Written by There has been a recent culture shift, where athletes are now using their platform and resources to create spaces for open and honest conversations beyond their sport. HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted is a show starring Lebron James, where he and other celebrity guests, mainly professional athletes, join together in a barbershop for unfiltered and honest discussions on a wide variety of topics. Topics like being in the public eye at a young age, being black in white spaces, and raising children, to name a few, are discussed on the show.
I Am Athlete is a podcast hosted by Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Brandon Marshall, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder. These four NFL stars come together weekly, along with some guests, and discuss a wide variety of topics, both comedic and serious.
Both of these shows are a step in the right direction regarding hearing and understanding athletes better. Athletes are typically only seen through the lens of their sport and nothing further. Athletes, especially males, are usually not afforded the opportunity or space to discuss life outside of their sport and express their emotions. Hearing someone as influential as LeBron speak on his father’s absence and how it affected him, or how he regrets giving his oldest son his name because of the pressure he’ll have to live up to, offers viewers a different perspective on the struggles athletes and their families face. Even hearing Brandon ask the Hall of Fame guest Deion Sanders about the lowest moment in his life and Sanders opening up about his struggles and suicidal moments is shocking and eye-opening to what athletes internally battle with every day. Only from hearing and understanding the struggles athletes face can we start to change negative factors affecting them.
The growing popularity of shows like these that serve as a safe space for athletes to discuss problems and feelings openly will hopefully encourage more athletes to feel comfortable expressing themselves and talking with people instead of keeping everything bottled inside.
With the past year we’ve had as a nation between the pandemic and an increase in awareness of social injustice, now more than ever is the time to sit and listen to what athletes have to say. These two shows starring prominent and world-renowned professional athletes show that the sports world is moving in the right direction. The courage these athletes show by being so candid and vulnerable in their discussions will hopefully entice people to listen to what they’re saying, help make changes, and encourage athletes of all levels to sit and have conversations and be vulnerable about their experiences and emotions. Listening to these discussions and understanding what athletes feel and go through daily helps us all “humanize” athletes and allows viewers to see them as people whose identity far beyond surpasses what they produce on the court or field.