By now, we are conditioned to automatically associate activism in sports with protest. So the face of activism -- at least for a time, the face and the name attached to it in sports -- became a football quarterback named Colin Kaepernick. He spoke to his beliefs during the playing of the National Anthem before NFL games, while he was still in the NFL.
But there are other ways to speak up, and speak out, that are no less meaningful and important. We all saw the amazing and honorable efforts of another NFL player, J.J. Watt, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a storm that came for another great American city the way Katrina once came for New Orleans.