For those who haven’t seen it yet, Kyle Green and Doug Hartmann have an excellent white paper on The Society Pages about politics and sports. They discuss several of the ways in which politicians use sports to connect with the public and how sports can become venue for political activity.
In the article, they point out that the press has widely referred to President Obama as the “Sports President.” While Obama, no doubt, enjoys watching sports, filling out March Madness brackets, and playing pick-up hoops, he is probably also aware that cultivating this image may reap political rewards by enhancing his likability or relatability with the public. This may explain why he was willing recently to sit down with The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, for an extended interview about all things athletic.
Kyle and Doug rightly critique the assertion that Obama is the first “Sports President.” Appreciation of sports and athleticism have long been requisite interests for American Presidents. As they write, “The celebration of Obama seems to be a case of collective amnesia … if we peruse the historical archives, it seems almost every president was hailed [as the Sports President].”
Here’s where I disagree a bit. Though he’s certainly not the first “Sports President,” I think Obama might be the first “ESPN President” or “SportsCenter President.” Of course, ESPN existed under Clinton and W. Bush. But Obama hit his 20s just as ESPN was founded. So, he was the core age demographic for the network in its first two decades of its existence. To the extent that ESPN changed sports culture, it seems like Obama is the first President to be a part of that new culture.
Now, what is the sports culture created by ESPN? I’m not sure I can pinpoint it and would love to know about research that has tackled that question. It seems to me that among the biggest changes wrought by ESPN is that fans can easily be far more knowledgeable about a whole range of sports. No longer a Mets fan or even a baseball fan, many people today (especially men) can be “sports guys,” interested in and knowledgeable about more players, more teams, and more sporting activities. ESPN has also been a leading proponent of more complex statistical analysis of sports and stats-based gaming like March Madness and online Fantasy sports leagues. Finally, ESPN also seems to have bridged the gap between sports and other pop culture. With their trademark snarky asides and references to movies and TV, they have changed the fabric of sports culture, making it more playful and, perhaps, more widely accessible.
Update: In a funny coincidence, Doug Hartmann and I posted on the same set of issues within a seconds of each other. Read his take here!
Comments 4
Jose — March 8, 2012
Nice post Andrew! This is a fascinating question to me. I think beyond ESPN, Obama seems to have a pop culture literacy that no other president has had before. It's not that he's a sports fan, its that he talks the "language" of ESPN. I think this cuts across sports. I posted a while back on Obama's use of hip-hop memes during the campaign. In particular I remember him using Jay-Z's "shoulder brush" on the campaign trail and having my jaw drop. There's a political, entrepreneurial quality to Obama that hasn't translated as well to governing as it has to campaigning.
Kyle Green — March 8, 2012
Hi Andrew,
I really enjoyed the post. It was President Obama and his March Madness picks getting front-page coverage on ESPN that really got me thinking about this topic. I agree with you that within the 'Sporting President' category there is something a bit different about Obama's engagement with sport, in particular basketball.
I would also love to see research that focused on the changes in fan culture brought on by ESPN. I know that Raymond Ganache wrote a book about the history of sports highlights but I do not think the main focus is audience consumption.
Thanks for engaging with the paper,
kyle
Kyle — March 9, 2012
Hey Andrew,
I really enjoyed the post as well. I agree with both you and Joe in saying that Obama has engaged with popular culture and sports culture in ways that no former presidents have. This is most likely due, in large, to shifting times in availability and accessibility of the information. Due to twenty-four hour news programs, sports shows, and celebrity gossip channels, we all have a deeper access into the sports world, the lives of celebrities, and the lives of politicians. We care pretty deeply about what celebrities, professional athletes, and our president do on a regular basis. I think we really want to understand their lives so that we can either emulate them, or abandon them completely. However, the piece that is also essential to note is the proliferation of access to the internet. Suddenly, if you have a computer and wifi, you can be an expert on pretty much anything. ESPN, 24 hours news networks, and gossip channels have paved this course, but I think it only expands as internet accessibility and use increases.
Thanks for the post,
Kyle
andrew m. lindner — March 9, 2012
Jose - I *experience* Obama's pop culture literacy as something new. But I'm not sure what's different about Obama referencing Jay-Z and Bill Clinton talking about his boxers on MTV (or playing the sax on Arsenio). Clearly, some Presidents are "cooler" than others (for all his moral virtue, Jimmy Carter was profoundly uncool). But it's hard to pinpoint what it is about Obama.
Kyle I - "particularly basketball" is right. The unmentioned issue here is the link between his racial identity and sports. That basketball and not, say, soccer is his favorite sport is important for the way the public (white and black) interprets him.
Kyle II - great point about the Internet. ESPN has been incredibly savvy in harnessing new technologies. I was recently in a social with four people simultaneously looking at the ESPN app on their smartphones.