M.L.K.

For some, Martin Luther King Jr. is a day off from school or work and just another Monday. In essence, a chance to knock another day off of January.

However, for many it's equivalent to Thanksgiving. A chance to remember a man who stood up for racial intolerance not by the power of the fist but by the power of speech. A man who helped turned the racial tide of this country.

In the world of sports, athletes, coaches, adminstrators and media alike look at King with the reverence of a king. For many people in each of these roles now would not have been occupying them 37 years ago.

Yet even as the calender passes 2010, there are still racial issues in sports that are deemed problematic. In Major League Baseball, it's the low amount of African Americans in the sport. For the NBA, it's a lack of caucasian athletes. For the NFL it's a lack of asian presence among athletes and minorities in the coaching and adminstration ranks.

However in these various professional sports they are no longer "predominantly" caucasian. On the hole they are the "best athletes" not the best "caucasian athletes". That is racial progress.

Still, in the world of sports there is still a lot more left to be done.