It was 3:55pm Wednesday afternoon. I was preparing to sit on my favorite chair and prepare to watch Game 5 of the NBA Playoffs First Round between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic. I figured that it would be a quick easy win for the heavily-favored Bucks so the game shouldn’t be competitive for long. Then…the words ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in bold red letter flashed across my screen. The game was postponed.

My first thoughts were, “Oh no, did someone come in contact with the coronavirus?” But no, it wasn’t the deadly virus that they came in contact with, it was something else. Something that affected the players, coaching staff, and workers in attendance. It was a sense of moral responsibility.

Oh, we’ve seen this before, when athletes use their podiums (literally and figuratively) to speak out against racism and injustice. I’ve seen the video of the Tommie Smith and John Carlos lift up their black-gloved fists in unison on the stage of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. We now marvel at the courage of Muhammad Ali in movies as he defied orders to go to Vietnam during the heat of an unjust war. More recently, we have seen NFL players from Colin Kaepernick to Eric Reid kneel during the national anthem, and in addition, white players such as Megan Rapinoe do the same thing.

But this, this was different. This happened during the playoffs, where the league’s greatest stars shine brightest. The silence in the Orlando arenas spoke so loudly as the league postponed games that night, and an even more powerful statement was made later on as on TNT’s Inside the NBA, commentator Kenny Smith walked off the set, putting down his microphone, saying “As a black man and as a former player, I have to stand with the players.” The stunned look on his colleague’s faces was eerie and uncomfortable, which is what it should have been.

If one thinks that it only was an NBA thing, teams from the Seattle Mariners to the San Francisco Giants canceled their Major League Baseball games as well, with the Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers canceling their games tonight. Major League Soccer did the same thing across their league. As of today, the National Hockey League did the exact same thing and canceled all of their games. Way to go NHL!

Black people, and in particular athletes, have had enough.

Too many times we have all been forced to witness black men being brutally shot by police, and in the case of Jacob Blake, seven times by one officer. Protests erupted in the town of Kenosha, with a 17-year old white assailant from Illinois deciding to take the law into his own hands and kill innocent people. Across the league, a statement had been made, and they forced the owners, fans, and media to listen. “Don’t take us for granted,” the athletes protests said, “we will not just shut up and dribble, hit, or kick for your entertainment.”

It’s easy to dismiss the other leagues and say, “Well I don’t watch that anyway.” What about the almighty National Football League, which is king in America? Its commissioner, Roger Goodell, appeared on Emmanuel Acho’s show “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” and he addressed the kneeling protests. Goodell shared how Kaepernick’s protests and his own nephew, who is black, opened his eyes to the reality of the situation.

“The first thing I’d say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.” He added that the league will no longer discipline players, explicitly or implicitly, for kneeling. “We have never disciplined a single player for anything with the national anthem and in violation, and I don’t intend to,” Goodell said. “I will support it … I don’t think [disciplining them] is the right thing to do.”

His nephew, who is adopted, showed him the video of the tragic shooting, and it made the Commissioner become uncomfortable according to the interview.

“Seeing somebody live in that kind of fear is just not right,” Goodell said. “We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to make this world better, because it’s just not right.”

This country has become divided between a culture who thinks that the actions of the cop (and the 17-year old killer) and justified, and those who are constantly oppressed knowing the reality, as well as those who support them.

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Thom Hartmann put it best, “Republican people fear when black people have wealth and political power, and are not afraid to use it.” These athletes all across the spectrum have proven that they are not just here to give viewers 3 hours of a distraction. They are going to speak out, and stand up against, the murder of black and brown people at the hands of authorities who are taught to serve and protect.

There is no sacred cow of just thinking when you turn the television on all you’re going to get is a game, you’re going to get a picture of an America that isn’t all red, white, and blue. It’s an ugly image that is finally coming to the surface.

Even as the NBA players agreed to resume playing after threatening to boycott the entire season, the message has been sent. No more will owners think that all they can do is cut a check and expect players to fall in line while so much hatred is going on the streets of the cities these athletes grew up in. These owners have the ability to contact Mayors and Congressmen and reach them with one phone call. Those who think they can just spend their way out of it are mistaken.

For those fans who think these black and brown players should only play and not speak, another message has been sent to them. The pandemic might have put a temporary pause on sports, but the players have the power to shut it down permanently. Next time, there may not be a restart.