Some of the most visible moral voices right now aren’t pastors or politicians; they are athletes. 

Breanna Stewart, two‑time WNBA MVP and co‑founder of the new Unrivaled league, walked onto the court in Minneapolis holding an “abolish ICE” sign just a day after agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, the second person in three weeks killed by federal officers in the city. After the game, Stewart said she had been “disgusted” all day, that “we’re so fueled by hate right now instead of love,” and that abolishing ICE, for her, meant “having policies to uplift families and communities instead of fueling fear and violence.”

Across town, Minnesota Frost assistant captain Kelly Pannek stood in full gear after a 6–2 win, visibly shaken. She spoke not about the game but about her neighbors. “What I’m most proud to represent,” she said, “is the tens of thousands of people that show up on some of the coldest days of the year to stand and fight for what they believe in.”

Olympic volleyball star and Minneapolis native Jordan Thompson joined street protests outside ICE’s Whipple Building. She described agents throwing flash‑bangs at peaceful demonstrators, and said she “couldn’t be silent” while her hometown was being terrorized.

Olympic skier Jessie Diggins admitted she could barely focus on racing, calling what ICE is doing in Minnesota “devastating. She said she is skiing to honor people “back home… working hard to protect their neighbors.”

Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve marched in the cold and posted protest photos with the caption, “This is my city. #ICEOUT.”

Former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team stars with major podcasting platforms, Abby Wombach (We Can Do Hard Things) and married couple Tobin Heath and Christen Press (The RE-Cap Show), made it very clear to their tens of thousands of listeners where they stand on ICE’s presence. 

Female athletes are more apt, of course, to speak out against injustice in sport as they’ve had to advocate for their existence, fans, and pay for as long as their sports have been alive.

But even male athletes such as MLB pitchers Bailey Ober and Spencer Strider, and NBA stars Guerschon Yabusele, Victor Wembanyama, and Anthony Edwards have spoken of their horror at the killings. 

Locker Room Morality

If you only see the headlines, it’s easy to wave all this away as “athletes getting political again.”  But if you’ve actually lived inside a locker room, you know that what is happening isn’t a fad or a stunt. It is muscle memory of long-curated and disciplined training. 

What fans and outsiders don’t often understand is that elite athletes get to their level not because of talent, but because they understand that their flourishing is tethered to the flourishing of the collective.

They sacrifice-bunt because their team advancing a base is more important than their batting average. They set the screen so someone else can get the open shot. They lay their body out for the overthrow, they sprint back on defense when they’re exhausted, they eat well, they make sure they get sleep, they take care of their bodies, not just for their own sake, but because other people are counting on them.

Everyone is responsible for each other. 

In the same spirit, when something in the system starts to rot, athletes are taught to address it immediately. If there’s gossip in the locker room, you shut it down. If a younger player is slacking, you pull them aside and train them up. If someone keeps showing up late, you name it, and you hold them accountable, because one person’s drift will eventually drag the whole team with them.

Over time, that kind of life together gets under your skin and becomes what I call a “holy reflex.” And it’s not one that’s activated only in sport.

As a former college athlete, I can tell you: if one teammate is struggling or having an off day, you sense it right away. Even before you have the language for “culture” or “systems,” you can sense when something toxic is in the air, and you know it will cost your team its future if no one moves to confront it.

And so, we should not be surprised when the holy reflex of athletes across leagues and sports is activated to come out against ICE occupying their city, terrorizing their neighbors, killing people like Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Their training senses that there is something in the waters of this country keeping our collective team from flourishing, and they are going to do everything in their power to stop it.

Athletes who have spent their whole lives learning to protect the Body are not going to sit idly by while yet another system comes in to prey on it.

May the church learn from them.