Since I can remember, I’ve been interested in basketball and national politics. In the past couple of years, though, my interest in national politics has waned as it has increasingly become more WWE than policy. My interest in sports have widened to include football, too.

Sports have become an almost unbelievable celebration of human ability. The athletes are stronger, more agile, and capable of achieving things that just don’t seem possible. And most of them do it as part of a larger team effort.

I’m particularly enamored with basketball and football – the NBA, WNBA, and the NFL. (If Oregon was playing in the CFB championship, I might add college football, as well.) Yes, I absolutely deplore the injuries in and head injuries in the NFL, and I’m not sure those can be fixed. Still, the athleticism is just too good to turn away.

But *what* is it about sports that interests me so much now? I’ve been asking myself this question for weeks, and I think I know now.

Action on the various sports fields is the closest thing we have to a meritocracy – the most level playing fields. If you’re on the field, you’re absolutely one of the best in the world. This is especially true when contrasted against other fields.

If you put an unqualified white man in a position of power in any other field than sports, there are hundreds of years of bias and bigotry there to prop up every dumb thing he does. The support systems there to make sure everything work out OK for that white man are almost inconceivably strong. In the United States, every single dumb white guy is held up by 400 years of unearned gravitas and 334 million people going about their days to make him look good. It’s the ultimate Ponzi scheme.

If you put that same unqualified white man on the basketball court or the football field, we would know within 30 seconds what was happening. He would parade around for 10 seconds to wild applause before the whistle blew, and then it would go comically and even horrifically wrong immediately after that.

His lack of qualifications would be completely exposed, he would suffer utter humiliation, and it’s likely he’d be maimed for life if not altogether killed by his true superiors on the field. He’d go from celebrated to canceled forever – all within 30 seconds.

Today, I’ll celebrate someone who knew this best – Martin Luther King, Jr. He knew that black men and women just needed an equal chance at greatness. Sports have been an area where that has been shown true because there’s absolutely no room for unqualified white men any longer.

On this same day, we’ll place an unqualified white man in the ultimate position of power. His only qualification is that he has fooled so many of my fellow Americans. It’s absolutely certain he will fail spectacularly, but it’s also completely certain a giant swath of exceedingly ignorant and racist people will never be able to admit that.

If only the arena he is operating in would have such swift and total defeat in store for him as it would on the field of sport.