Howard Bryant’s article on ESPN.com, “Novak Djokovic is a profile in selfishness, and sports leaders are failing us all,” discusses Djokovic’s refusal to be vaccinated for COVID, the attempts to keep him from competing in the Australian Open tennis tournament because of his non-vaccinated status, and a lot more. (Note: This article was written on January 12, 2022 before Djokovic was expelled from Australia.)
Bryant compares Djokovic to other high-profile, anti-vaccination athletes—Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, and Kyrie Irving of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, who have not just refused to get COVID vaccinations but have taken public stands about this that are very harmful. Bryant also discusses LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, who did get vaccinated but has spread harmful misinformation about COVID-19.
What I found insightful is that Bryant goes much deeper than just calling out these athletes. He discusses the sacrifices made by people around the world in order to keep not just themselves but also others from getting COVID. And he puts that up against these “high-profile athletes (who) have decided the only name that matters is the one on the back of their jerseys.” Bryant counterposes those athletes who have stood for social justice and those athletes like tennis great Andy Murray, who said, “…the reason why all of us are getting vaccinated is to look out for the wider public." But, Bryant writes, what has happened is that those heroic athletes who stood up for social justice “have been replaced by the pandemic-era player beholden completely unto himself—unburdened by community or responsibility to others, using vaunted platforms to disseminate pseudoscience, to elevate and separate themselves.”
He looks at how the U.S. under Trump handled COVID, “denigrating mask use as a tool for the weak, and worse, a symbol of fascism, positioning the pandemic as a hoax, even as the health care system overloaded and Central Park served as a portable morgue.”
A major theme that runs throughout the article is based on Aaron Rodgers promoting Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged, the anti-science, anti-communist, elitist, individualist, capitalist drivel that promotes “screwing others before they screw you.” I learned how Bryant sees this book as a metaphor for the selfishness and individualism of these anti-vax athletes and how he uses the words “Atlas” and “Shrugged” to inform this point.
With regards to the pandemic, Bryant locates the pro sports leagues in this Ayn Rand’ world, where “Sports adopted the divisive political rhetoric of vaccine efficacy over health, of the personal over the collective, guided by the specter of the existential moment.” In Bryant’s view, sports did not become an “example but instead an accelerant of the divisions, a reflection of the anti-science, the cynicism, the pandemic as politics.”
I feel that this article is an important read, as there is a lot to learn here. Check it out.
