Mike's Minute: TJ Perenara haka is a sign of the times

Surely the TJ Perenara performance is a sign of the times? How far back (small clue, not far) do you need to go to think that this sort of extra curricular activity would never have even been close to being countenanced by an All Black squad? Not long ago, essentially, sport was sport. It got political in the Springbok apartheid era, but that was politics from the outside in, not the other way around. It was Perenara's last time in the jersey, so why not leave with a message? I think that would be the argument for many but, what sort of message? If one of the blokes from rural New Zealand decided to slip in some support in the post match interview for the current gun reform, or the gang patch laws, how do you think that would go down? David Seymour, who quite sensibly asked in response to the Perenara views just what bit of equal rights do you not support, is kind of on a hiding to nothing. We have entrenched camps on this one. No one is in the middle. You either believe in the idea that we are all equal, or you don’t. Perhaps more worryingly Perenara's performance was spoken about with management and supported by them, so credit to him that it wasn’t some mad, spur-of-the-moment outburst. For the record, when he says it's important to him, no one doubts him. But lots of things are important to lots of people. But within all our lives are constraints. One of the constraints around being an All Black is you represent the country as an elite athlete, not a politician or an activist. As we saw in a much lesser way last week, the woman who may well head up content and news for the state-owned TV station took leave to go on the Treaty protest. Quite rightly, many asked whether that was wise. We can ask the same question of Perenara and, given he had All Black mangement blessing, we can ask that question of them too. If the criteria for protest as an All Black is passion, then we are asking for trouble. What we want in All Blacks are sports people of integrity, professionalism and, preferably, an ability to win a lot. The rest of it risks damaging the brand, insulting fans and distracting us from the main point of the outing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.