I have a hard time taking most athletes’ political views too seriously, in the same way they shouldn’t take mine too seriously. I follow politics fairly closely (not as closely as the wolves — what’s wrong with me?), andI firmly believe that everyone has a right to their opinion about politics, but it doesn’t make me an expert, and just because I like expresisng my opinion in one of the most contested and important elections of my time doesn’t mean people should be listening to me. And you also should be smart enough to realize that you shouldn’t be basing yoru political views on what the average (or in Madsen’s case, below average) athelete thinks.

Things get a little different if you really cross a line, and are making more of just a bigoted statement rather than a political one (see: Hardaway, Tim). Maddog is obviously in a much more grey area than KLove “I’m for low taxes!”, but it’s also clearly informed by his religious beliefs.

And I’m not making the argument “all athletes are stupid/self-centered so their views don’t count.” I just mean that they shouldn’t count more than the average stranger’s do, and quite frankly, I think most people get that. McCain didn’t win Ohio or Indiana, despite Brady Quin’s support.

Athlethes are definitly allowed to their own opinion, just as I try to respect “regular” other people’s opinions I would want to respect athelethes’ opinions to. I can understand if you’re 100% behind something and you know you have a voice, then why wouldn’t you use it. It’s natural you want to spread the word about what you think is “right”.

BUT

There’s a reason we’re called fans. There’s a reason I felt tears coming up when I saw Garnett yell TOP OF THE WORLD, there’s a reason we’re swearing as if it really makes a difference in our lives when our team gets beat by 2 points. That’s because you identify with the group and as a result, also with the players. That’s why if the issue is something you really care about it has a chance of hurting that identification.

In this case, the damage is minor only because of the fact he’s an unimportant player. Though it does make me “unsympathise” with the guy because it’s really against everything I believe in.

Should he have kept it to himself then? No, though he should be aware of the consequences of his action, as we say here in Belgium (don’t know if its same over there :p) big trees catch lots of wind. So if you stick your neck out, you gotta understand that some people might not like it and withdraw their support from you.

After all the dude was with the Wolves forever before I twigged to his being a Mormon. He doesn’t exactly advertise his politics or religion. I’m sure this money was given because they put the arm on him to help out. If you’re Mormon and got bucks, I don’t think you’ve got a lot of wiggle room in these matters.

Madsen is also easily one of the best role models the Wolves have ever had. Even KG wasn’t anywhere near as squeaky clean as Madsen (has Garnett EVER been photographed with an alcoholic beverage anywhere near him?).

But that doesn’t mean I don’t think GLBT supporters shouldn’t be picketing the hell out of LDS and Catholic churches for their bad behavior in California.

Everybody has an opinion and if you care enough about it, you will support it, either thru time or money or both. Heck, I didn’t know Madsen was LDS until this post. I understand that those with the bigger soapboxes should be more careful in what they say, but any of us can say any doggone thing we like. THAT is the reason the US is still a great place to live and work, even if you don’t support current politics/economics. As long as your views are not shoved down my throat, you may voice them any way you wish.
Had a boss one time who thought anybody who didn’t vote her way was WRONG!! While I shared her opinion, I was turned off by her means of “spreading the word” and it did upset other employees. That is when you’ve gone over a line and that is what needs to be watched closely. I think prop 8 is proper based on my religious views and if you think differently then fine, we agree to disagree, just like I think the Love/Mayo trade was good for the Wolves. When you start telling me what I should believe and calling me names (or worse) because I don’t, that gets my hackles up.
OK I’ll get off my small soapbox now.

I think it’s a really interesting debate. I agree with you too, I think this particular issue is best framed as a civil rights issue. It’s tough to draw a line because the Mormons will say that marriage is clearly not a secular concept, just as Catholics say that abortion can’t be thought of as a strictly political matter because human life is at stake, and life transcends politics. I can’t say I agree with the Mormon argument, but I think the question of whether marriage is an inherently religious concept is what is at stake. I think this is why so many of those who oppose same-sex marriage are fine with same-sex “civil unions.”

I’m fine with guys like Schilling or Jared Allen supporting conservatives, and guys like Bobby Wade supporting liberals. But given the way I see this particular issue, I’m also pretty uncomfortable with Madsen’s donation here. I’d really like to hear what he has to say about it.

I just wanted to say that I think the sport par excellence for thinking about sports and politics is soccer. There are so many examples, from the “soccer war” between El Salvador and Honduras, to Maradona’s friendship with Castro and support of far-left politics, to Lilian Thuram being one of the most recognizable faces of the anti-Sarkozy movement, to the phenomenon of “ultras” (hard-core fans with often far-right views). It’s built into the very structure of the sport, insofar as teams aren’t “franchises” like here but clubs that often grew out of specific political groups/organizations: hence in Rome you have Lazio (right) vs. Roma (left), in Rio you have bourgeois, student, and proletariat teams, etc. I’m sure Wim could say a lot about this – wonder if Anderlecht or Standard Liège have their own “ultras”? Anyways I think outside of North America athletes, and entire teams for that matter, are much more integrated into politics than they are here.

Atheletes should be free to speak freely about politics if they wish. It is defininatly not to their advantage though as they are only alienating their fan base and limiting their marketability. They should wait until they retire.

That being said I do not agree with morality or civil rights issues going to a public referendum anyway. That is not how this country was set up. Public opinion is not alway right for our country. I think the LDS church and Mark Madsen have too soon forgotton how public opinion resulted in persecution in Missouri and Illinois where the majority mobs trampled the right of Mormon citiczens.

I guess the line about respect another opinion is when the opinion you should be respecting isn’t respectfull in itself.

Well first of all, we have a lot political parties for such a small country. This makes that there’s a few parties that are close to each other, so this enables people to more quickly jump from one band wagon to the other.
We don’t really have that kind of fidelity to parties. At both extremes there are some people who stay loyal to one party (namely the “Green” party who’s very pro environement and the “Vlaams Belang”, who’s very extreme right/hyper conservative).
For the rest, Belgium is a country of followers, it’s a bit like a carrousel. Every time someone screws up something, that party loses a lot of votes, these votes then go to another party who gets a chance and stays at the power as long as no one screws up, when someone does, it’s the next party’s turn. I guess that’s the downside of makeing voting obligatory.

It’s also very hard here to have a conversion with someone because having an opinion is often (inadvertadly) frowned upon like this: I had the following thing happen with a collegue.
Her desk is like 5 feet from mine. Still, she printed out an e-mail just to show the contents to me, so when I said to her she didn’t have to print out that mail, she said “It’s only scratch paper” … to which I said “Scratch paper is made from the same tree as regular, Lut” (Lut, being her name). The moment after that you could see her brain going “OMG, He’s a green!” I then went ahead and made a joke, her response confirmed my thought.

So either you have no opinion on anything and you just switch parties every time around and call Politics not interesting and all Politicians are just “zakkenvullers” (people who are just doing something to fill their pockets with money) or you do have an opinion, but then you quickly get pushed into one of the parties boxes and further discussion is made impossible because they already think they know how you think :).
It’s kinda the other way around but with the same endresult ;)