The social media accounts for America’s top professional sports leagues and their teams embraced Friday’s federal Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the freeing of Black enslaved people in America — offering, in some notable instances, a significant contrast to the manner in which those same leagues and teams handled the start of Pride Month.
The NFL, the country’s most successful and popular professional league, celebrated Juneteenth on social media by reposting some teams’ recognition of the day.
The NFL acknowledged Juneteenth after declining to do so with Pride Month at its June 1 kickoff or at any point since. Said another way, Pride Month’s June 1 start came and went and the NFL’s X account that serves over 36 million followers and its Instagram account that serves 32 million followers did not mention the event.
THE NFL’S MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS REMAINED SILENT ABOUT PRIDE MONTH ON ITS FIRST DAY
There was another contrast in that all the NFL’s 32 franchises except for one acknowledged Juneteenth. When Pride Month began, multiple individual NFL clubs declined to celebrate.
The NFL teams that didn’t celebrate the start of Pride Month included the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints.
Most of those did not celebrate Pride Month last year, either.
The one NFL team that did not acknowledge Juneteenth on Friday was the Detroit Lions.
This is a weird one. The Lions are not typically a team that flies counter to recognizing social justice causes. Indeed, the club changed its logo during Pride Month by painting its lion in rainbow colors as a tip of the proverbial cap to the LGBTQ community.
But it didn’t do anything on a day many Black Americans recognize as important to their history and culture.
The Lions weren’t the only sports team or league that, for whatever reason, didn’t recognize Juneteenth. The NHL social media accounts were silent about Juneteenth on Friday and that makes the NHL the only major sports league that did not recognize the holiday because the NBA and MLB joined the NFL in recognizing the holiday.
EX-NHL STAR RIPS RANGERS ORGANIZATION FOR HOSTING PRIDE NIGHT
This omission came despite the fact the NHL showed its support as a league on social media at the start of Pride Month.
Finally, the Texas Rangers are the only MLB team that does not hold a Pride Month day or night at its ballpark. But the Rangers celebrated Juneteenth on Friday.
And why does any of this matter?
Because in a country increasingly divided by social justice causes and their opposing viewpoints, fans increasingly care where their sports teams stand — sometimes to fans’ glee or chagrin — depending on whether their opinions agree with that of their teams or leagues.
Those teams and leagues that years ago mostly stuck to sports, abandoned that stance long ago and now enthusiastically dive into causes, months and holidays they wish to celebrate and, thus, endorse.
Or ignore.
It’s something of a statement either way.
Juneteenth, by the way, celebrates the day in 1865 when Union Army Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas and announced to enslaved people that they were free under the Emancipation Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln (R-Ill.) signed as an executive order in 1863.
In fact, Granger’s announcement was legally premature. Lincoln’s Proclamation did not free slaves in all states. And it was, in fact, Congress which passed the 13th Amendment to free all bond people, which happened in January 1865.
That vote by the 38th Congress included 86 Republican votes in favor of the amendment and zero against. It included 15 Democratic votes in favor of the 13th Amendment and 50 against.
The 13th Amendment was ratified by the states in December 1865 and enslaved people were then free per the Constitution.
In 2020, President Donald Trump campaigned to institute Juneteenth as a holiday. He lost the election and Joe Biden signed legislation into law making it a national holiday in 2021.
Someone should tell the NHL and the Detroit Lions.
