If They Don’t Want a Holiday, They Should Have to Pay Price

Martin Luther King Jr. believed in freedom for everybody. That includes everybody in the sovereign state of Arizona. But Dr. King would have marched at the forefront of any organized protest challenging the oppression of his or any other people. He would have sided with the National Football League in its threat to withdraw the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix, even if the object of all the controversy was himself.

Voting is a sacred right, but sometimes you need to make people see the light. That was true in Selma, Ala., when the issue was civil rights, and it was just as true nearly a quarter-century later in Birmingham, Ala., when the issue was what color skin a person needed to be permitted to play golf.

Do Arizonans have a right to resist the statewide celebration of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King? Of course they do. Does this mean Arizona, border to border, is populated by nothing but hooded rednecks and closet racists? Of course it doesn’t.

Arizona is hardly South Africa. It doesn’t draw a line down the middle of the state and order certain people to confine themselves to one side.

But Arizonans do not have a right to expect extra income and favored treatment from an organization such as the NFL, which prides itself on making necessary strides in the area of equality for all. After years of restricting blacks--perhaps subconsciously, perhaps circumstantially--from its front-office, head-coaching and even quarterbacking opportunities, the NFL has recognized the need to acknowledge that about 60% of its work force is black, and its consumers include a full ethnic mix.

Therefore, Paul Tagliabue, commissioner of the league, has kept his heart in the right place and has put his mouth where his money is. If the voting public of Arizona is willing to sacrifice as much as $200 million in badly needed revenue because of an unwillingness to pay tribute to Dr. King or a resentment over a perceived emotional blackmail on the part of the NFL to “vote our way or else,” then fine. So be it.

If they don’t want to play ball with the NFL, the NFL doesn’t want to play ball with them.

Tagliabue cut to the heart of the issue, saying: “Many of our players regard Martin Luther King as a role model. We’re encouraging them to be role models, and I think it would be unfair to ask them to play their championship game in that state in these circumstances.”

Agreed.

Yes, we feel sorry for those in Arizona who must pay the price for the pigheadedness of others. They are the well-behaved students who have to stay after class with the miscreants who hid the teacher’s erasers. But the innocent have always been made to suffer with the guilty. It is unavoidable. The employers and employees of professional football may be sympathetic, and will continue to do business with the good people of Phoenix. But they are hardly inclined to dispense special rewards.

These are nervous times in Phoenix. Certain universities are considering boycotting the Fiesta Bowl, which in turn could have a snowball effect, which in turn could scare off the men and women representing the soda manufacturers who sponsor the game.

Legislators are insisting that this war will continue to be waged. The state’s House Minority Leader, Art Hamilton, said another King Day bill will be proposed. Dr. King’s birthday already is acknowledged in the communities of Phoenix and Tempe, independent of the situation elsewhere in the state.

This matter is not cut and dried, any more than it is black and white. Yes, Super Bowl XXVII could be coming to Pasadena, or possibly Anaheim or San Diego or Los Angeles. The commissioner can’t wait until the last minute for Arizona to meet the league’s requirements. By March, at the league meetings, a decision will need to be made.

Arizona’s voters already made theirs. A majority of them took a stand. Super Bowl or no Super Bowl, they would not be told what to do, whom to honor, when to do so. This vote was not the consensus of a few dozen citizens. This was a very large and vocal group, heard clearly on Election Day.

Taking the Super Bowl away from these people is the least we can do.

They don’t want to observe one of our holidays, fine. Super Bowl Sunday is a sort of holiday, too, one we will happily observe someplace else.

Paul Tagliabue is to be commended for fighting for a principle, even to the point of being uncompromising. Only effective leaders can effect change. In an imperfect world, it is seldom easy to make things even slightly better. The stand the NFL is taking is, well, super.