Anti-racism icon Adam Goodes rejects Hall of Fame invitation

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Adam Goodes had seen and heard enough when he retired in 2015 as one of the most illustrious Indigenous players in the Australian Football League.

Nearly six years later, it appears the pain from the verbal and racial abuse he took from spectators and even from a team executive as one of the highest-profile Black players in the top tier of Australian Rules football hasn't diminished.

The now 41-year-old Goodes has declined an offer to be inducted into the Melbourne-based AFL's Hall of Fame. Australian media reported this week that he had been voted unanimously into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as part of its potential 2021 nominees, his first year of eligibility.

Richard Goyder, chairman of the AFL Commission, confirmed Goodes, who had won the Brownlow Medal twice as the league’s most valuable player, had refused the nomination. He said Goodes asked for the reasons not to be detailed.

“Adam was clear he did not want his decision to detract from the moment for the 2021 inductees,” Goyder said in a statement. “Adam remains a great champion and leader of our game who has given more to our sport than he received in return.”

An image of Goodes with his face in front of the yellow circle in the center of the Aboriginal flag has become symbolic of his fight against racism.

Goyder also took the opportunity on behalf of the AFL to make a second formal apology to Goodes for the racial abuse the Sydney Swans great experienced during his decorated playing career.

“The treatment of Adam in his final years at AFL level drove him from football," Goyder said. "The unreserved apology that the game provided him in 2019 was too late . . . the AFL and our game did not do enough to stand with him at the time, and call it out.”

That’s exactly what Goodes...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Anti-racism-icon-Adam-Goodes-rejects-Hall-of-Fame-16234498.php