COMMENTARY : Images of Fire, Rifles Politicize Athletes

Sure Michael Jordan can fly. But how would he and the rest of those superstars whose spectacular feats dominate our TV screens do at something really tough, say influencing November’s presidential election?

“You’re kidding, right?” was Jordan’s first response.

No, he was assured, after which the most recognizable figure in sporting America turned his chair halfway around, put his feet up on the opposite wall of his stall in the Chicago Bulls’ locker room earlier this week and fixed his questioner thoughtfully.

“Politically speaking,” Jordan began, “I’m a follower, not a leader.

“There are lots of things I’d like to change and lots of people who know more and are in a better position to make those changes than I am. . . . If someone came along with a well-thought-out proposal that addressed those things, I’d certainly listen and absolutely consider getting involved.

“But before I’d put my faith in a particular candidate, let alone do anything on his behalf, I’d have to know a lot more about him. And I mean a lot.

“On top of which,” Jordan added, “I have real doubts about what my endorsement is worth.”

The interesting thing is that we may soon find out.

Out of necessity or conviction, a few of sport’s most prominent figures have taken stands in recent years on some highly charged issues--Magic Johnson on AIDS, Oakland A’s manager Tony LaRussa on animal rights.

But recent images of Los Angeles on fire and the barrels of rifles belonging to National Guardsmen peering out from behind sandbags set down in front of the Sports Arena has politicized athletes like few incidents in recent memory.

And a sociology professor at the University of California at Berkeley suggested that now is the time to take advantage of it.

“To me,” professor Todd Gitlin said, “enlisting these athletes in a voter registration drive would be the simplest thing. It’s far from what’s required to solve the problems that are festering in our inner cities, but it’s a good first step.

“Athletes are already used in public-service campaigns against drugs and to get kids to stay in school. But there are very few things they could get behind that would help so many of their constituents, so to speak, than getting people to vote.

“I guarantee you that would get the politicians’ attention,” Gitlin added, “in a way they’ve never paid attention to these people before.”

Like the rest of us, athletes have opinions and self-interests; unlike the rest of us, they have the money and the celebrity to advance those causes if they choose. And don’t be surprised if, in the aftermath of the riots that burned an inner-city neighborhood that has spawned many more athletes than politicians, they begin choosing to do just that.

There is already a half-century of precedent of entertainers from the movie, television and recording industries injecting their high profiles into the political process, registering voters, raising money and awareness and contributing significant sums of their own to help elect candidates.

What seems incredible, in light of that fact, is why athletes are coming to the fray so late in the same game.

“The No. 1 fear athletes have is going out of their way to unnecessarily antagonize fans,” said agent Leigh Steinberg. “Sports is supposed to be one of the great unifying elements in our society, and political passions run very, very deep.

“Athletes are afraid that if they become identified with a particular candidate or cause, their fans are going to say, ‘To hell with him. He supports so-and-so.’ ”

As he talks on his car phone en route to Los Angeles, Steinberg pauses to count the number of trucks in a military convoy heading out of the same city back toward their base at Camp Pendleton. He stops when he reaches an even dozen.

“It’s big jump from the non-partisan sports arena into the world of politics,” he added. “But after what happened in LA last week, and how close to home it struck for so many of these guys . . . more and more ballplayers are beginning to feel they can’t stand on the sideline in good conscience any more.”

Steinberg, who went from being the student body president at Berkeley during the highly charged protest years of the late ‘60s and early 70s to managing the career of many of the most prominent athletes in the NFL, has been doing this kind of thing with his clients for nearly 20 years.

What has frustrated him, up until now, is the limited success of those efforts. And like Gitlin, Steinberg believes the reason is that athletes are relative newcomers to the world of money and influence, and unlike entertainers have no established organizations through which to focus their efforts.

But the number of ballplayers who called his office last week wanting to know what they could do to help, coupled with the frustrations many expressed in the media recently, have energized Steinberg to the point where he now believes a large-scale push could be sustained.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m going to start calling around this afternoon.

“Think about it. Magic Johnson pushing voter registration in LA. Will Clark, Matt Williams and Steve Young in San Francisco, Jordan in Chicago, Lawrence Taylor in New York . . . “