Survey Says: 'Chop' On
With the Atlanta Braves back in the World Series for the first time since 1999, their traditional tomahawk chop chant is under increased media scrutiny.
A Sports Illustrated headline last week decried the chop as "synchronized, team-sanctioned racism," while Washington Post columnist Kevin Blackistone framed the Braves as the villains of the World Series, even against the Houston Astros, a team found to have cheated its way to a title in 2017.
Also under fire for his defense of the team is Manfred, who said the Native American community in the Atlanta area is "wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the chop."
The uproar from the media, however, doesn't appear to reflect broader sentiment toward a potential ban of the chant.
In a Morning Consult survey conducted last week, 51 percent of U.S. adults opposed the idea of MLB banning the chop from the ballpark, compared to 29 percent who supported the league stepping in. But a plurality of adults from Generation Z, a group baseball is desperately trying to appeal to, said they would support the league putting a stop to the chop, with 43 percent in favor and 28 percent opposed.
As for the Braves' team name and logo itself, 16 percent of U.S. adults said they find the branding either "very" or "somewhat" offensive. Slightly higher shares of respondents said they take offense to the Chicago Blackhawks (22 percent) and Florida State Seminoles (21 percent) brandings, both of which include logos that depict the face of an indigenous person.
By comparison, 33 percent of Americans polled last summer took issue with the Cleveland Indians moniker and "Chief Wahoo" logo, while 30 percent took offense to the Washington Redskins name and imagery.
But as the Redskins situation illustrated, moving away from long-standing Native American imagery in sports does not require majority support, but rather pressure from corporate America.
Other top stories from the week that was:
An independent investigation found top Chicago Blackhawks brass chose to keep sexual assault allegations made by former prospect Kyle Beach against ex-video coach Brad Aldrich quiet amid the team's run to a Stanley Cup victory in 2010. Stan Bowman resigned as president of hockey operations for the Blackhawks and general manager of the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team, and the NHL fined the Blackhawks $2 million for their "inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response" to the allegations. Subsequently, Joel Quenneville resigned as head coach of the Florida Panthers after meeting with Commissioner Gary Bettman about his handling of the allegations while coaching the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will not release emails and other documents related to the investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington Football Team, citing an obligation to protect the anonymity of witnesses who came forward to participate in the investigation. Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis later said the NFL should issue a written report detailing the findings of the probe.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Mitt Romney (R-Utah) proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for next year that would impose a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in response to alleged human rights violations by the Chinese government.
Todd Boehly, the part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers, made a "credible offer" for the Washington Spirit, according to a person familiar with the matter. Steve Baldwin, the Spirit's controlling owner, has been under pressure to sell the National Women's Soccer League team after multiple players accused former coach Richie Burke of abusive and racist behavior. On Friday, Larry Best, president of sporting operations and a key Baldwin ally, stepped down.
Also on Friday, the National Women's Soccer League Players Association said the league agreed to all of the union's demands for cultural changes and transparency after the Spirit players' abuse allegations. The NWSL said it would conduct an investigation overseen by two members of the players union, one from the league, one team representative and one neutral party jointly selected.
STAT OF THE WEEK
$63,900,050
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's annual income for each of the past two fiscal years, about 90 percent of which consists of bonuses for reaching a new collective bargaining agreement for owners with the NFL Players Association and signing new media rights agreements worth more than $100 billion over the next decade.
