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Americans love sports – we organize get-togethers around them, argue statistics, encourage our children to compete, and spend hours in stadiums, or watching sports on TV. But most people don’t think about sports as being political. In a new documentary, Nation Magazine sports writer Dave Zirin, examine the link between sports and politics. The film, Not Just a Game, takes a loving but critical look at US sports culture, revealing it to be a crucial facet of our national identity. In it, Dave Zirin scrutinizes what he calls the militarization of sports, questioning comparisons of athletes to “warriors” on a battle field, and the use of game-time to make pitches for military recruitment. He analyses the unrealistic standard of masculinity that male sports stars are expected to project, and the resulting plague of sexism and homophobia on and off the field. Zirin also goes beyond the accepted narrative of racism in sports, revealing that as the first Black Major League baseball player, Jackie Robinson’s fight against racism, and the nation’s struggle with it, lasted long after Robinson left the baseball diamond. While refusing to ignore the ugliest aspects of our sports culture, Zirin also celebrates the good. Not Just A Game chronicles athletes with courage, and many victories of principle over profit and fame. It also tells the inspiring stories of Billy Jean King, Muhammed Ali, and lesser known stars like Kathrine Switzer , the first woman to run the Boston marathon. Not Just a Game is not just a film about sports. It is an entertaining refutation to the common wisdom that arenas and stadiums exist in a vacuum, and sports and politics don’t mix.

The LA City Council took a big step earlier this month towards bringing a professional football team to LA when it approved a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Anschutz Entertainment Group, AEG for short. The Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, allows the formal planning and exploratory processes to begin for the proposed $1.5 billion football stadium. The development is slated for location in downtown LA, next to the Staples Center and LA Live, both of which AEG also owns. Impact studies, and negotiations, are expected to stretch the planning process into May of next year. Stadium proponents, including spokesperson and business partner Ervin “Magic” Johnson, are pitching the new sports attraction as a job-creating, financial-boon to LA. In addition to employment, economic benefits to the public will come from sales, property, and parking tax revenue. However, critics say the city will incur high costs in both the short and long term that may outweigh the benefits. The City has pledged to issue bonds totaling $275 million towards construction costs. Against the wishes of City Council Members and the public, the deal lacks any profit sharing agreement between AEG and the city. Opponents also name increased traffic congestion, public safety issues, and environmental degradation as negative factors that must be considered. Commenting on the downsides of investments in public money in sports venues, sports writer David Zirin said recently, “$30 billion over the last twenty years being spent on stadiums at a time when teachers are being laid off…is monstrous… [and they have] become a substitute for anything resembling an urban policy in this country.”

GUEST: Dave Zirin is the bestselling author of five books, the sports editor of The Nation magazine

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