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As one of the world's most recognizable athletes, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is emblematic of the modern athlete-activist; as such, it is important to understand how the media frame him in the context of a controversial issue. In recent years, he has used it to quietly support the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by police on a Cleveland playground, just miles from where the Cavaliers play and just north of James's hometown of Akron. James declined to comment on the case, and a Twitter campaign-#NoJusticeNoLeBronattempted to force his hand. This article examines the role of James as an athleteactivist, identifying four frames embedded in content around James and the Black Lives Matter movement: Brand LeBron; Established Voice, Higher Expectations; Attention, Not Aggression; and Community Versus Protest. We found James is cautious and deliberate in his activism, moderating a message of consideration rather than revolution, contextualized by his brand and ambitions.

This study analyzed media framing of two players from the National Basketball Association (NBA), Royce White and DeMar DeRozan, who both publicly addressed their mental health concerns within the last decade. Due to societal stigmas, such a public conversation was once a rarity in the NBA, making their discussion of mental health a worthy area of examination. A media framing analysis of 58 press articles for White and 42 articles for DeRozan revealed six frames for each athlete used to discuss their situation. Despite both being African American athletes playing the same sport, they were covered differently. Analysis discovered that frames for White, a first-year player who wanted changes in the system of how the NBA handled mental health, most commonly focused on him and his specific situation, while frames for DeRozan, an NBA All-Star who positioned himself solely as an advocate, most frequently discussed shedding the stigma of mental health and the increased awareness surrounding the topic. Additionally, while there were frames critical of White, there were no such frames for DeRozan. Still, for both players, this type of coverage humanizes the experience of mental health and leads to important insights about changes in masculinity among athletes.

Athletes who sustain concussions endure a variety of physical, mental, emotional, and social isolation effects as they rehabilitate. Accordingly, concussion recovery can induce grieving processes as athletes navigate the loss of athletic participation, social networks, and daily routine disruption. This research sought to gain a richer understanding of athletes’ lived experiences with concussions through grief discourse shared in online narratives. Through an analysis of athletes’ experiences shared via 58 blog posts on three concussion websites, the data reveal how athletes frame the losses that concussions bring into their lives, the subsequent feelings and expressions that result, along with how they eventually cope. The information disclosed in these online spaces can benefit parents, friends, coaches, and others to better understand concussion recovery, thereby enhancing their supportive communication and behaviors towards athletes as they rehabilitate from concussions.

Football player safety, specifically concussions, has been a growing area of debate in U.S. mainstream media. Whereas many of these discussions are centered on the health effects experienced by former players, active National Football League (NFL) players often discursively minimize concussions. However, in March 2015, 24-yearold, San Francisco 49ers player Chris Borland voluntarily retired, specifically citing concerns about the health risks associated with concussions sustained while playing football. A textual analysis of 112 digital media and 187 print media articles revealed 10 frames that were used to discuss Borland's decision. Analysis revealed that the most prominent frame used in media outlets was centered on the health risks and consequences of playing football, while other frames discussed parental choice and social mobility associated with football. The results suggest that decisions by NFL players with respect to concussions can be framed in the context of larger social and cultural issues. As this occurs, conversations around safety, masculinity, and football move beyond the microlevel of participation, capturing macrolevel elements, such as parental consent, socioeconomic status, and health prioritization that factor into football participation.

This research analyzed the media framing of the decision by D. J. Carton, a collegiate men’s basketball player from Ohio State University, to take a leave of absence from his team due to mental health issues. While prior research has examined media framing of public mental health disclosures by professional athletes, this has yet to occur for a collegiate athlete, which is a necessary area of inquiry due to the prevalence of mental health issues among college students as well as the many differences that exist between professional and collegiate athletics. A media framing analysis of 63 press articles for Carton revealed five frames used to discuss Carton’s situation. Of those frames, four were largely positive in nature focusing on areas such as the support Carton received at Ohio State, his role as a mental health advocate, and the shedding stigma of mental illness in collegiate athletics. However, one frame within the coverage treated Carton as a commodity by focusing on his athletic value rather than him as a person or his personal issues. Overall, the positive types of news frames can normalize mental health disclosure on the college campus and set expectations for the level of support athletes will receive.

This study sought to understand social media users’ responses to Division-I football players’ early exit announcements as manifestations of BIRGing and CORFing. Researchers analyzed social media users’ replies ( N = 2,009) to six collegiate student-athletes’ early exit announcements on Twitter and Instagram during the 2018 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football season. Results identified four responses to exit announcements: (a) supporting, (b) noting significance, (c) disagreeing, and (d) capitalizing. These reactions varied as a function of fan identification: (a) those who expressed fandom for exited teams supported student-athletes, (b) those who expressed fandom for other teams capitalized on the announcements, and (c) those who expressed no fandom noted the significance of and disagreed with student-athletes. These findings offer unique insights that reinforce and diverge from assertions about fans’ BIRGing and CORFing behaviors. The results also have consequences for how scholars and practitioners come to view the intersections between team/organizational processes, athlete expression, and athlete–fan interaction.

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