Athletes Speaking Up on Social Media: The Line and the Need for a Players' Union

"Social media is a powerful tool"

Almost every human being has a social media account whether it's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Among the groups that have been active on social media are athletes. For some, they use social media as a way to stay in touch with their fans. For many, social media has been a channel where athletes speak up on certain issues whether it's related to the league they're playing or related to the political situation. In some instances, some athletes could even be vocal in social media to the point that they may have crossed a line. 

As Cesca Litton-Kalaw asked, "Where's is the line?"

Off the Record with Migs and Cesca talked about that "line" along with former professional basketball player, Don Allado, and sports lawyer, Attorney Mickey Ingles. 

For Attorney Ingles, it goes down to the contract signed between the athlete and the team he/she is playing for, and the rules and regulations of the league. "The line that you can't cross is whatever is written there in your contract or whatever is written there in the rules and regulations of the league. In Don's example, maybe he crossed a line when he violated a PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) rule. So that's the line that you have to look for," Ingles also reminded athletes. "When an athlete wanna speak out, it's good that you wanna speak out but number one, you also have to know that there will be consequences of you speaking out especially if you're a professional athlete because everyone knows that we have this freedom of speech. But when you sign a contract, you can actually waive those free speech rights just like any other employee at any company. If you're an employee of, for example, San Miguel, there's probably something in your contract that says you can't speak badly of San Miguel because you are working for them and they're actually waiving your free speech rights at least for that aspect by signing that contract. And that's what most athletes waive that right when they sign with their team, join the league,"

For Don Allado, a players' union like the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) in the United States is something that athletes here in the Philippines could use especially to amend clauses such as the clause that prohibits athletes from saying something bad about the league. As Allado pointed out, some NBA players have been vocal on social media especially when it comes to issues around the league and social issues but, "Nothing happened to them (players who spoke up) because of the powers of the players' union. The players' union is there not just to protect the players. It's there to help develop the league," 

Ingles agreed with Allado's point. "That's one of my main issues with Philippine sports. We don't have a players' association. We don't have like the NBPA, NFLPA that will advocate for then players' rights. Not only advocate for the players' rights, after the collective bargaining agreement has been written, after the league rules have been drafted, if there's like a PBA union, maybe we can help amend the uniform player's contract to take out that detrimental clause that you can't talk detrimentally or say bad things about the league. If you have a union, maybe the negotiation table will be equal on both sides and without it, the players in the PBA don't have someone advocating for their rights. It's really one-sided. The Holy hope that players have if ever they do speak against the league is that the league is compassionate with what they (players) say. That's a big hope so we need a players' union to advocate  for the players and their rights,"

In the end, Allado reminded everyone, "Social media is a powerful tool. Just use it properly and wisely,"

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