We’ve learned a lot about ourselves as a society in the last 15 or so years, and most of it isn’t good.
Differences that were presumably negotiated and resolved are anything but. Wounds that had been considered bandaged are now open and festering.
Worst yet, fears, phobia and hatred are on the table and acceptable in ways that would have been unimaginable not so long ago.
There may have been a time when sports provided a respite from all of our real world ills, but that time has passed.
We recently told you about ongoing moves from the White House and the NCAA to bar the nearly infinitesimal number of transgender athletes from participating in sports at colleges that receive federal funding.
Now comes a pair of Texas state legislators who will see the transphobia and raise us xenophobia as well.
A Lone Star State senator and a member of the House have introduced into their respective chambers legislation that would cap the amount of athletic scholarships, grants or other financial assistance offered by Texas public colleges for foreign athletes.
The legislators, both Republicans, would restrict schools like the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and the like to providing no more than 25 percent of their sports scholarships to non-U.S. citizens.
Texas state representative Drew Darby, who introduced the bill, told Front Office Sports that the bill is intended to provide opportunities for American citizens who fund athletics through their tax dollars.
In an email to Front Office Sports, which broke the story, Darby wrote quote The legislation still allows for foreign recruits to play on scholarship but ensures that the system is not being abused to recruit talent for the sole purpose of winning and deviating from the sacred mission of post-secondary education unquote.
At every American college or university, there are foreign students who come here to receive an education.
Some of them are athletes who help a school’s sports team in exchange for training that many use to bolster their national team’s efforts. From soccer to tennis to basketball and football and other sports, it’s a quid pro quo that benefits all sides.
Given the anti-immigrant fever sweeping the nation, it likely won’t take long for a right-wing legislator to try to push similar legislation through Congress if Donald Trump doesn’t try it first through an executive order.
It’s not known how many Texas athletes would be impacted by a Texas law, but Front Office Sports reports that of the estimated current 510,000 athletes who play in the NCAA, about 25,000 are from outside the U.S.
And those numbers may shrink. Immigration attorneys have told Front Office Sports that the visa application process has slowed since Trump took office last month. And the dragnet could sweep up not only athletes with visas, but also those with dual citizenship.
In the best of times, sports and those who play them -- even those from other shores -- have the potential to model the American ideal, but only if we stay true to our real values, the ones espoused on the Statue of Liberty, not the talking points of a conservative manifesto.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads, BlueSky and X at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Lisa Morgan, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.