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I have only one sport for which I still have some degree of passion. Those who read the headline of this post would rightfully guess that it would be PGA Tour golf
Golf is different. Unique is one special way, from most sports. Touring professionals with a card to the PGA tour know one very important fact. If he does not produce, play well, they won’t make any money.
If the player doesn’t make the cut, after the first two rounds, they go home with no money. They paid their own expenses, and they came up empty.
Making the cut guarantees the player a payday. The better the score, the bigger the prize. The tour pays cash. And, as Yogi would say, “That’s as good as money.”
For example, Brooks Koepka won last week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. He took home a handsome $1.314 Million.
Compare that to Arron Wise who finished last. He earned $15,549. Not bad for four days work I suppose, but it actually is more than four days. Tour level players work on their game seven days a week. There are qualifying considerations for future events. Earning $15,000 a week won’t keep a player on tour long.
It’s why I enjoy golf. No showboats. Only producers play on tour. That can not be said in team sports. When a team loses, the players still get paid.
So What About China
Players make money from endorsements. They’re paid for wearing or using the gear of a sponsor.
Justin Thomas, the third-ranked player in the world, made a comment earlier this year. He scolded himself for a missed putt. He called himself a name that is not acceptable in polite, woke society. Not a four-letter word. No, that would be allowed. Not the all too common F-bomb. His offense was much worse. He offended, with a single word, what the media called a ‘homophobic slur’.
He apologized. Some believe he went over the top. He was, I’m sure, sincere. He felt bad. He did not expect the boom mike ‘way over there’ to pick up his momentary mental lapse. He said a word he wished he hadn’t used. He regrets it. He intended no harm.
The slur cost Justin Thomas a lot. The contract is reported to be worth something in the neighborhood of $30 Million. That’s what a single endorsement was worth. The sponsor canceled the contract.
To be fair, Thomas is in his last year of the contract, and his real loss of income is likely closer to $5 Million.
It is reported that Ralph Lauren, the sponsor, acknowledged Thomas’ apology. They ultimately, however, terminated the partnership. They are said to have left the door open for the 13-time PGA Tour winner to partner with the company again after he “does the hard and necessary work” to grow from the incident.
I wonder if the company has any intention of ‘doing the hard work’ to make things right with the workers in China?
We’re Getting To China
Anyone paying attention to the news should know about the human rights violations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) The CCP routinely persecutes people based on religious beliefs. There is only one religion in China. The Party.
Justin Thomas made a mistake and it cost him. Not only money but stature and probably some friends. In China, a member of the group that Thomas offended, if discovered, would be in a re-education camp. They would suffer the same plight as The Uyghurs. Uyghurs are Chinese Muslims. It is estimated that more than 1.3 million Uyghurs are in concentration camps in China. They are there solely because of their beliefs.
Christians, while fairing better than the Uyghurs, are routinely persecuted. They must meet secretly in private homes in order to worship, read the Bible, or otherwise practice their faith..
It is widely known that China exploits labor. Uygurs are the most persecuted and exploited. Other Chinese citizens are workers for the national good. Worker earnings are tantamount to slave wages. Workers own no property and enjoy few human rights.
How this connects to Justin Thomas and sports is simple.
The same people paying athletes millions in endorsement money have their products made by Chinese slave labor. The endorsement money is earned on the backs of the peasants of China.
It’s woke for big business to fain outrage when the athlete being paid to strut their wares should stray outside the lines.
There is no outrage that the products are made with slave labor. There is no outrage that persecutions are happening every day in the very factories the products are made.
The sponsor in the Thomas case, Ralph Lauren, manufactures sweaters, shirts, and footwear in China where human rights are non-existent.
Justin Thomas is not the only player with sponsors of Chinese made products. Nike and Foot Joy among others make much of their footwear in China.
My outrage is with the hypocrisy. A person has a slip of the tongue and the penalties are severe. Multinational companies can earn millions of dollars on the backs of slaves and persecuted people and no-one utters a word.
Perhaps the athletes should be more selective with their endorsements. Maybe sports agents should stand up and not take the contracts. Maybe we need a Jerry Maguire moment and end the million-dollar deals only possible because of the slave wages paid to make the products.
Maybe sports fans need to stand up and let companies know we won’t buy products made in China.