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LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 01: An overview of the basketball court shows the NBA logo and ... [+] Black Lives Matter before the start of a game between the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 01, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

End racism was spray painted in endzones. Breonna Taylor stickers were affixed to players helmets. George Floyds name was sewn onto jerseys. Professional sports teams and leagues made financial pledges to Black Lives Matter, black community organizations, and assorted racial justice initiatives. Athletes were allowed to kneel without penalty during the national anthem. League-sponsored commercials calling for Americans to work together to dismantle systemic racism aired on television networks across the country, usually during games.

These are just some of the many activities in which pro sports teams and leagues engaged during and immediately following the 2020 summer of racial reckoning.

This was the summer that Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery were murdered, and uprisings ensued across the United States and around the world. That August, the Milwaukee Bucks protested the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by opting out of their NBA playoff game. All other NBA games that day were postponed. Athletes, coaches, and executives not only joined the movement, but also leveraged their brands in ways they hadnt previously done.

The National Hockey League isnt at all well known for its racial diversity, yet even some of its teams participated in the movement by flashing Black Lives Matter on jumbotrons throughout their arenas. The NHL released a racial justice statement in which it publicly committed to increasing awareness, allyship, and advocacy. It began with the famous Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King quote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 02: A general view of signage and game action is seen in the second ... [+] period of Game One of the Western Conference Qualification Round between the Nashville Predators and the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Place on August 02, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

Additionally, several NHL players (most of whom are white) proudly wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to games and press conferences, knelt together on the ice before games, locked arms and hockey sticks to show solidarity with Black Americans, and gestured a shared commitment to racial justice in other ways. The League was left with no choice but to postpone four Stanley Cup Playoff games in August 2020, as NHL players also united in protest against the shooting of Jacob Blake.

To some fans and other Americans, all this seemed like a lot not just for hockey, but for pro sports as an industry. What are teams and leagues doing now that the protests have ended?

It appears the clock has run out on the performative activism that was on display in stadiums and arenas the latter half of 2020. It isnt because systemic racism has since been defeated.

In Los Angeles, all 11 pro sports teams united in July 2020 to form an alliance focused on racial justice. Collectively, theirs was a five-year commitment. Now, more than two years later, what is the Alliance currently doing to dismantle structural and systemic racism in our nations second largest city?

The Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, and eight other teams received significant local and national press when the Alliance was announced. But there has since been little public reporting of where funds have been invested, activities that have been launched, and change that has been enacted (or at least initiated). This begs two reasonable questions: Were teams in L.A. and elsewhere just temporarily inspired by the moment in 2020, and ultimately was it all just for show?

It seems that sports leagues and teams that comprise them didnt fully recognize to what they were committing two years ago. Responding in such bold ways to the murders and shootings of a handful of unarmed Black people in a particular moment in American history was important. But systemic racism is what leagues and teams claimed they were committed to tackling.

Clearly, they didnt understand that sustained engagement, courageous leadership, substantive partnerships with communities of color, public accountability, communication, and a lot more money are required. Racial justice also requires pro sports organizations to grapple with and fix internal racial problems, such as the severe underrepresentation of coaches and executives of color.

Last week, ESPN did an extensive feature on Justin Morrow, an extraordinarily accomplished pro athlete who played 12 seasons on two Major League Soccer teams. Morrow now works in the front office of Toronto FC, the team from which he recently retired as a player. He was one of the founders of Black Players for Change, an independent organization consisting of more than 170 MLS players, coaches, and staff working together in pursuit of racial justice.

Black Players for Change officially launched on June 19, 2020, just three weeks after George Floyds murder. Morrow and the other founders were committed to leveraging their personal platforms as well as the MLS brand to do something meaningful and sustainable. Their commitment endures, despite the ball-dropping that has occurred elsewhere throughout pro sports.

I believe summer 2020 ushered in a new generation of athlete activism characterized by collaboration and coordinated actions to dismantle systemic oppression at multiple levels, Morrow told me in an interview. Athletes are engaging in activism at unprecedented numbers, which has shifted the power dynamic further to the side of the players. With fears of retaliation diminished, the new possibilities are exciting.

In addition to his Toronto FC management role and continued work with Black Players for Change, Morrow is spending two years as a Global Sports Initiative Fellow at the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. A significant portion of his fellowship is devoted to collaborating with a team of experts to determine what racial justice activities occurred across pro sports organizations in 2020, as well as what players and their teammates are doing now. He also wants to know what athletes feel are appropriate and necessary racial justice activist activities in their industry. Starting next week, Morrows team of academic experts will begin surveying hundreds of women, men, and genderqueer athletes throughout MLS and several other pro sports leagues.

More than two years later, athletes are holding up their end of the deal. We continue to push for accountability, and show up where others are falling short, Morrow notes. The amount of work weve done is astounding. I hope the aggregated insights of players across leagues that our survey produces will give us guidance on how to further lobby for change.

Earlier this year, the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center published a report on advancing and sustaining racial justice in pro sports. It includes several reflective questions, a racial justice continuity framework, and numerous concrete actions that will deepen and sustain the momentum of summer 2020. Pro sports teams and organizations claiming a commitment to racial justice really must do more of what is recommended in this publication.

Ultimately, athletes collectively refusing to play until their teams and leagues make good on racial justice promises is the surest way to hold their organizations and the executives who lead them accountable.

Too many people in pro sports who jumped on the bandwagon two years ago are now taking a timeout. Meanwhile, the systemic racism they declared an opponent is still accumulating points and negatively affecting the lives of people of color within and beyond their industry.

More:
Pro Sports Teams And Leagues Are Dropping The Ball On Racial Justice - Forbes