the margin of victory.

And while today鈥檚 unpaid student-athletes have the same financial incentives to cheat as earlier generations did, they face a new pressure: They鈥檙e often surrounded by gamblers on campus and on social media.  not only at large universities but at smaller schools, too. According to NCAA surveys, 1 in 3 student-athletes have faced harassment from gamblers, .

New regulations and oversight measures could help

The sportsbooks have very little incentive to address potential violations, so it鈥檚 up to organizations that oversee sports to ensure the integrity of their games.

NCAA President Charlie Baker鈥檚 suggestion to  is a good first step: The more individual players and gameplay are isolated, the easier it is for improprieties to occur.

Providing more guidance for players鈥攁nd different types of punishments for different transgressions鈥�. Gambling violations that don鈥檛 affect competition outcomes should be treated differently from ones that do. The NCAA already does this by meting out lighter penalties for  as opposed to their own.

Providing treatment for players and others suffering from gambling addiction would be helpful as well, and there鈥檚 some evidence that open discussions of  have had a positive impact.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has suggested implementing federal oversight to  of state-by-state regulations. Although scandals are still likely to occur, gambling commissions like the one in the U.K. can provide a .

The suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states. But it may also endanger the integrity of sports. As policymakers mull how to address the issue, they might be wise to learn from history.

Top image: CCNY basketball players arrested for bribery in 1951. (Photo: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the 兔子先生传媒文化作品 Department of Ethnic Studies.

This article is republished from  under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

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