"Publicly funded sports stadiums are like crack cocaine to local politicians and business bigwigs.  These folks are just like addicts:  They deceive everyone around them for the sake of a fix and rarely take no for an answer when voters decline to subsidize their schemes."

— Michael W. Lynch, Reason Magazine *      

NFL fans 'cause earthquake' during game in Seattle.  So loud were the fans during their side's 34-7 victory that they measured between a magnitude 1 and 2 earthquake.  Fans of the Seahawks are growing a reputation for their ear popping shows of support.  In 2011, the fans were picked up by a nearby seismic recording station while earlier this year, CenturyLink Field entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the noise created.

This isn't going to help:
Jacksonville Jaguars Offer Fans Free Beer To Buy Tickets.  The winless Jacksonville Jaguars have released their own strategy to increase ticket attendance to this week's game and prevent a blackout: free beer.

You step out of line, the man comes and takes you away.
Seattle cops to don opponents' jerseys.  The Seahawks announced Wednesday that undercover law-enforcement officers will wear opposing team jerseys at games this season in an effort to quickly detect fans exhibiting unruly and inconsiderate behavior.

Ravens fans celebrate Super Bowl win by car tipping and looting a Baltimore 7-11.  But AP told us there were no reports of "disturbances" after the Ravens' Super Bowl win.  Once again, Twitter has the news first.

Police in riot gear stop brawl among parents at kids' football game.  Police in riot gear flooded the field of a youth football game in Southern California to stop a brawl that involved dozens and possibly hundreds of adult spectators.

Imane Khelif is a biological man, new 'leaked' report claims.  New calls for Olympics gender row boxer Imane Khelif to be stripped of her [sic] gold medal have emerged after a 'leaked' report claimed she [sic] is a biological man.  Khelif and Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting were at the centre of a 'gender row' controversy at the Olympics after both were given the green light to compete despite failing gender eligibility tests at last year's world championships.  Both boxers shrugged off criticism and went all the way to winning top Olympic gongs in their respective weight categories as their participation was defended by IOC president Thomas Bach.

Leaked Reports Confirms That Manly Looking Algerian Woman Who [Defeated] All The Other Women In The Olympics Is Actually A Man.  The gender identification of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who just won the Olympics gold medal, has come under scrutiny due to a leaked medical report.  Experts from the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris and the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital in Algiers drafted the report in June 2023. The report describes Khelif's biological traits, such as the existence of internal testicles and the lack of a uterus.  Additionally, an MRI revealed the presence of a micropenis, as reported by Redux.  In a surprising turn of events, the gender identification of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who just won gold in women's boxing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, has come under scrutiny due to a leaked medical report.  According to the document, which French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia was able to secure, Khelif has internal testicles and XY chromosomes, hinting at a disorder called 5-alpha reductase insufficiency.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
Ordinarily, one would expect that a one-in-a-million freak of nature would keep to himself and stay out of the spotlight, but this guy insisted on being an international boxing star, and with the fame comes the scrutiny.

Stealing Women's Medals.  Both Imane Khelif (25) of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting (28) of Taiwan competed in the 2021* Tokyo Olympic Games, but this year's appearance was after the International Boxing Association (IBA) had barred them from competing against women on the grounds that tests had confirmed that both athletes are not female.  The IBA reports, based upon two tests in Istanbul 2022 and in New Delhi in 2023, that not only did both have very high testosterone levels, but they have XY chromosomes, making them genetically male and functionally more akin to men than women.  Given that neither athlete successfully appealed the decision (Khelif began the appeal process but withdrew it), the decision was legally binding.  Therefore, it's safe to assume, as famed biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins does, that "genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in the Olympics."  Dawkins says that his Facebook account was deleted for having made this entirely reasonable observation publicly.

International Olympic Committee President Says Chromosomes Don't Determine Sex: 'Not True Anymore'.  The president of the Olympics's governing body no longer believes in basic human biology when it comes to determining a person's biological sex, a testament to the influence of progressive gender ideology across many major institutions.  International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach suggested during a press conference Friday that identifying people's biological sex based on their chromosomes is outdated.  His comments came in response to a question about the recent controversy over two boxers competing in the women's division after failing sex-identification tests administered by an outside sports body last year.  "This is not a question of inclusion... this is a question of justice," Bach said in response to a question about whether inclusion is being prioritized over women's safety.

Olympic Punchline.  It takes courage to make a stand publicly about one's private opinion.  Martina Navratilova, J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk embody this.  All weighed in last week on the controversy surrounding the boxing match between Olympians Imane Khelif of Algeria and Angela Carini of Italy.  The bout lasted only 46 seconds after the Algerian landed a blow to the face of the Italian.  The latter, in apparent severe pain, threw down her helmet and cried out — "this is unjust."  Under normal circumstances that should have been the end of it.  But we are all still talking about it today.  The Algerian boxer was born male, the Italian female.  And that is where the controversy began and remains.  The three notables mentioned above claim an injustice has been committed by the IOC and on the person of Angela Carini, the Italian competitor.  And while the IOC is claiming innocence, our three celebs are suggesting more testing is needed (DNA, testosterone etc.) to ensure fairness in competition, and this just to determine who is and who is not female.  Tests may not be the answer, but genetics is.

China Pulls Olympic Broadcast After Taiwanese Team Nabs Gold.  Chinese state television shut down a live broadcast of the 2024 Summer Olympics Sunday after the Taiwanese team beat China in the men's doubles.  Taiwan took home the gold medal during the men's doubles, who play under Chinese Taipei, on Sunday with Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin beating Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).  China still took home silver in the event but state media CCTV cut the broadcast to omit the parts of the match where Taiwan were clearly winning.  The medal ceremony and audience celebrations were also axed from the airwaves, according to the report.  In total, only 40 minutes of the 76-minute match were shown to Chinese state viewers.  [Tweet with video clip]

Six Christians Arrested in Paris for Driving a Bus Around That Said 'Stop the Attacks on Christians'.  According to Citizen GO, 6 of their team members were forced to spend the night in jail for denouncing the Olympic opening ceremony.  Three women were forced to undress so police could "look for drugs" according to Carolina Farrow.  The arrests come as CitizenGo has gathered 380,000 signatures demanding the International Olympic Committee issue an apology for the opening ceremony.  French authorities reportedly demanded that they remove the messaging from the side of the bus.  [Video clip]

We Now Have Answers About Testing Done on Olympic Boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting.  Algerian boxer Imane Khelif gave an interview Sunday night [8/4/2024] urging folks to not bully Olympic athletes online, but her [sic] compassion was completely misplaced — it focused solely on her [sic], not the women she [sic] and fellow alleged XY-chromosome holder Lin Yu-Ting have physically bullied over the past week, women whose lifelong dreams were shattered. [...] Thanks to a Monday press conference held by the IBA we know at least a few tests Khelif has undergone, and that while the organization couldn't come right out and say it due to privacy laws, that those tests show she [sic] has XY chromosomes.  That should clear up some misconceptions.

The Editor says...
A person with XY chromosomes is a man.  A man pretending to be a woman is a transvestite, not a woman.

The New Olympic Sport:  Woman Beating.  The Olympics went dark in the 4th century A.D. until the first modern games in Athens in 1896.  Over the next hundred-plus years, winter games were added, professional athletes were allowed to participate, the number of sports expanded (who knew break dancing and skateboarding would now be Olympic sports?), and politics had an increasing presence in the games to the point that they are now eclipsing the athletic events.  The Paris 2024 Olympics, instead of featuring an opening ceremony celebrating the home country of France, offered an anti-Christian, LGBTQ smorgasbord depiction of The Last Supper featuring a drag queen defending the offensive show as, "a multifaceted, multiethnic France with people of different ethnicities and orientations."

A Swim in the Sewer.  Unlike many competitions of the past, I have watched very little of the Olympics this year because I will not reward broadcasting stations with my viewership that would in any way count in their ratings.  This is my boycott.  I am not boycotting the athletes — they deserve their places there, competing against fellow international athletes (of the same gender, where appropriate), and to show their talent on the world stage.  I am boycotting NBC and any other live media outlet that can report back to the IOC how many people are watching.  Athletes like those fighting for their medals at the Olympics would do so without any media coverage at all, because that's just who true athletes are.  They are not actors that feed on a fawning audience.

Vox: If You Oppose Men Beating Up Women, You're A Nazi.  If you, like the majority of Americans, oppose men infiltrating and dominating women's sports competitions, you might be falling for Nazi propaganda.  At least, that's what Vox's latest article "Discrimination against trans Olympians has roots in Nazi Germany" implies.  Since the beginning of time, humans have recognized the fundamental differences between men and women.  In recent years, the widely recognized distinctions between the sexes, however, have suffered attacks from a radical ideology that prioritizes the wishes of gender-bending men ahead of women and their protected spaces.  There is no doubt that males have an indisputable physical advantage over women.  The American College of Sports Medicine says males "are stronger, more powerful, and faster than females of similar age and training status" which is why a whopping 69 percent of Americans are against letting males play on female teams.  According to Vox, however, anyone who counts themselves among the percentage of people who value the importance of preserving women's sports is drawing on a narrative created by Nazis.

A Gold Medal for the Marquis de Sade.  In view of the ideals the Olympics is supposed to represent, it was a great shock to millions of people who watched the opening ceremony of this year's Olympics to see an actor's body dished up as if a meal.  The human served up on a domed silver platter was presented as if he were a piece of rancid and decaying meat to be devoured in a quasi-cannibalistic rite.  The bloated, blue, corpselike entity's writhing suggested a swinish sexuality as well as a decayed spiritual and emotional life — the exact opposite of the celebration of the human body.  Certainly, the actor's puffy body was the antithesis of the Greek ideals that inspired the reintroduction of the games by visionary Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.  The ceremony managed to achieve a twofer, mocking both the Greek ideal of the human form and the Christian belief in the beauty and sacredness of the human body, particularly the body of Christ as represented in the Last Supper.  The entire spectacle also was meant to be [...] an ugly and vicious parody of Leonardo da Vinci's sublime painting, "The Last Supper."  It mocked the beauty of Christ's sacrifice, distorting the sublimity of his expression and even his identity as the Son of Man.  A porcine persona of indeterminate sex was substituted for Christ's divine image.

More on the Male Olympic Boxer Knocking Out First Female Opponent in Under a Minute.  Unfortunately, the fight was allowed to proceed and Imane Khelif was matched up against female Italian boxer Angela Carini.  As predicted by many, including yours truly, the fight didn't even last one minute into the first round.  The referee declared a technical knockout after 46 seconds.  Kheif came out and hit Carini so hard that her headgear was dislodged by the first blow.  The second sent her to her knees.  She could be seen crying after the results were declared, saying that she had never been hit so hard in her life.  Somehow Kheif was still awarded the victory and recorded his first "win" in Olympic women's boxing.

Italian Female Boxer Lasts Just 46 Seconds Against Fighter Who Failed Gender Test.  Forty-six seconds.  That was the sum total of time a female Italian boxer lasted in the ring at the Paris Olympics before she retired from a bout against an Algerian fighter caught in an eligibility furore.  Twenty-five-year-old Imane Khelif was cleared to compete at the 2024 Olympics, even after being disqualified from the International Boxing Association (IBA) 2023 World Boxing Championships for failing gender-eligibility tests, according to Fox News.  The International Olympic Committee, which uses different criteria to determine eligibility, ruled Khelif eligible to compete.

Algerian boxer in Olympic gender row wins in 46 seconds.  Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who failed a gender eligibility test last year, won her opening bout at the Paris Olympics in just 46 seconds on Thursday against her distraught opponent.  Khelif advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's 66 kg category after unloading two strong punches on Angela Carini, who shrugged off attempts by the Algerian to shake her hand and collapsed to her knees in floods of tears.  An Italian coach said Carini had suffered a badly hurt nose and the official decision was listed as an abandonment.  Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who fights on Friday at 57kg, were disqualified from the world championships last year but deemed eligible to box in the women's competition in Paris.

Cultural Decay Can Hardly Go Further.  The opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics was bad enough, with the nation joyfully celebrating its decline into sub-mediocrity and bureaucratic incompetence, where people wait two years for routine surgeries.  The ceremony this weekend in Paris was far worse.  It could have been designed by the propaganda department of Islamic State.  Apart from the generalized vulgarity of it, by comparison with which King Farouk had the taste of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the parody of the Last Supper by transvestites and others would have been more than enough to convince any Islamist that the West was a fruit ripe for the plucking, and many an ordinary Muslim that Islam, at least, should not, and probably could not, descend to this.

Associated Press Celebrates Trans-Infused Olympics Opening Ceremony as 'Unprecedented Display of Inclusivity'.  After the exercise in debauchery seen in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, the Associated Press raced to praise the transgender-infused program.  The AP was agog over the program created by gay French artist Thomas Jolly.  Aside from the scores of obviously gay dancers, the large number of transgenders, and the dance scene suggesting a bisexual three-some sex encounter, Jolly was also condemned for a gross parody of the famed "Last Supper" painting that depicts the last time Jesus Christ met with his disciples.  Despite the widespread criticism of the bacchanalia of the opening ceremony's dance and fashion program, the AP was ebullient over the display.

NBC faces FCC complaint over airing 'obscene' Olympics Last Supper parody.  The legal watchdog Judicial Watch filed a complaint on Monday with the Federal Communications Commission against NBC for airing an "obscene and indecent" Olympic opening ceremony skit that some say mocked the Last Supper.  The group said the skit included a man exposing himself during the ceremony watched by millions, including children.  The French Catholic Church hit the opening ceremonies because they "included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity."  "NBC and its various stations/outlets on TV, cable and internet carried (and continues to make available) the Olympics Opening Ceremony on July 26, which included an adult male purposefully exposing (himself) in the presence of a child/children.  This content is both obscene and indecent and, to make matters worse, it was aired during viewing hours when it was likely seen by millions of children and minors," the complaint said.

You'll Never Work in This Town Again!  [Scroll down]  Many complained that the show portrayed Christianity in a less than favorable light.  Ya think?  The next day, the Paris-24 organizing committee offered the world an apology of sorts.  Spokesperson Anne Descamps explained that the idea was "to celebrate community tolerance."  Or, shall we say, to test it?  Apparently, it flunked the test.  Director of the extravaganza, Thomas Jolly, said (translation), "Our intention was never to be impertinent."  Of course, he lies, and of course it is the foundational premise of those in the Satanic fold to lie about everything. (Just as America's Democratic Party lies about everything.)  Within hours, sponsors revolted and pulled their support for the games altogether.

S. Korean swimmers forced to vacate Paris Olympic Village: 'Non-air-conditioned bus' a 'sauna' — 'Cooler outside than inside the bus'.  South Korea's swimming stars have had enough of the Olympic Village and are making a splash by leaving it entirely.  French authorities have emphasized their efforts to make the Games more sustainable, saying, "We have looked to reduce everything that can be reduced, for Games that emit less carbon and consume fewer resources."  While this eco-friendly approach is admirable, it seems the athletes are paying the price for it at the behest of their comfort.  According to Reuters, six South Korean swimmers were forced to vacate the Olympic Village.  Swimmers Kim Woomin and Hwang Sunwoo are among those who have complained about the stuffy conditions on buses due to taped windows, and lack of air-conditioning.

"Pride Month" never ends.
The 2024 Olympics Turns into Demonic Pride Parade.  France unveiled a decidedly family-unfriendly spectacle last Saturday for over 28.6 million viewers worldwide as the four-hour opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympics, which unfolded along a 4.5 mile stretch of the River Seine in Paris, turned into the world's most-watched Pride Parade.  Because Western cultural elites today are overwhelmingly cultural Marxists, the organizers of the 2800-year-old athletic competition decided to jettison any connection with sports, athletic excellence, or national pride, and instead promote the normalization of sexual perversion, gender ideology, and anti-Christian bigotry.  As always with Pride parades, the celebration of sexual libertinism, masked as "love" and "tolerance," was the order of the day.  The show featured the provocative dancing of scantily-clad, apparently non-binary performers.  Polyamorists, transgender models, and bearded drag queens abounded.

Bishop Barron: 'Apology' by Paris Olympics a 'Masterpiece of Woke Duplicity'.  What's the only thing worse than no apology at all?  A so-called apology that blames people for taking offense.  Offering up a lie to gaslight the offended makes it even worse.  American political figures often offer these "I'm sorry you were offended by my brilliance" non-apologies and end up making matters worse, although these days they don't tend to give a hoot one way or the other.  If you missed this example of typical hard-Left elitist sneering at the normies, here's one report on it from over the weekend:  [Video clip]

Two "Female Boxers" Set To Compete At Paris 2024 Were Previously Disqualified From Women's World Championship For Having "XY Chromosomes".  Two athletes competing at the Paris Olympics as "women" were previously disqualified from a women's world championship for having "XY chromosomes."  Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan are scheduled to compete in Olympic women's boxing next week despite past questions surrounding their biological sex.  The Women's World Boxing Championships took place in March of 2023 and was hosted in New Delhi, India.  A total of 324 boxers from 64 nations competed during the 10-day trial, marking the largest participation in any iteration of the championship ever recorded.  However, the grand event was marred by controversy after Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), announced the disqualification of multiple boxers from the championship.

Apparently they're baffled.  How could this be?
Financial cause for concern?  Some 600,000 Paris Olympics tickets unsold.  The Paris Olympics opening ceremony is nearly upon us yet more than a quarter of a million tickets are still available as fans react to ticket prices.  The number of unsold tickets for the Paris Olympics has raised concern about the financial impact it will have on organisers of the event, with some 600,000 tickets reportedly still up for grabs.  An original analysis done by the Financial Times shows listings on resale sites rose to 270,465 on Monday 22 July, a jump from 180,000 a month ago.  The most expensive tickets cost €2,970 with fans on social media also expressing outrage at the prices.

Here's one explanation:
Gayest Olympics Ever.  From the moment that the 2024 Paris Olympics launched its opening ceremony with an elaborate street dance scene, it became clear that pushing the LGBTQ agenda was at the top of the program with a sequence that made the opening the "gayest opening ceremony ever."  The opening dance number featured women flung around on poles as rain fell on the ceremonies.  Others danced in the streets, including men lovingly embracing each other as they cavorted onto one of the many bridges across the Seine River in Paris.  However, one of the prerecorded dance segments was even more explicitly LGBT, as three dancers in gender-ambiguous costumes ran through the streets of Paris and into a building.  Their segment ended with the three — two males and one female — nearing each other in dramatic kisses, then entering a room to further their amorous acts.

The Editor says...
This would have been an ideal moment for the earth to open up and swallow a large part of Paris.  God is patient and merciful, but he won't be forever.  What does a blasphemous obese transvestite have to do with athletic competition anyway?

Every day is Halloween in Lefty World.
Apparent drag 'parody of Last Supper' at Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony sparks controversy.  A crew of drag queens and dancers performed an apparent "parody of the Last Supper" at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony Friday, drawing intense criticism across social media.  "This is crazy.  Opening your event by replacing Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper with men in drag," Clint Russel, the host of the Liberty Lockdown podcast, fumed on X.  "There are 2.4 billion Christians on earth and apparently the Olympics wanted to declare loudly to all of them, right out of the gate NOT WELCOME," said Russel.

Daily Caller Columnist Mary Rooke Slams Olympics Opening Ceremony.  Daily Caller columnist Mary Rooke criticized the Olympics opening ceremony during a Friday appearance on [Newsmax].  In a scathing critique of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, Rooke voiced concerns that the event represented a broader cultural shift away from Western traditional values.  Rooke's commentary highlighted what she perceives to be a deliberate exclusion of Christians and traditionalists from the cultural narrative.  [Tweet]  "Yeah, you're literally watching the fall of the West right now.  That's what we're watching.  It's like it's the minority standing up and going, 'Christians, traditionalists, you're not welcome here,'" Rooke told [Carl] Higbie.

Olympics Opening Ceremony Features Dancing Drag Queens And Bizarre Symbology.  Several X accounts that posted videos and/or screenshots about the absurdities of the Olympics' opening ceremonies have been hit with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints enforced by Elon Musk's social media platform. [...] "They're now targeting anyone who dared to complain about the blasphemous woke agenda during the @Olympics opening ceremony," X user Dr. Simon Goddek wrote. [...] Another X user said, "Lots of DMCA takedowns of Olympic opening ceremony footage.  Weird, it's almost like they don't want you to see it now." [...] As we penned earlier, the opening ceremonies were just absolutely bizarre — and, in some cases, inappropriate for children to watch.

Blasphemous depiction of Last Supper at Olympic ceremony sparks outrage.  A growing number of prominent public figures are rebuking the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic Games in France for featuring drag queens and demonic-looking figures that carried out a grotesque parody of the Last Supper.  The ceremony was conducted in Paris on Friday night amid light rain.  The games are being held in the country despite a surging migrant problem that has resulted in the government bussing homeless people out of Paris to temporary lodging in the city's outskirts until the games conclude on August 11.

Would They've Dared Mock Islam in a Similar Way?  The bishop of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who is one of the most Catholic media voices, called out the theatrical opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris for mocking Christianity and the Last Supper, and asked if the Olympic organizers would consider insulting the Muslim faith.  "A question I would pose — we all know the answer to it:  'Would they ever have dared mock Islam in a similar way?'" asked Bishop Robert E. Barron, who is also the founder of the "Word on Fire" ministry, in an X-post.  [Tweet with video clip]

France's high-speed rail network paralyzed by 'coordinated' arson attacks hours before start of Olympics.  France's high-speed rail network was hit Friday with widespread and "criminal" acts of vandalism including arson attacks, paralyzing travel to Paris from across the rest of France and Europe only hours before the grand opening ceremony of the Olympics.  French officials described the attacks as "criminal actions" and said they were investigating whether they were linked to the Olympic Games.  The disruptions as the world's eye was turning to Paris were expected to affect a quarter of a million people alone on Friday and endure through the weekend, and possibly longer, officials said.

PETA urges Olympic Games to remove equestrian events.  A video of an English horsewoman beating a horse while training it four years ago has spurred PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo to demand the Olympics end equestrian competitions.  "The message to the International Olympic Committee should be clear by now:  Remove equestrian events from the Olympic Games," Guillermo said in an online statement Tuesday.

Who Cares About the Olympics in a World without Patriotism?  The Olympic Games return to Paris after a century's absence, yet there is little excitement in the air.  In Middle America, I really don't hear anybody talking about them.  Occasionally, some sports commercial reminds viewers about athletes whose names have largely been forgotten since their last appearance on the world stage.  A few Big Box stores are selling Olympic-themed t-shirts, toys, dog leashes, drink mugs, and other sundries.  Now and then, someone remarks that this would be a terrible time to visit the City of Light.  Besides the knickknacks and small talk, though, few seem to care.  The television ratings over the last several Olympics bear out this general apathy.  The well-produced spectacle has been steadily losing eyeballs during the first quarter of the present century, and there is no sign that the trend will reverse. [...] Passion for the Olympics is not what it once was.  Water-cooler conversation about which American heroes will win gold medals and which foreign athletes pose the greatest challenge has all but disappeared.

With Olympics days away, Paris, organizers dash to scale back green agenda, make Seine swim-able.  The start of the Paris Olympics is still a couple of weeks away, but already organizers are struggling to combat a series of problems related to the swelter summer, an over-ambitious green-energy agenda — and poop.  When Paris won the right in 2017 to host the Summer Olympics, there were boasts of making them "the greenest in Olympic history," including solar panels on buildings, low-carbon transport, a reliance of locally-sourced food, the widespread use of temporary structures, and a major cleanup effort in the Seine, the scenic river that winds through the city.  "I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said during the launch of some of the initiatives, boasting the games would have half the environmental footprint of the 2012 Olympics in London or the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro and predicting the Olympics would be a springboard to accelerate the city's green transition.  But as the start of games approaches, organizers are having to back off some of those pledges.

The Olympics and the United Nations are the two biggest White elephants in the world.
The End of the Olympics?  Everyone seems to like the Olympics.  Every two years, people rally behind their country's athletes and root for them even in the most unusual sports we usually don't pay much attention to.  This year, though, it seems like everyone likes the Olympics except the French, since 44 percent of Parisians believe hosting the Olympics is a bad idea.  You might not be too surprised about that, after all French people have rarely been characterized for staying quiet when they don't like what their government is doing.  There seems to be a repetitive pattern in which citizens of the host city for the Games usually are not their biggest fans, 83 percent of Japanese didn't want the games in Tokyo when they were less than a month away either.  Cities are constantly going over budget when it comes to organizing them and taxpayers are the ones left to pay the bill.  If people don't like them and host cities struggle to keep them under budget, are we seeing the beginning of the end for the Olympics?

Teams Bring Their Own AC Units to Paris:  Exposing the Absurdity of "Sustainability" at the Olympics.  Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has been quite vocal about her commitment to making the 2024 Olympics an exemplar of environmental responsibility.  The decision to forgo traditional air conditioning in favor of passive cooling techniques is touted as a major step toward reducing the event's carbon footprint. [...] But let's be clear:  sustainability, as currently promoted, is a nebulous concept that often amounts to nothing more than vapid virtue signaling.  It's an easy catchphrase, with no real objective definition for politicians and organizers who want to appear forward-thinking.  The idea that passive cooling could sufficiently counteract the summer heat in Paris is more of a fanciful notion than a feasible plan.  Instead of applauding this so-called innovation, teams are responding with pragmatism.  The U.S. teams, for instance, have decided to bring their own portable air conditioning units to ensure their athletes perform at their best.

Greenest Olympics Ever:  US Team To Bring Their Own AC.  There have been numerous stories about the Paris Olympics, which they said will be super climate cult compliant, so, they were cutting air conditioning, because AC is Bad for global boiling.  But, many nations have said "nah, we're bringing our own, to go with our massive fossil fueled jet and SUV travel."  [Tweet]  This has nothing to do with the environment, just a doomsday cult, where all the people who believe in it always want Other People to bear the burden for their beliefs

Trans athletes dehumanised by term 'biological male', says Olympics.  The International Olympic Committee has been accused by Martina Navratilova of waging a "1984 version of war on women" after asking journalists attending this summer's Paris Games not to use terms such as "born male" or "biologically male" to describe transgender athletes.  It argued that such labels were "dehumanising" and constituted "problematic language".  In a 33-page "Portrayal Guidelines" document, the IOC have told the 20,000-strong media contingent that "a person's sex category is not assigned based on genetics alone" and "it is always preferable to emphasise a person's actual gender rather than potentially calling their identity into question by referring to the sex category that was registered on their original birth certificate".  Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon champion and a consistent voice in upholding the integrity of women's sport, responded witheringly to these statements, saying:  "The IOC has been captured.  This is 1984 version of war on women.  Total erasure."

Chinese Swimmers Test Positive For Banned Substance, Win Olympic Gold Anyway While WADA Looks Other Way.  The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed on Saturday that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics.  But WADA let it slide after China claimed the positive results were a result of accidental contamination.  Multiple reports said the swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine months before the COVID-delayed Games began in July 2021. Typically found in heart medication, trimetazidine is listed as a "metabolic modulator," which can help with endurance in physical activity.

Paris Won't Air-Condition Athlete Housing At Summer Olympics Because Of Climate Change.  The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are still a few months away, and they're already one of the most ridiculous athletic competitions yet.  Not because of any one individual athlete, or the qualifying process, or the introduction of new sports.  It's all due to the political views of the event organizers and their laughable desire to virtue signal on a global stage.  In a recent interview, the head of the organization in charge of building athlete housing for the 2024 games revealed that they didn't add air conditioning to lower the event's "carbon footprint."

Let them Drink Water: Alcohol Ban at Paris Olympics for All but VIP Elites.  Alcohol consumption at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be restricted to special VIP areas only, a report Tuesday confirmed, meaning the elites can happily quaff Champagne while those in the cheap seats will be forced to look on and sip water.  Thanks to an edict called Elvin's Law which began in 1991, alcohol sales have long been banned to the general public in France's sports stadiums.

China 'asked Putin to delay invasion of Ukraine until after Winter Olympics'.  China asked Vladimir Putin to delay any invasion of Ukraine until after the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to a Western intelligence report.  It suggests officials in China may have had some indication of Mr Putin's plans before he went ahead.  Beijing denied the assertion as "baseless speculation" and an "attempt to smear China".  A Western official told the New York Times the report did not make clear if it was Putin and Xi Jinping who discussed the matter, or some of their officials.  The Olympic closing ceremony took place on Feb 20.  On the following day Putin recognised two breakaway areas in Ukraine and sent troops in to help separatists.  Then, on Feb 24, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

AP: NBC Olympics [was] a ratings "disaster" — and [is] now a tainted brand.  How bad was it?  The best night for Olympics ratings was February 13, when NBC had 112 million Super Bowl viewers ready to watch even more sports.  How many stuck around?  The New York Times reports ... not many: [...] Almost eight in ten viewers didn't even want to just leave the channel on after the end of the Super Bowl, but actively chose to tune out.  This had nothing to do with the performance of the athletes.  Viewers knew after NBC's atrocious brown-nosing of Vladimir Putin's Soviet iconography in Sochi's opening games that they already knew what the coverage from Beijing would be like.  And they turned out to be correct.  This time, though, the moral issues were even more obvious, and yet produced no real shame in Beijing's corporate partners.

NBC's Beijing Olympic Ratings Called A 'Disaster' For Network.  A sobbing Russian figure skater berated by one of her coaches for a poor routine.  Grim-looking cooling towers in the background of acrobatic snowboard jumps.  Diplomatic boycotts.  Half-empty stands.  Announcers covering the games from Connecticut.  It all played out in a host country engaged in human rights atrocities that was also the origin site of a global pandemic.  For NBC, it wasn't exactly Olympic glory in China.  The media adjectives pouring in to describe the legacy of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics aren't pretty:  "Disaster."  "Joyless."  And NBC's $7.75 billion investment in 2014 that gave it exclusive American media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032 is under question after a second consecutive ratings dud.

Olympics Close Out With Brutally Low TV Ratings.  Sunday [2/20/2022] was the final day of the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the overall numbers for how many people watched this year's winter games were the worst ever for NBCUniversal.  The games, which started Feb. 4 and went through Sunday, averaged 11.4 million viewers across all of the network's platforms in primetime, according to the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Monday.  Those numbers are down from the average number of 19.8 million who watched the games in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the report noted.  Not only were the average number of viewers down by 42%, but this year's winter games were down some 26% from the summer Olympics held in Tokyo in 2021.

The Editor says...
The Olympics still exist for two reasons:  [#1] It's a proxy for World War, in which each country demonstrates that their young athletes are stronger and tougher than all others.  Cheating abounds, even though it's strictly forbidden.  But that happens in real wars, too.  [#2] The Olympics exists to sell exclusive television rights to one American TV network, which will then sell commercial time for lots of money.  Even so, the commercial revenue will not be enough, if nobody's expected to watch, and the network will lose money.  But wait and see — that same network will eagerly bid for the TV rights next time.  The whole show is about glamorous and prestigious international competition:  Part of it is sports, and part of it is a soap opera; therefore, it's a lucrative TV series.  Except the monetary wheels come off if nobody cares any more about the stinkin' Olympics, as millions of non-viewers have demonstrated this year, when the event was held in Communist China.

The great Olympic figure-skating debacle.  Congratulations to Russia, which took first, second, and fourth places in women's figure-skating while turning the competition into a [fiasco] so repellent that sportswriters were using terms like "child abuse" afterward to describe what went down.  I wrote a few days ago about Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian superstar who was heavily favored to take gold in Beijing.  News broke this week that Valieva had tested positive in December for a banned substance, a heart medication capable of enhancing endurance.  But she wasn't banned from the Olympics:  Because of her tender age, the Court of Arbitration of Sport deemed her a "protected person" who'd be allowed to compete while an investigation into her drug test proceeded.  That threw the competition into chaos, with the International Olympic Committee declaring that no medal ceremony would be held if Valieva finished in the top three due to the uncertainty over her status. [...] Oh, just to round things off, the World Anti-Doping Agency has now accused the Court of Arbitration of Sport of having essentially rewritten the rules to let Valieva compete, further tainting the process.

Worst.  Olympics. Ever.  Ten days ago, this newsletter noted that the opening days of the Genocide Games — er, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing — had generated a "cataclysmic loss of audience" for NBC.  Over the past week or so, the audience size hasn't gotten any better — and it's not just here in the United States: [...] Viewers around the world have a lot of reasons for antipathy toward China these days — from the ongoing Uyghur genocide, to the crackdown on Hong Kong, to the aggressive moves towards Taiwan, to that virus that started in Wuhan which has killed almost 6 million people around the world officially and perhaps many, many more.  There are no live audiences or cheering crowds at the events, a television correspondent got dragged away on air, waiters and bartenders in the hotels are wearing full hazmat suits, and there's not even the usual pretty scenery — the ski-jump platform was built next to a steel plant with structures that reminded American audiences of nuclear reactors.  There's something absurdly dystopian about this whole debacle.

Olympic ideal exposed as farce on sad night in China.  No matter how the IOC tries to spin it, the enduring symbol of the Beijing Games — and really, the entire Olympic movement — is a sad little girl put in an untenable position by adults who have no shame.  A lot of serious issues will need to be addressed after the flame is extinguished, from doping rules to age limits to tyrannical coaches, but we shouldn't lose sight of the bigger questions:  What will it take for the Olympics to truly live up to its ideals?  Is meaningful change even possible at this point?

Chinese Athletes at the Olympics get 5-Star Food, Nice Hotels, This is what the Rest of the Worlds Athletes Get.  It's no surprise the Communist Chinese are doing everything they can to make the lives of the Winter Olympic athletes pure hell.  From sleep deprivation to absolutely horrific living conditions and terrible food.  Here is a video showing yet another 'water main break' in a brand new building.  These seem to always happen on the same floors that the competitors who will soon be competing occur on.  History will show you, we should never again have the Olympics in China.  They cheat!  This video was filmed by Finnish athletes who were set to compete the next day.  [Video clip]

Finnish athlete posted pictures of water leaking into her apartment, ordered by Chinese officials to delete them.  The habits of tyranny are hard to break.  China expected that the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing would once again impress the world with China's ability to build shiny new venues and organize vast and impressive mass ceremonies.  But, instead, what is becoming known as the "Genocide Games" is exposing the autocratic authoritarianism of China's governing officials and the downright shabby nature of its treatment for foreign athletes, some of whom dare to complain in public.  Unlike Chinese citizens, they don't have to worry about their social credit scores once they leave the Middle Kingdom.

Beijing's Olympics are Downright Dangerous:  Here's Why.  The 2022 Winter Olympics have just begun in Beijing.  It's China's second opportunity to export its ideology since the 2008 Summer Olympics.  It's happening despite China's harsh repression of its ethnic minorities, including the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, which has been condemned by many countries as genocide.  Nevertheless, all but 14 countries (plus North Korea) appear to be responsive to the IOC's "Sports without political interference" initiative in sending delegations and athletes to the Beijing.  Little do they know, the Chinese government uses its hosting of the Olympics as a propaganda tool precisely to silence this criticism of its human rights record.  The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is like the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Each event is being used to showcase the host country's glamour and fearful power.

American skier ditches Team USA to compete for communist China in Olympics.  American-born-and-raised Olympic skier Eileen Gu reportedly gave up her American passport and was naturalized as a Chinese citizen to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics for communist China, new reports highlighted last week.  After growing up and training in the United States and competing as a member of the U.S. freestyle ski team, Gu revealed on Instagram in 2019 that she had decided to compete for China in the Beijing Winter Olympics.  "This was an incredibly tough decision for me to make," Gu wrote at the time, according to a The Wall Street Journal report last week.  Gu, whose mother was born in China, said she hoped the controversial move would "inspire millions of young people where my mom was born."

Uyghur Concentration Camp Survivor:  NBC 'Supports Genocide' by Airing Olympics.  Tursunay Ziawudun, a survivor of China's brutal concentration camp system for Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic groups, accused NBC and Comcast of supporting genocide by airing the 2022 Beijing Olympics in an interview with Breitbart News on Saturday [2/5/2022].  Ziawudun joined a large group of mostly Uyghur protesters in front of the White House on Saturday to observe the anniversary of the 1997 Ghulja massacre — which resulted in thousands of arrests and an estimated hundred dead after Uyghurs organized peaceful protests against the communist regime in Beijing in the northwestern city that year — and to protest the Beijing Olympics.  Opponents of the Games argue that a country openly engaging in genocide should not receive the honor of hosting such a prestigious event and that focusing on sports competition in China distracts from the long list of atrocities that government is committing.

Olympics Viewers, Onlookers Scratch Heads Over Controversial Call DQing US, Russian Skaters As China Wins Gold.  Some Olympic viewers were left perplexed during the weekend when a speed skating judge's decision disqualified the United States and helped China win a gold medal.  The United States had finished second in its semifinal race of the mixed team relay event in short track speed skating Saturday, joining first place Hungary to advance to the finals.  That was until an official's review after the race determined that the United States and Russia, the fourth place finishers, had impeded skaters from team China, causing both teams to be disqualified.  Team China, the world's number one ranked team in the event, had initially finished third and not qualified for the finals.  However, thanks to the penalty against the U.S., China took their spot in the final and went on to win the gold, the country's first medal of the games.

Olympians lament inedible food and 'unreasonable' conditions.  As many athletes watch their Olympic dreams get dashed by a positive COVID test, more and more are taking to social media and speaking out against the conditions of the Beijing "quarantine hotels" into which they are being forced to check in.  "My stomach hurts, I'm very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes," said Valeria Vasnetsova, a Russian athlete competing in the biathlon, in an Instagram post shared from isolation.  "I want this all to end.  I cry every day.  I'm very tired."  Thursday, Vasnetsova posted a picture of her food tray.  On it sat a bit of plain pasta, some charred meat, a sprinkling of potatoes, and some orange sauce.  According to Vasnetsova, that was "breakfast, lunch and dinner for five days already."

TV Ratings Tank For The Olympics In Communist China.  The ratings are in for NBC's first day of coverage for the 2022 Winter Olympics being held in communist China and they are down from the previous year.  The network's coverage in prime-time Thursday for the opening ceremony to kick off the games averaged 7.7 million total viewers, according to a report published Friday by TV Line.com.  The Olympic viewership also landed with a 1.3 rating in the coveted demographic of ages 18-49, the outlet noted.  While those numbers helped the network lead the night, those numbers are down over the last decade, Outkick's Clay Travis noted.  He appeared to be noting numbers from Sports Media Watch.

Chinese official physically removes Dutch reporter covering Olympics during live broadcast.  Gold or Gulag?  It's a question on the minds of many anxious athletes and journalists as the Olympics kick off in Beijing — one made more urgent by the physical removal of a reporter by Chinese officials on live television.  "Our correspondent @sjoerddendaas was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 p.m. live in the NOS Journaal," tweeted Dutch public broadcaster NOS, Friday [2/4/2022].  "Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China.  He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later."  The not-so-subtle move from the Chinese is further proof that the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOC) meant business when it announced it would punish those foreigners who spoke out in a manner the Chinese Communist Party deems is "against the Olympic spirit."

Goons Drag Reporter Away on Live TV at Beijing Games Opening Ceremony.  The Beijing Winter Olympics are officially underway — but, before the Opening Ceremony even finished on Friday [2/4/2022], Chinese authorities proved to the world once again that it won't tolerate any kind of free press.  In an extraordinary clip from Dutch broadcaster NOS, one of its reporters who is in Beijing to cover the Games can be seen being manhandled by a security guard sporting a red armband.  The reporter, Sjoerd den Daas, attempted to carry on his broadcast while being grabbed and yelled at by the guard, then NOS decided to cut away back to the studio.

Protesters Surround NBC HQ Asking for Ban on Genocide Olympics.  Tibetan exiles and supporters of Tibetan freedom gathered outside Chinese embassies, Olympic headquarters, and NBC studios to protest the Beijing Winter Olympics, derided by critics as the "Genocide Games" because the event risks validating Communist China's brutal suppression of minorities like the Tibetans and Uyghur Muslims.

China's Olympic tyranny.  Why are Americans participating in the Winter Olympics while the host nation, China, perpetrates a genocide and menaces its neighbors?  The Biden administration has announced a diplomatic boycott, meaning no "high-level" U.S. officials will be going to China.  But American athletes are still going, along with diplomatic, consular, and security personnel to protect them.  NBC Sports is still televising the Games.  Corporations such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Visa are still paying millions of dollars to sponsor them.  Why?

Winter Olympics guests describe 'dystopian' scenes inside the village.  'Dystopian' scenes from inside Beijing Olympic village include barmen in full PPE mixing cocktails and robots spraying clouds of disinfectant into the air as China attempts to host a Covid-free Games.  Video shot inside the Nanshanli Condotel on Thursday reveal journalists and Olympic personnel in light-touch masks mixing with hotel staff wearing full hazmat suits due to fears the Games could become a super-spreader event.  A Reuters reporter inside the hotel described the atmosphere as 'dystopian', saying the air smells like disinfectant due to the number of times floors and walls are sprayed, while all food service arrives in hotel rooms plastic-wrapped.

Big Brother Olympics:  Beijing to feature Uighur surveillance company as major sponsor.  The Olympics, which are all dedicated to peace, human dignity, and brotherhood, have a pretty creepy sponsor now that the host is Beijing. [...] That so-called artificial intelligence firm, which translates languages, is neck deep in China's surveillance of ethnic Uighurs, the Turkic people in China's northwest, millions of whom have been systematically forced into labor camps in order to wring any vestige of non-communist culture out of them.  This company's 'products' provide China's "Lives of Others" surveillance apparachiks the means to know what individual Uighurs may be saying or writing in private, the better to abuse and imprison those who do not conform mindlessly to China's communist party line.  It's as Big Brother as such things get.

Boycott the Beijing Olympics.  If ever there was an Olympics that should be boycotted, this is it.  The purpose of the quadrennial games is, or ought to be, to promote goodwill among nations while allowing athletes a stage where they can test their skills against world-class competition.  No one believes that is the purpose of the Beijing Olympics.  In the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping could apologize to the world for allowing the coronavirus virus to spread from Wuhan throughout the planet while authorities hushed it up and worked hard to prevent its spread to the rest of China.  That would be a demonstration of goodwill and a modicum of decency, given the millions globally who have died.  That is not going to happen.

China Insists 'No Lockdown' for Genocide Olympics as More Regions Go Under.  Organizing officials for the 2022 Winter Olympics said Tuesday the Games' host city, Beijing, has no plans to lock down any sections of the capital to prevent the spread of the Chinese coronavirus during the event — scheduled to take place from February 4 through February 20 — despite mounting lockdowns in surrounding areas.  "Beijing won't need to be sealed off for the Games next month," Huang Chun, who leads the 2022 Winter Olympics' coronavirus prevention efforts, told reporters on January 11, adding that a lockdown order for either Beijing or its surrounding province of Hebei remains "off the table" for now.

NHL Considers Not Sending Players to Beijing's Genocide Games over Coronavirus Fears.  On the heels of its decision to postpone many of its games through December, the NHL is also now contemplating withdrawing its players from the Beijing Olympics, all because of its concerns over the coronavirus.  The National Hockey League had intended to take a three-week break in February to make room to send its players to Beijing for China's "genocide" Olympics.  Still, after delaying as many as 40 games this year over fears about the coronavirus, the make-up games have put the Olympics in doubt.

China Plans to Pay American Influencers to Promote Beijing Olympics Amid Boycotts.  China is paying American social media influencers to promote the Beijing Olympics and tout U.S.-China cooperation on climate change, according to government filings.  The Chinese consulate in New York City hired the public relations firm Vippi Media to run the influence campaign, according to disclosures filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  For $300,000, Vippi Media will hire prominent Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch users to tout the games and promote China-U.S. cooperation on issues like climate change, the contract says.  The firm's founder, Vipp Jaswal, tells the Washington Free Beacon he has not yet chosen the influencers to be used for the campaign.

The Concentration Camp Olympics.  This February will see U.S. participation in the winter Olympics at Beijing.  The games will occur amid the knowledge that Xi Jinping is committing some of the most appalling human rights abuses on the planet.  A million Uighurs are being persecuted, as are Falun Gong practitioners.  Hongkongers have had their liberties crushed.  Since Joe Biden's election, Xi is increasingly menacing Taiwan.  In 2018, Xi named himself "president for life," and has been busy returning China — an authoritarian state as-is — to totalitarianism.  Xi continues to make unwarranted claims on the South and East China Seas, militarizing these international waters.  Both are vital to U.S. and global trade.  Imagine Mexico or the U.S. claiming the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean as territorial waters.  Xi is growing more bellicose, threatening Asia Pacific nations, including U.S. allies Australia, Japan, and South Korea, among others.  The Biden administration's diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics is an empty gesture.  It signals weakness, not strength.  An apex predator like Xi only respects actions that have real teeth.

Why we must boycott the Olympics in China.  Back in 1936, the Olympic games were held in Hitler-led, fascist, Nazi Germany.  In Berlin, to be specific.  For years afterward, the world shook its head in wonder at how the International Olympic Committee (IOC), could ever have been so out of touch with reality that it honored a dictatorial, despotic nation.  Now, they've done it again.  The Communist Party of China (CCP) is scheduled to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.  Stupid knows no limits.  Before we go into the decades of China's human rights violations and utter disregard for international laws, the latest outrage from this totalitarian state is the disappearance of a three-time Chinese female Olympian tennis star, Peng Shuai, after she accused a former vice-premier of sexual assault.  She's obviously paying the price for outing a Commie biggie and is either dead or tucked away for life in some rancid prison.

Boxing bouts [were] fixed at [the] 2016 Olympics, investigation finds.  Boxing bouts for medals at the 2016 Olympics were fixed by "complicit and compliant" referees and judges, an investigation reported on Thursday [9/30/2021].  Investigator Richard McLaren was appointed by the International Boxing Association, known as AIBA, and found AIBA officials selected referees and judges to ensure that bouts could be manipulated in Olympic qualifying and at the Rio de Janeiro Games.  He also found signs the 2012 Olympics in London were affected.

China Hosting the Winter Olympics Is an Extremely Bad Idea.  The Summer Games in Japan, which organizers and the world had hoped would mark a milestone toward the end of the sixteen-month-long global shutdown, unfortunately fell prey to the COVID-19 virus.  In Tokyo, the delta variant has impacted how the Olympics have been staged and can only lead to speculation on how the upcoming Winter Games might play out.  One thing is certain:  testing and more testing of athletes will undoubtedly remain a greater part of any participation in future sporting events.  Fast-forward to the XXIV Winter Olympics, to be held in Beijing in February.  There's talk that under the guise of widespread COVID-19 testing, the People's Republic of China will have carte blanche access to the collection of DNA samples from the world's highest-ranked athletes.  A sufficient amount of genetic material is readily available from each PCR swab test collected from an individual.  This massive data sweep will allow the Chinese government to embark upon an extensive analysis of the samples, enabling it to configure the information toward applications of its own design.

Viewership Ratings for Woke Olympics Continue to Crash.  Not even the USA winning the gold for all-around gymnastics lifted the ratings for the 2020 Woke Olympics anywhere close to respectable territory. [...] Even more disastrous for the Olympics has been the crashing and burning of all their woketard athletes and icons.  Megan Rapinoe's all-girl soccer team was supposed to be on the easy path to Olympic gold and then lost in a major upset to Canada. [...] Honestly, who loses to Canada?  Gwen Berry, the insufferable hammer thrower who disrespected the flag during her Olympic trials and then threatened to do so again if she won an Olympic medal, did not win anything.  In fact, out of 12 competitors, she came in 11th. [...] And then there's my all-time favorite, a 43-year-old fat guy named Laurel who competed as a woman weightlifter.  But even with all the advantages of being a guy, he still blew it.

Take A Knee, Then Take A Seat.  It was a weird position in which to find myself — actively rooting against the United States Olympic team.  Not the whole team, though I've been rather open about my indifference on that subject, but the women's soccer team.  Or should I say, the wymxn's soccer team?  Who knows, and who cares?  They lost and it's glorious. [...] Led by Megan Rapinoe, the Americans lost to Canada in the semi-finals, ending their chances at a gold medal.  Excellent.  I love the country, I don't support those to take it for granted or those who would protest against it while in the midst of representing it.  If it's so awful, don't play for it.

Did a terrorist actually just win an Olympic gold medal?  The woke Tokyo Olympics doesn't discriminate.  No matter your race, gender identity, or affiliation with a terrorist organization — all are welcome and celebrated!  You may have heard of a little group called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.  Well, one of their members just won a gold medal in the Olympics and even gave a military salute on the podium.

Laurel Hubbard, transgender weightlifter, exits Olympic competition early after failing on all three attempts.  Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, was knocked out of the women's 87+ kilogram competition early after failing on all three of her attempts.  Hubbard failed on her first attempt to get 120-kg above her head, bailing out early.  On her second attempt at 125kg, she was able to get the weight up and pumped her fist after in satisfaction, however judges ruled it a "no lift."  She returned quickly for another attempt at 125kg only to fail to be able to stand up with the weight above her head.  Hubbard was the only one of the 13 finalists to not complete at least one lift.

The Editor says...
Go home, be a man, and accept reality.  Not necessarily in that order.

Paris 2024 Olympics logo roasted for looking like a 'Karen'.  The "Karen" meme is back, and it's funnier than ever.  The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are currently well underway but that doesn't stop the fact that people are already talking about the 2024 games.  The next cycle of the Olympics is set to be held in Paris, and while the logo was released back in October 2019, fans can't help but roast the design again.  The logo is very reminiscent of the "Karen" meme — a Caucasian woman with a short haircut who always "needs to speak to the manager."  The Parisian emblem is meant to depict three symbols: the Olympic flame, a gold medal and the hair and lips of Marianne, the personification of France since the 1789 revolution.  She represents liberty, equality and fraternity.

A Disaster of Olympian Proportions.  Is it wrong that I'm rooting for the U.S. Women's National Team to lose, and humiliatingly so, this Olympics?  Of course it's not wrong.  The USWNT, led by America's favorite histrionic Megan Rapinoe, protested against racism and discrimination by taking the knee before their first Olympic match.  Though the stadium was empty (certainly nothing new to the USWNT), the attending "reporters" revived each other with smelling salts to swoon and gape at the unparalleled fortitude exhibited by these privileged virtue-signalers in what was dubbed a "social justice reckoning".

U.S. Olympians: gold-worthy performances in social protest; in athletic competition not so much.  The U.S. Olympic team is off to a sluggish start in Tokyo, to put it mildly.  U.S. athletes failed to deliver a medal on the first day of competition, something that hasn't happened in nearly 50 years.  It's only gotten worse from there.  The women's soccer team, expected to snag the gold, got shut out in its very first match against Sweden.  That shocker ended the team's 44-game unbeaten streak, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.  They beat an overmatched New Zealand squad 6-1 but had to settle for a 1-1 tie against Australia to squeak into the next round.  The squad, most notably lavender-locked team captain Megan Rapinoe, famously kneel before each game, but not during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem.  Other teams in the Olympics also kneel before games to protest racism.  The formerly invincible USA basketball squad is nothing of the sort these days.

NBC has 33-year low viewership for Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony: 'Not a happy' benchmark.  The Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, drew 16.7 million viewers for NBC on Friday, the smallest audience for the network broadcast in the past 33 years, according to data from the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal on Saturday [7/24/2021].  The TV audience dropped 37% from the Rio de Janeiro opening ceremony in 2016, when 26.5 million people watched, and 59% from 2012, when 40.7 million people watched the London opener.  The Tokyo ratings factored in both the live broadcast early Friday morning and a primetime re-airing.  Reuters described Friday's fall, the lowest since the 1988 Seoul Games, as a "steep drop."

Woke USA Women Soccer Team Lose 3-0 at Olympics.  Perhaps if they spent a little more energy on soccer skills, and a little less energy attempting to be the woke champions of US sport, the outcome may have been different.  Alas, there's a great number of Americans who shrug because USA women's national soccer has evolved into a political assembly who happen to play soccer.  The team's egotistical, arrogant, pompous and virtue-signaling attitude is a considerable turn-off.  This is the same team that wears 'Black Lives Matter' on their uniforms, and kneels instead of stands for the U.S. national anthem to showcase to the world just how woke they are.  Team Captain Ms. Rapinoe refuses to sing the U.S. national anthem; kneels during ceremonies to make her hatred for America visible; and grabs every microphone to tell the media about her politics in an effort to increase her woke resistance credentials.

Deaf-blind Paralympian quits Team USA when told she can't bring assistant to Tokyo.  Becca Meyers is a six-time Paralympic medalist with three golds from the 2016 Rio Games.  She was expected to compete for up to four medals in Tokyo.  Instead she's not going.  After the 26-year-old deaf-blind swimmer was told she couldn't bring her mother and personal care assistant (PCA) Maria Meyers to help her navigate Tokyo and the Olympic facilities, Meyers informed Team USA that she was quitting the team.

Keywords:  Adultery, fornication, promiscuity, AIDS.
Athletes to sleep on 'anti-sex' cardboard beds at Olympic Games amid COVID.  Lustful Olympic athletes should think twice before making the bed rock in Tokyo.  The world's best sports competitors are set to spend their nights on cardboard beds — allegedly designed to collapse under the weight of fornicators to discourage sex amid COVID-19.  Olympic officials — who already warned 2021 Games participants to avoid two-person push-ups because of the coronavirus — have set up 18,000 of the cardboard beds in the notoriously sex-crazed athletes' village, according to Dezeen magazine.  "Beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes," American distance runner Paul Chelimo tweeted.

Everything that's gone wrong for the Tokyo Olympics so far.  With the opening ceremony just days away, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are off to a rough start.  After being delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the games are seeing serious challenges in the days leading up to them, including COVID-19, inclement weather, and suspension for marijuana use.  Here's everything that's gone wrong at the Tokyo Olympics so far:  Olympians testing positive for COVID-19 [...] Opening ceremony composer resigns [...] Top sponsor pulls ads [...] U.S. Men's Basketball team loses members [...] Fans banned from events after state of emergency declaration [...] Rising temperatures [...]

With Spectators Banned, Tokyo Olympics Look Like an Even Bigger Money Pit.  Spectators will be banned from all 339 events to be held during the upcoming Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin in Tokyo on July 23, after a state of emergency was declared in that region of Japan this week.  These Olympics had already been dubbed the "No-Fun Olympics" — and by none other than the typically stoic Associated Press — due to pandemic-related policies of testing, quarantining, and limited attendance that were expected to severely curtail the usual athletic bacchanalia enjoyed by athletes and fans (previously, events were expected to be capped at 10,000 spectators each). Now they will be the No-Fans Games as well.  More than 30 venues, some of which predate the Olympics but many of which were purpose-built at public expense, will be occupied solely by coaches, athletes, and judges.

The Editor says...
With no spectators, the event could be held in a big city in almost any country!  For TV coverage, the Olympic venue would have to be somewhere with satellite access and plenty of electricity, but with no crowds on hand, there is no great demand for hotel rooms, mass transit, crowd control, sanitation, and and many other factors.

Members of U.S. Women's Soccer Team Turn Away from the Flag as WWII Vet Plays Anthem.  Several members of the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) did not face the flag as a 98-year-old WWII veteran played the national anthem.  The incident occurred Monday [7/5/2021], just before the USWNT took-on Mexico in their final tune-up before the Tokyo Olympics. [... Update:] An account representing U.S. Soccer teams denies that the video shows any players disrespecting World War II veteran Pete DuPré and posted a video of players, including Megan Rapinoe, greeting him and signing a ball.  Breitbart News' story never said the players disrespected Pete DuPré; rather, it said some players disrespected the American flag.

Base Olympic competition on biological sex, not testosterone levels.  A pair of female sprinters from Namibia can't compete in the Olympics this year, even though the biologically male Laurel Hubbard can compete in weightlifting for team New Zealand.  Sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi cannot compete in the 400-meter dash due to naturally high testosterone levels.  World Athletics requires that for women to compete in events such as the 400-meter and one-mile runs in track, they must lower their testosterone levels to 5 nanomoles per liter.  It's unclear if these athletes are intersex and have XY chromosomes as well as internal testes instead of ovaries.  However, what is clear is that these two not being able to compete while Hubbard can compete is a failure of liberal compromise.

Olympic Jiggery-Pokery.  Jiggery-pokery is a perfect phrase to describe recent Olympic news, especially decisions on who is allowed to compete and who is not. [...] Third is transgender New Zealand weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard.  A successful male weightlifter until age 35, Hubbard now identifies as a female and the Olympic committees think it is perfectly fair that he competes against biologic women.  Guys outlift gals by over 20 percent meaning that the guy who identifies as a gal is a lock for a medal.  Talk about performance enhancement.  This makes Lance Armstrong's blood doping look like child's play.  Missing a few random doping tests or smoking a joint is disqualifying but growing up as a male, muscles, and bones bathed in testosterone during puberty, is not a performance enhancement?  Jiggery-pokery.  Finally, the woke media overlook the obvious racism and sexism at play here. [...] If anything, this confirms that transgenderism sits higher on the intersectionality and victimhood totem pole compared to being female or Black.

Several Women on US Soccer Team Turn Away From US Flag as 98-Year-Old Veteran Plays National Anthem.  Several women on the US soccer team on Monday turned away from the US flag as 98-year-old WWII veteran Pete DuPré played the national anthem on a harmonica.  The US Women's soccer team is playing against Mexico in East Hartford, Connecticut in a pre-Olympic sendoff game before heading to Japan.  These women should not be allowed to represent the US at the Olympics.

Photos From Gwen Barry's Website Reveal That Her Anthem/Flag Protests Are Nothing But A PR Stunt.  Hammer thrower and activist Gwen Berry has received fierce backlash after she appeared to turn her back to the American flag as the national anthem was being played at the U.S. Olympic Trials over the weekend.  Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called Monday for US Olympic track and field athlete Gwen Berry to be kicked off the squad after she turned her back on the American flag while the national anthem was played over the weekend at the Olympic trials in Oregon.  "I don't think it's too much, when athletes are competing to wear the Stars and Stripes — to compete under the Stars and Stripes in the Olympics — for them to simply honor that flag and our anthem on the medal stand," Cotton, a former Army infantry officer, told "Fox News Primetime".  "If Ms. Berry is so embarrassed by America, then there's no reason she needs to compete for our country.  She should be removed from the Olympic team."  Cotton's remarks echoed those of Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a former Navy SEAL, who told "Fox & Friends" Monday that Berry should not travel to Tokyo for next month's Games.

Dan Crenshaw Calls For Gwen Berry to Be Removed from Olympic Team.  Rep. Dan Crenshaw called for Gwen Berry to be removed from the U.S. Olympic team after the bronze medal-winning hammer thrower in the weekend trials expressed frustration and appeared to protest the national anthem played while she was on the podium.  As Steve Doocy explained earlier in Fox & Friends, the national anthem is played once during the evening event, and it just so happened to play while Berry was on the podium.  Berry was displeased by the anthem and expressed her frustration by holding up a tee-shirt that read "Activist Athlete."  The hammer thrower has predictably been an immediate subject of criticism in conservative circles, evidenced by the extensive coverage she received on just Fox & Friends alone.

Crenshaw Calls for Olympic Qualifier Who Snubbed the National Anthem to Be Removed.  U.S. Olympic qualifier Gwen Berry is under fire for turning away from the national anthem on the podium at the Olympic Trials over the weekend.  The Hammer Thrower felt she was "set up" by having to hear the national anthem, and draped a t-shirt reading "Activist Athlete" over her face during the anthem. [...] Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) had harsh words for Berry's unpatriotic behavior, and called for her to be removed from the team.  "We don't need any more activist athletes.  She should be removed from the team.  The entire point of the Olympic team is to represent the United States of America.  That's the entire point," Crenshaw said on Monday morning.  "It's one thing when these NBA players do it, okay fine, then we'll just stop watching.  Now the Olympic team, multiple cases of this, they should be removed.  That should be the bare minimum requirement: that you believe in the country you're representing."

Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry [angry] national anthem was playing at Olympic trials.  A US hammer thrower turned away from the American flag as the national anthem played while she and two other athletes stood on the podium at the Olympic trials Saturday [6/26/2021], later saying she was "pissed" that "The Star-Spangled Banner" played as she received her bronze medal.  Gwen Berry — who qualified for her second US Olympic team during the trials — shifted to face the stands rather than the flag before holding up a black shirt that read, "Activist Athlete."  "I feel like it was a setup, and they did it on purpose," Berry said of the anthem being played.

Furious backlash against Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry for turning her back on flag during national anthem.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended hammer thrower Gwen Berry's right to 'peacefully protest,' after the Tokyo-bound athlete turned her back on the US flag during Olympic trials.  Psaki told Fox News' Peter Doocy at Monday's press briefing that while she and President Joe Biden hadn't spoken specifically about the incident, Biden is 'incredibly proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem and all that it respresents, especially for our men and women serving in uniform all around the world.'  'He would also say, of course, that part of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we are, as a country, haven't lived up to our highest ideals, and that means respecting the rights of people, granted to them in the Constitution, to peacefully protest,' Psaki added.

COVID Wins Again:  Olympics Bans Cheering, Advises Crowds to 'Feel Joy in Their Hearts' Instead.  Japan's released its COVID guidelines, and this year won't be a particularly uproarious affair.  As reported by Agence France-Presse, for one, alcohol is banned.  So for attendees hoping to booze it up, sobering disappointment awaits.  Another thing:  Due to germs, no autographs will be allowed.  And affection's taking a back seat to safety:  No hugging. [...] And everyone entering will have their temperature checked.  Masks will also be mandatory.  For those who don't pass muster, no refund will be issued.  Once inside, Seiko explained, folks will be forbidden from "making direct contact with other spectators."

Former NBA star Jalen Rose says US should have sent all-black team to Olympics, calls inclusion of single white player, Kevin Love, 'tokenism'.  Team USA's inclusion of white forward Kevin Love on the Olympic roster is an example of 'tokenism,' according to retired NBA star Jalen Rose, who says black Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton would make a better choice even though he's from the Bahamas.  'Kevin Love is on the team because of tokenism,' Rose, now an ESPN commentator, said on his podcast. [...] Love and 11 African-American NBA players will be vying for the country's fourth-consecutive gold medal in men's basketball at the Tokyo Games next month.

New Zealand Sends Male Weightlifter to Defeat Women in the Olympics.  New Zealand will set a transgender first by sending a biological male to the Olympics to compete against women in weightlifting.  Former Olympians have condemned the decision.  Other males competing in women's weightlifting have set new records, demonstrating the common-sense principle that sports are sex-segregated for a reason.  Laurel Hubbard, who set New Zealand junior records in weightlifting in 1998 before he transitioned to identify as a woman in 2013, qualified for the Olympics in women's weightlifting due to a 2015 International Olympic Committee (IOC) rule change, CNN reported.  According to the Olympics guidelines, males can compete in women's divisions so long as their testosterone levels stay below 10 nano moles per liter for at least 12 months before their first competition.

Transgender Olympic Athlete Wants to Win Medal So He Can Burn US Flag.  And they say the Left isn't patriotic.  I don't know what they're thinking.  What could be more patriotic than this?

Lola Goes to the Olympics.  Women first competed in the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris, participating in tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism, and golf.  By 2016, 45 percent of participants were women.  Men and women competitions were separate for obvious reasons of strength and speed.  Yet this summer at the Tokyo Olympic Games, these two distinct categories may be blurred with transgender athletes competing, specifically transgender biologic males competing against biologic females.  Lola, who "walked like a woman but talked like a man" will be an Olympian.  New Zealander Laurel Hubbard, is a biologic male now aged 43, who competed as a male weightlifter until transitioning into a female in her [sic] mid 30s.  She [sic] won a silver medal at the 2017 world championships and has a serious shot at winning a medal in Tokyo.

The Editor says...
The man is a transvestite.  He has not "transition[ed] into a female," and never will, because he is a biological male.  Every cell in his body has the DNA of a man.  Wearing women's clothes and assuming a woman's name does not "transition" a man into a woman.

Report: Athletes Told To 'Be Quiet' About Trans Weightlifter Ahead Of Olympic Qualification.  A former Olympic weightlifter claims that female athletes are being told to "be quiet" about transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard ahead of his Olympic debut.  Hubbard is a 43-year-old biological male competing as a woman.  Should Hubbard pass the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) fitness and performance standards, he would become the first trans athlete to compete in the Olympics.

Olympics ban 'Black Lives Matter' apparel, could punish athletes for political demonstrations.  The IOC says athlete protests and political messages will remain banned at the Olympics after a survey found that a majority of competitors were in favor of keeping the ban in place.  That means raising a fist on the podium or taking a knee would still risk punishment at the Tokyo Games this year.  The IOC also said that slogans such as "Black Lives Matter" will not be allowed on athlete apparel at Olympic venues, though it approved using the words "peace," "respect," "solidarity," "inclusion" and "equality" on T-shirts.

Olympics Bans 'Black Lives Matter' Apparel, Again Threatens To Punish Athletes Who Protest.  Athletes will not be allowed to wear clothing with the slogan "Black Lives Matter" at the Tokyo Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee has decided, reiterating that it plans to enforce the Games' "Rule 50," which bans political or social justice protests of any kind at the international athletic event set to take place in just a few weeks.  The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the IOC's rules against "slogans" with a political or social justice meaning are "granular" this year and that the IOC has specifically banned apparel bearing the racial justice mantra, "Black Lives Matter."

The Editor says...
The Olympics might not exist without the income generated by the sale of exclusive television rights.  Those rights would be worth a lot less if the BLM decimates the audience numbers in the same way that they've ruined the TV ratings for the NFL and NBA.

U.S. State Department backs away from the idea of a Beijing Olympics boycott.  The State Department denied Tuesday evening that it was considering a joint boycott alongside allies of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.  "Our position on the 2022 Olympics has not changed.  We have not discussed and are not discussing any joint boycott with allies and partners," a senior State Department official wrote in an emailed statement to CNBC.  Department spokesman Ned Price had initially suggested during a press briefing earlier on Tuesday that a boycott of the Olympic Games was among the possibilities for addressing China's human rights abuses.  The Olympic Games are due to take place between Feb. 4 and Feb. 20.

China now dominates the world, thanks on large part to senile and corrupt Joe Biden.
State Department Backs Off US Boycotting Beijing Winter Olympics as China Threatens "Robust Response".  China has once again beat the US into submission.  The State Department backed off of talks of the US boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics as China threatened a "robust" response.  State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday said a boycott is something that the US wishes to discuss with our allies.  "It is something that we certainly wish to discuss," Price said, "A coordinated approach will not only be in our interest but also in the interest of our allies and partners."

Japan bans foreign spectators for 2021 Olympic Games.  Foreign spectators will not be allowed into Japan to attend the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games because of concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese government and Tokyo 2020 officials announced Saturday [3/20/2021].  International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee officials were informed of the decision in a virtual meeting with Tokyo 2020, Japanese government and Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials.  "In many ways the Tokyo 2020 Games will be completely different to any previous Games," Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto said in a statement. "

A tough-on-China GOP is split on whether to boycott the China Olympics.  President Joe Biden is under growing pressure from hawkish Republicans to use the 2022 Winter Olympics to punish the Chinese government over its human rights abuses.  But even within the GOP, there's disagreement over how far to push.  Some are calling on Biden to outright boycott the Beijing Games, which China is hosting.  Others say they oppose boycotts, arguing that only the athletes get punished.  Many are instead pressing Biden to push the International Olympic Committee to revoke China's role as host and stage the Games in another country — or at least to delay the competition.

Breakdancing now an Olympic sport, will debut at Paris in 2024.  Breakdancing has been confirmed as an official Olympic sport.  The International Olympic Committee's pursuit of urban events to lure a younger audience saw street dance battles officially added to the medal events program at the 2024 Paris Games.  The IOC executive board also confirmed skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing for Paris.  Those three sports will make their Olympic debuts at the Tokyo Games which were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

LA told to cancel 2028 Olympics 'privilege'.  Tokyo would have begun hosting the Olympics on Friday [7/24/2020] had not the coronavirus gripped the globe.  As it turns out, the 2028 Summer Games slated for Southern California might also be in doubt, for political not pandemic reasons.  NOlympics of Los Angeles launched a campaign calling on city leaders to scrap the competition eight years from now, boosted on Twitter by the trending hashtag #CancelTheOlympics.  "We are years away from the proposed 2028 games but we know that they'll be used not only to boost the LAPD budget but to once again run with the recovery narrative," NOlympics LA declared in a manifesto this week.

Meet the Olympic Athletes Who Probably Don't Belong There.  The history of the modern Olympic games is littered with stories of dreamers.  These athletes work hard, sometimes in obscurity, training long hours for that moment of glory as the world watches.  Sometimes those moments end in medals, but obviously the vast majority don't make it to the podium.  And some of the athletes who finish nowhere near the gold have the most fascinating stories.  And these unbelievable Olympians have done what they've done without the left-leaning politics that seem to have permeated these games.

Guess I won't be rooting for Poland in these 2018 Olympics.  The recently enacted Media law says that it is forbidden to make public any statement that links Poland to Germany's evil in the Holocaust.  Up to three years in prison if you are caught saying "Polish death camps" out loud, especially through the press.  So let's keep this private.  Make sure not to pass this around... that the Poles were not innocent bystanders.  They were horribly complicit before, during and after.

Stop pretending the Olympics are about world peace.  The Olympics are the United Nations of sports — high-minded principles and feel-good sentiments exploited by hypocrites to the detriment of the cause of freedom.  The Olympics are great for athletes and for a network like NBC that ponied up billions for the rights to cover them.  They're sports for casual fans, and they make great television.  More than that, the games thrive because of notions about sports transcending conflicts that are essential to the Olympic myth.  The reason the North Korean gambit worked so well is because these fables have always been a load of baloney.  The worst example was the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by the Nazis.

The Disgrace of the Olympics.  The 2018 Winter Olympic Games have opened in the mountains of northeastern South Korea.  The next two weeks will showcase some of the finest athletes in the world: men and women who've trained relentlessly and, whether they win a medal or not, deserve our esteem and best wishes.  The United States has sent 244 competitors — 109 women, 135 men — and we have every reason to think they will bring credit to our country.  Yet we will not enjoy these games with an untroubled conscience.  Stories of sexual abuse and rampant cheating are everywhere in the news, both here and abroad — more so this year than in years past.  The Olympics have become so scandal-ridden and cynically unsportsmanlike as seriously to raise the question of why we continue them.

Maybe the Olympics should be held in a civilized country.
Olympic Venue Surrounded by Dog Meat Farms, Dog Soup on Menus Despite Protests.  The South Korean government offered restaurants serving dog-meat soup money to take it off the menu during the 2018 Olympic winter games taking place in Pyeongchang but most refused, according to media reports.

Black Lives Matter Goes to the Olympics.  Race became the National Football League theme this year, as a bunch of privileged young athletes, being paid millions of dollars for playing a game, supported by an organization worth $75 billion, found it necessary to take a knee against the National Anthem.  There they were, protesting the very country leaving them on the winning end of such income inequality.  The NFL season, thankfully, is in our rearview mirror for the next six months.  Ahead is the Winter Olympics.

Going for Broke — Can Los Angeles Afford to Host the Olympics?  By now you probably know that Los Angeles has the honor, or should I say heartburn, of hosting the 2028 Olympics.  Long gone are the days when such an announcement would fill the locals with pride, as it is now generally understood that local residences will have to put up with increased traffic, never-ending infrastructure headaches and a soul crushing financial commitment by the host city that gets little financial return for its investment.  Within moments of the announcement, the blogosphere was full of articles of how this could become a financial boondoggle for Los Angeles.

Chicago is still paying for its failed Olympics bid.  The site of the now-closed Michael Reese Hospital on the South Side was supposed to be where the athletes village for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago.  But despite Barack Obama flying out to Copenhagen to personally plea for the games to be held in his hometown, the International Olympic Committee members chose Rio de Janiero.  Meanwhile Chicago taxpayers are in a familiar situation--paying for the expensive mistakes of the people they put in power.

Rio's Olympic warm-up pool has turned a disgusting shade of orange as the village continues to fall apart.  Rio de Janeiro spent about $4.6 billion to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.  Six months later, four months after the end of the Paralympic Games, the city's Olympic infrastructure is falling apart.  Over the weekend, the Brazilian news outlet O Globo published footage of various abandoned and decrepit Olympic venues.  According to O Globo, limited security has resulted in theft, and the ceilings are falling in.  Other venues appear to not have received any necessary upkeep.  Even the Maracana, Rio's Olympic stadium, is without power as city officials argue about who should pay the electricity bills.  Most shocking is a warm-up pool that has turned orange.

4 months after Olympics, organizers unable to pay some bills.  Almost four months after the Olympics ended, Rio de Janeiro organizers are unable to pay some of their bills, including $3.7 million owed to the International Paralympic Committee.

Three months after the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro is broke.  The state of Rio is broke.  It hasn't been able to pay its bills since long before the games.  A federal bailout kept police on the streets and hospitals open while Olympics tourists were in town.  But now the money has dried up, and public employees aren't being paid.  The state government is voting on an austerity package that could slash state workers' wages and pensions by 30 percent.  That's triggered violent protests and led demonstrators to briefly storm the state Legislature last month.  Meanwhile, crime is surging across the state.

Rio Olympic golf course eerily empty three months on.  Built specially for the Olympics on what had been a nature reserve next to the beach in western Rio, the links-style course was meant to convert Brazilians to a sport they barely know and put Rio on the international golfing map.  Instead, the $19 million facility created by star US designer Gil Hanse risks turning into a white elephant.

Europe's top Olympic official taken to maximum security prison.  International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Pat Hickey was sent to Brazil's Bangu maximum security prison on Friday while police investigate his involvement in a plot to illegally resell Olympic tickets, civil police said.  The elderly Irishman was arrested in his dressing gown during a dawn raid at his luxury beachfront hotel on Wednesday, where Hickey had been staying with his wife and fellow IOC members.  Police said they had discovered evidence linking Hickey to an international scheme to illegally pass tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.

Looks like Rio police were the biggest liars in the Lochte drama — if anyone still cares about the truth.  You heard it all weekend:  "Four American swimmers trashed a Rio bathroom in a drunken rage and then lied to investigators about an armed robbery to cover-up their story."  It's become conventional wisdom from network anchors trying to paint a rosy picture on a troubled Olympics to journalists who embrace the narrative of "ugly Americans" taking advantage of the downtrodden, third world Brazilians.  There's only one problem with this narrative:  It appears it's completely false.

British Athlete Robbed at Olympics, Officials Say.  A British athlete was robbed in Rio during the Olympics, according to officials.  'We can confirm there has been an incident of theft involving a Team GB athlete returning to their accommodation.  All members of our delegation, including the individual concerned, are accounted for, and are safe and well," Scott Field, a spokesman for Team GB, said in a statement to NBC News Thursday [8/18/2016].  No other details were provided.

Ryan Lochte, James Feigen Indicted in Brazil After Robbery Claim.  The U.S. Olympic Committee Thursday night apologized to Brazil for the "distracting ordeal" stemming from what Brazilian authorities call a fabricated claim of a gunpoint robbery by a group of swimmers in Rio de Janeiro.  "The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members," the statement said.  "We will further review the matter, and any potential consequences for the athletes, when we return to the United States."

Dozens of Robberies Caught on Video in Rio — in Broad Daylight.  It's actually not a new video — it's been making the rounds for several months — but it's shocking and informative nevertheless.  It shows mostly young males (in some cases very young boys) grabbing wallets and bags from people passing through a busy intersection in Rio.  In one instance, a two thugs appear to grab the necklace right off a man's neck, attacking him several times before they successfully get what they're after.  In some cases, fearful looking individuals just hand over their things to the robbers to avoid confrontations.

Olympics-Brazil judge orders U.S. swimmers not to leave country — daily.  A judge in Brazil has issued an order to prevent U.S. swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen from leaving the country on the grounds they gave conflicting accounts of their robbery outside the Rio Games on Sunday, a Brazilian newspaper said on Wednesday [8/17/2016].

Olympic-Sized Climate Propaganda.  XXXI Olympiad competitors are joyfully showcasing their skills and sportsmanship, while delighted fans revel in their amazing efforts.  But opening ceremonies featuring colorful history, dance, song and athletes were rudely interrupted by an unprecedented propaganda film.  As audiences around the world were getting pumped up in eager anticipation for the upcoming events, a slick but deceitful video soured the mood by inserting partisan climate change politics.

If you're at the Rio Olympics, you've probably already been hacked.  While athletes head to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to compete for medals in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, hackers in the area have their eyes on a different prize: the personal information of unsuspecting travelers.  According to a new report from mobile security firm Skycure, visitors to the former capital of Brazil are being targeted by malicious actors who have set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots designed to steal information from connected devices.  These phony wireless networks were spotted by Skycure around the city, but they were most prominent in locations where travelers were most likely to look for a place to connect, like shopping malls, well-known coffee shops, and hotels.

Olympic officials opt to drain green pool, say they learned 'painful lesson'.  After the diving pool was closed for a scheduled practice session Friday [8/12/2016], Germany's Patrick Hausding posted a couple of pictures, one holding his nose with the caption "Good morning from the green lake!"

Rio Olympics:  Green Pools Caused by Hydrogen Peroxide Dump.  Olympics officials on Saturday [8/13/2016] gave what they said was a definitive explanation why the water in two competition pools turned green this week.  Someone, the officials said, mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide on Aug. 5, neutralizing the chlorine and allowing the growth of "organic compounds" that might have included algae.  On Saturday, the water in the diving pool was still a murky bottle-green color, while the water in the second pool, used for water polo and synchronized swimming, had begun to look a bit lighter and a bit bluer.  Athletes have been complaining that the water or the chemicals treating it hurt their eyes, and that murkiness makes underwater visibility impossible.

Rio 2016: Food and Drink is Running Out.  There is not enough food and drink for visitors at the 2016 Rio Olympics, even though the Games started just six days ago.  Attendees queued for hours at food stalls, only to find that everything had run out when they reached the counter, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.  On Saturday [8/6/2016], food stalls at the Future Arena — where handball games are played — were forced to shut early because there were no more supplies left.

America First.  The Olympics tend to be the Island of Misfit Spectator Sports, showcasing competitions that got left by the wayside of popularity, such as volleyball and diving.  So every couple of years when the Olympics roll around, there is much grumbling about how outmoded they are.  Yet large numbers of people always seem to end up watching the Olympics anyway and having a good time.  Why?  Nationalism.

Olympians officially terrified of green '[foul]-smelling' water.  There's something in the water in Rio — and it's getting worse.  The Olympic diving pool was closed Friday morning [8/12/2016] as the water continues to be a disturbing, murky shade of green.  The concern for those who have been diving into the pool has grown as the problem persists.

Queasy, being green:  Olympic diving pool making the wrong kind of splash.  It's primordial, this pool.  You expect a cold, dead hand to come jutting up out of it.  The Olympic diving tank is dark and seemingly bottomless, and as a rule in life, nothing good grows or happens in dark-green water.  Things that are green and wet: spoiled kale.  Decomposition.  Industrial subatomic runoff.  Old ceiling leaks.  Dead seaweedy things that clutch at your ankle.  Would you wade in that, much less put your face in it?  Mothers all over the world are worried about that pool:  They know what the toddler section of a public aquatic park looks like late in the day.  Anyone who has stared at the bottom of an old fountain is worried about that pool.  "The swamp pool," British gold medalist Chris Mears called it.

Rio's infamous green diving pool closed.  The Olympic green pool saga has been through more twists and turns than the divers plunging into it.  On Tuesday [8/9/2016] the diving pool was green.  Then on Wednesday, the water polo pool also turned green.  Now on Friday it appears that the diving pool has been closed to training altogether — so as not to disturb the water and help it turn blue again.

Fake wi-fi hotspots at the Olympics.  A cybersecurity report reveals several fake WiFi hotspots have been set up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to take advantage of the influx of people attending the 2016 Olympics.  Skycure, a mobile security firm, found that places like Rio Galeão Airport are unaware they were inadvertently hosting several nefarious networks, according to Forbes.  In other words, tourists arriving in the city are leaving themselves vulnerable to hackers once they turn on their phones or turn off airplane mode.  Another report, published by Kaspersky Lab, discovered that 18 percent of the available networks were highly unsafe.  Another 7 percent used antiquated encryption technology.

Judo medalist beaten up while celebrating on Copacabana Beach.  Dirk Van Tichelt probably didn't envision one of the greatest days of his life ending in the hospital.  But that's exactly where the Belgian judoka found himself Monday night hours after winning his first-ever Olympic medal.  Van Tichelt won bronze in the 73-kg judo competition on Monday.  Naturally, he went off to Copacabana Beach that night to celebrate the achievement.  And that's where things went awry.  Van Tichelt was reportedly assaulted by a thief on the famous beach, and was struck in the face.  He was taken to the hospital after the incident.

The 2016 Olympics In Rio Are A Hotbed For Hackers.  A cybersecurity report reveals several fake WiFi hotspots have been set up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to take advantage of the influx of people attending the 2016 Olympics.  Skycure, a mobile security firm, found that places like Rio Galeão Airport are unaware they were inadvertently hosting several nefarious networks, according to Forbes.  In other words, tourists arriving in the city are leaving themselves vulnerable to hackers once they turn on their phones or turn off airplane mode.  Another report, published by Kaspersky Lab, discovered that 18 percent of the available networks were highly unsafe.  Another 7 percent used antiquated encryption technology.

Protesters Are Legally Allowed To Ruin The Olympics.  The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro may be in danger of constant disruption by protesters since a Brazilian federal judge ruled Monday night that protesters can peacefully voice dissent at the Games.  Brazilian Federal Judge João Augusto Carneiro Araújo decided that to block protesters from demonstrating their discontent with the Games is to prevent them from freely expressing themselves.  While Brazilians opposed to the Olympic Games see the judge's ruling as a victory for free speech, Olympic organizers will likely appeal the judge's decision.

Reports claim Olympic kayaker capsized after hitting underwater sofa.  The report, which immediately sparked the #kayaksofa hashtag on Twitter, was not corroborated by anyone else.  Nevertheless, the organizers are taking it seriously enough as to investigate it.

Olympic venues see thin crowds for some sports in Rio.  Olympic athletes have been competing in near empty venues and before thin crowds in other locations during the opening days of the Rio Games — a problem that can be traced to long security lines, traffic and a lack of familiarity in some sports.

Rio 2016: Two Australian coaches robbed at knifepoint by teens near Ipanema beach.  Two Australian rowing coaches were robbed at knife-point by teenagers in Rio, just before their athletes were due to compete, as they walked back to their hotel near the city's Ipanema beach.  The pair were forced to handover their mobile phones, a wallet and even an Olympic team jacket in the incident.

Olympic network NBC vows full Rio coverage, woes included.  Bob Costas and other top members of NBC's Olympics coverage team veered between optimism and caution in predicting Rio de Janeiro's ability to pull off a successful Summer Games and said NBC will cover the good and bad.

NBA stars get mega-yacht to avoid filthy Olympic digs.  Another reason the rest of the world will loathe Team USA. As leaking pipes and exposed wiring — to name two disasters — continue to plague the athletes settling into their digs at Rio's Olympic Village, Carmelo Anthony and his teammates will be resting their heads at night aboard a luxurious liner.  The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that the Silversea Silver Cloud will house the US men's and women's basketball teams throughout the Games.  The 196-cabin, nine-deck supership boasts 7-foot beds and access to a pool, spa and shops.

U.S. Deploying Over 1,000 Military, Intelligence Officials for Olympics.  The United States is prepared to deploy more than 1,000 law enforcement, special operations, military, and intelligence officials to Brazil with the Olympics set to kick off Friday.  Hundreds of personnel have already arrived in Rio de Janeiro as part of a highly classified effort to protect the 2016 Summer Games, including American athletes and staff, according to a U.S. intelligence report obtained by NBC News on Friday.  The U.S. Special Operations Command has also sent more than a dozen highly skilled Navy and Marine Corps commandos to Rio to work with the Brazilian Federal Police and the Brazilian Navy, senior military officials told NBC.

Huge queues and angry fans mar the start of Rio Games.  The Rio Olympic Games got off to a shambolic start on Saturday [8/6/2016] as fans queued for hours at security checkpoints to enter venues, with some missing their events and many athletes competing in front of eerily empty stands.  Games organizers apologized for dropping the ball on the first day of full competition, the morning after a dazzling opening ceremony, as iconic venues such as beach volleyball on the famed Copacabana beach saw only a few hundred spectators.  Outside, lines stretched for several blocks as angry fans stood in full sun, waiting as security staff struggled.

Rio Olympic Golf Problems 2016: Capybaras, Crocodiles, Sloths All Over The Course.  After a 112-year absence from the Olympics, golf's return to the world's biggest sporting stage at the Rio games has hit a number of speed bumps.  The latest trouble:  the golf course is "overrun with wildlife," as People Magazine put it in a report Tuesday night [8/2/2016].  The list of critters spotted thus far on the course is impressive.  It includes sloths, mini crocodiles, boa constrictors, mico monkeys, burrowing owls and dozens of capybaras, the world's largest rodent.

Expert to Rio athletes: 'Don't put your head under water'.  Just days ahead of the Olympic Games the waterways of Rio de Janeiro are as filthy as ever, contaminated with raw human sewage teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria, according to a 16-month-long study commissioned by The Associated Press.

The Olympics are being Caster-ated!
Intersex athletes to take center stage at Rio.  Caster Semenya is a South African runner who could emerge as one of the most compelling figures of the Rio Olympic Games.  She is favored to win gold at 800 meters while perhaps breaking track's longest-standing world record, even as her stunning speed is leading to uncomfortable controversy at the uncertain intersection of gender and athletics — and of human rights and athletic fairness.  Semenya has never said she is intersex — a word preferred to the stigmatizing hermaphrodite — but speculation follows her around the globe, her private parts a mortifying matter of public debate.  Track observers believe Semenya is hyperandrogenous, meaning her body naturally produces high amounts of testosterone, the hormone that helps build muscle, endurance and speed.

Athlete with No Womb or Ovaries but Internal Testes Will Compete with Women in Rio.  With reports of dead bodies and excrement floating in the water, the threat of Zika and the Russian doping scandal, the Rio Olympics appears the Frankenstein of athletic events.  And now Rio seems dopey in another way:  owing to political correctness, a runner with, reportedly, no womb or ovaries but internal testes will be allowed to compete with women.  This person is South African middle-distance competitor Caster Semenya.

Semenya wins gold in the 800 as testosterone controversy simmers.  The South African Caster Semenya, world champion in 800 meters in 2009, ran in 1:55.28 to become the Olympic champion with gold in Rio, as controversy still simmers over her condition of hyperandrogenism.

Rio Mayor Says What We're All Thinking: 'Obviously This Is a City That Has Problems'.  The Olympics are now just four days away, and the serious concerns about whether Rio is up to the task of hosting continue to mount.  Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes is already in damage control mode, blaming an international organizing committee for some of the problems in the Olympic Village.  In an interview with Matt Lauer on Today [8/1/2016], Paes finally said what we're all thinking:  "Obviously this is a city that has problems," Paes admitted to Lauer.

Australia hit again: computer, shirts stolen at Rio Olympics.  A laptop and team shirts have been stolen from Australia's accommodation at the Olympic athletes' village while the building was being evacuated because of a small fire, the head of the team's delegation at the Rio Games said Sunday [7/31/2016].  Kitty Chiller said other computer equipment was "rifled through" but was left behind during the theft on Friday.  She said security seems to have improved, but called the theft "concerning."

Explosion at Rio's Olympic stadium just days before opening ceremony.  An explosion has rocked the Olympic stadium in Rio just days before it's set to host the opening ceremony after police found a suspicious toolbox.  Authorities sent in a robot to investigate the toolbox on Sunday at the Maracana Stadium as rehearsals for the ceremony were underway.  The toolbox is believed to have exploded when the robot touched it.

Corpses, excrement, litter: welcome to Rio Olympic sailing venue.  When Olympic sailors compete in Rio the cameras will show a made-for-television scene of sparkling tropical waters and mountains.  Luckily, the billions of viewers won't catch the revolting stink.  More than nine million people live in Rio and towns around the rest of Guanabara Bay.  At best only half the sewage they produce is treated before it pours into the city's watery heart.

Brazil cuts ribbon on much-delayed $3B subway expansion crucial for Olympics.  Brazil's highest officials celebrated the completion of a much-delayed $3 billion subway expansion that will play a crucial part in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday just days before the games are set to kick off.

Rio Olympics security firm fired, maligned police force takes over.  Less than a week before the 2016 Rio Olympics are set to start, the Brazil Ministry of Justice terminated its contract with a private firm that was supposed to provide security for the games.  The ministry cited "incompetence and irresponsibility" from the Rio de Janeiro-based firm Artel, and moved to strip them of their duties.  It's not hard to see why the Ministry of Justice reacted so harshly.  With only a few days left until the first venues are set to open, Artel admitted that they have only hired 500 security personnel.  They were supposed to hire 3,400.

Rio Athletes Village faces leaks, power outages; Australia refuses to move in.  Thousands of athletes arriving for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics could find major plumbing and electrical problems in their rooms at the Athletes Village with the games opening in just under two weeks.

American Jordan Spieth drops out of Rio over 'health' concerns.  Jordan Spieth withdrew from the Olympics on Monday [7/11/2016], leaving golf without its top four players when the sport returns to the games for the first time since 1904.  The decision was announced by International Golf Federation President Peter Dawson.

Armored cars, soldiers in camouflage secure Rio Olympics.  Rio's rising crime rate is at the top of a long list of problems confronting South America's first games:  the Zika epidemic, severe water pollution, a crushing recession and slow ticket sales.

'Super bacteria' discovered in Rio's waters as Olympics near.  A group of Brazilian scientists have detected a drug-resistant bacteria growing off of some of Rio de Janeiro's most stunning beaches, one month before the city is due to host the 2016 Olympic Games.  According to lead researcher Renata Picao, the "super bacteria" entered the city's waterways when sewage coming from local hospitals got channeled into the bay.

Brazil's Olympic Catastrophe.  On June 17, fewer than 50 days before the start of the Games, the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a "state of public calamity."  A financial crisis is preventing the state from honoring its commitments to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the governor said.  That crisis is so severe, he said, it could eventually bring about "a total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management."  The authorities are now authorized to ration essential public services and the state is eligible for emergency funds from the federal government.  Measures like these are usually taken for an earthquake or a flood.  But the Olympics are a man-made, foreseeable, preventable catastrophe.

Body parts wash up on popular beach near Rio Olympic venue.  Authorities in Brazil said Wednesday [6/29/2016] that body parts washed up on shore of a popular Rio de Janeiro beach near where the beach volleyball Olympic event is set to take place in August.  The latest gruesome discovery is another obstacle the city has to grapple with among the laundry list of concerns athletes and fans will have to deal with.  The finding was first reported to Brazilian media by a Rio street vendor.  A police officer standing near a security perimeter confirmed the discovery to Reuters.  However, it's unclear how the mutilated body wound up on Copacabana Beach.

Cops and Firemen Warn Olympics Visitors Rio Won't Be Safe.  When tourists arrive for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this summer, they might be taken aback by the police and firemen who meet them at the airport.  Brazil is in a state of disarray, and the confused priorities of big government have led to fire and police layoffs.  As a result, cops and firefighters meet tourists at the airport with this sign, "Welcome to Hell."  The sign adds, "Police and firefighters don't get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe."  These public servants have been forgotten in the country's massive corruption scandal.

Rio de Janeiro's acting governor:  Olympics could be a 'big failure'.  The headache for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games organizers shows no signs of subsiding.  Six weeks before the Games are set to begin, Francisco Dornelles, the acting governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that the state has not yet received recently-approved federal funds to beef up security and transportation for the quadrennial competition.  "I am optimistic about the games, but I have to show the reality.  We can make a great Olympics, but if some steps are not taken, it can be a big failure," Dornelles told O Globo.

Call for More Rio Security After Paralympic Athletes Robbed.  An estimated 85,000 police and soldiers will be patrolling the streets during the Olympics and Paralympics, but violent crime remains a fact of life in Rio.

The Editor says...
Next time, perhaps they should select a city that isn't saturated with criminals, that isn't going bankrupt, and doesn't have sewage in the river.

Rio state government declares financial disaster as Olympics loom.  The acting governor of Rio de Janeiro's state government declared a state of financial disaster Friday [6/17/2016] in an effort to change budgetary priorities without disrespecting Brazil's fiscal laws.  Francisco Dornelles' move will let him adopt exceptional measures to pay costs related to the upcoming Olympic Games as the state grapples with the country's steep economic recession.  Dornelles' office said in a statement that the decision was made because a dip in revenues from taxes and oil royalties was "stopping the state of Rio de Janeiro from honoring its commitment to the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games."  He said the state is facing a "public calamity."

Studies find 'super bacteria' in Rio's Olympic venues, top beaches.  Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant "super bacteria" off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5.  The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio's most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals.  They also heighten concerns that Rio's sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.

Trash creates obstacles for Rio 2016 Olympic sailors.  When Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz rip through the water aboard their racing skiff, they are doing far more than sailing at the fastest possible speed.  The two athletes from the German Olympic Sailing team are also learning the unique currents, tides and wind patterns of Rio De Janeiro's Guanabara Bay, to try to get an edge when they compete in the upcoming Olympic Games.  And they are keeping a look-out for floating obstacles.  "Its possible you hit while sailing some plastic or you don't know what," says Jurczok, a 26-year old from Berlin.

The show must go on!
UN Health Agency Rejects Call to Postpone Rio Olympics.  The assessment, in a statement early Saturday [5/28/2016], came a day after 150 health experts issued an open letter to the U.N. health agency calling for the games to be delayed or relocated "in the name of public health."

Corruption, doping, instability:  Is it the end of the Olympic Games as we know them?  The ideals of the Olympics are noble and worthwhile.  In sports, nothing is better than the gathering of a peaceful, friendly competition, where the youth of the world can display the best in athletics that the planet can offer.  The corruption of Russia, through its state sponsored sanctioning of doping of their Olympians, threatens the entire institution and the games themselves.  Cheating and doping is nothing new.  It's been going on in Olympic competition for a long time, and it's not confined to Russia.  It's just much worse there, and now that it's unraveling, it is certain to have wide reaching effects and reverberations.

Stop the Olympics.  Discredited long ago by the very corruption and nationalism they were originally meant to transcend, the Olympic Games are embroiled in a wave of scandal that's embarrassing even by the sorry standards of this hypocritical "movement."  It's hard to say what's more outrageous: credible new allegations of a clandestine state-sponsored doping scheme carried out by the 2014 Winter Olympics' host nation, Russia — or the fact that the International Olympic Committee entrusted the event to a despotic regime run by a glory-hungry former KGB agent in the first place.  Meanwhile, the integrity of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing — another dictatorship's showcase — has been retrospectively undercut by the discovery of previously undetected doping by a reported 31 athletes from 12 countries; similar findings may be about to taint the 2012 London Games.

U.S. Athletes Told to Skip Rio Olympics if Concerned About Zika.  The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has recommended that any athlete or trainer concerned about the Zika outbreak in Latin America should consider not attending the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.  Two anonymous sources told Reuters that the USOC issued the suggestion late in January on a teleconference call.  President and board chairman of USA fencing Donald Anthony said no person should travel if "they don't feel comfortable going.  Bottom line."

Can the Rio Olympics survive outbreak of head-shrinking Zika virus?  Rio's Olympics are on the verge of disaster as fear grows over the Zika virus, which has left more than 4,000 newborns with shrunken heads.  Female spectators and even athletes of childbearing age are being warned by countries and medical professionals around the world to reconsider their plans to travel to Brazil for fear of what could happen to their unborn children after the country was overrun by the mosquito-borne disease.

Why Boston's Sports Fans Rejected the Olympics Boondoggle — and L.A. Said Bring It On.  How Boston's rabid sports fans rejected the Olympics — and how chumps in Los Angeles enthusiastically stepped up to potential bankruptcy — is a tale worth understanding, especially the next time your city or state tries selling voters on a new stadium or venue for billionaire sports team owners.  The Summer Games routinely use billions of taxpayer dollars to throw the equivalent of a three-week-long international party that ends with a trashed house and a financial hangover that lasts for years. [...] As sports economist Andrew Zimbalist has noted, the Summer Games might generate $6 billion in total revenue, half of which goes to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) while costing the host city $20 billion (London) or even $40 billion (Beijing).  And don't think that any new stadiums or infrastructure will have much of an economic afterlife.

AP test: Rio Olympic water badly polluted, even far offshore.  A new round of testing by The Associated Press shows the city's Olympic waterways are as rife with pathogens far offshore as they are nearer land, where raw sewage flows into them from fetid rivers and storm drains.

Russia fights back after being slammed over doping.  The Russian government has begun fighting accusations that the country operated a vast state-sponsored doping program, even as the first punishment was handed down Tuesday [11/10/2015].

Russia used spies, secret lab in massive Olympics doping: report.  Russian track and field athletes could be banned from next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after a devastatingly critical report accused the country's government of complicity in widespread doping and cover-ups.

Terror prep may be LA's biggest card in campaign for '24 Olympics.  Los Angeles' 2024 Summer Olympics bid has a lot going for it — ready-made venues and hotels, countless tourist attractions and a massive media market that guarantees top-notch coverage and a huge international audience.  But the ability to provide security against terror attacks may be LA's best card to play.

Audit: Boston Olympics would have cost $970M more than estimate.  A scathing independent audit of Boston 2024's Bid 2.0 ordered by state government leaders found the economic impact likely would have been lower than projected by Olympics supporters and the costs likely would have been at least $970 million higher, according to the report released today [8/18/2015.  "Past experience suggests that Boston 2024 would have been unlikely to meet those cost estimates, and a more reasonable cost estimate would have been over $970 million higher than reported in Bid 2.0.," the report said.

The Winter Olympics problem — nobody wants them.  Beijing has won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.  Now all it needs is some snow.  China 's capital — a city with scant snowfall and a limited winter sports experience — was chosen last week to host the Games, beating out Almaty, Kazakhstan.  While Beijing boasts sparkling facilities left over from its 2008 Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee's decision perplexed many observers.  But the governing body may not have had a choice.  Despite the IOC's efforts to make bidding and hosting more appealing, some of the stronger possible host cities have shied away in recent years.

With only one year to go until the Rio 2016 Olympics there are major concerns over construction, security and pollution.  A year to go until Rio 2016 and there are still serious issues facing the organisers.  Pollution will top the agenda this week, mainly because sailors, rowers, triathletes and marathon swimmers are all in town for test events during August.  Yet there are also major concerns over security — London 2012 470 sailing silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clarke were held up at knifepoint and robbed last December on a training camp.

A Winter Olympics in a City Without Snow.  China's northern plain is extremely dry, and what precipitation that falls in the capital tends to occur during the summer.  Beijing's Olympic planners have assured the IOC this won't be a problem — the country will simply use artificial snow to accommodate events, such as skiing, that require it.

The Editor says...
What kind of "carbon footprint" will be required to cover the Olympic Village with snow?  One would think the environmentalists would be upset about this plan, yet they are all completely silent.

WHO and Sailing Body Seek Virus Tests in Rio Olympic Venues.  The World Health Organization has asked the IOC to analyze virus levels in Rio de Janeiro's Olympic waters, and the governing body of world sailing says it will start doing its own independent virus tests.

Filthy Rio water a threat at 2016 Olympics.  The waters where Olympians will compete in swimming and boating events next summer in South America's first games are rife with human sewage and present a serious health risk for athletes, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio's filth.  Athletes in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.

No Countries Want to Host the 2022 Olympics.  Add Krakow to the growing list of cities who do not want to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.  The Polish city withdrew its bid this week after residents overwhelmingly voted against the plan, according to the Associated Press.  Now only four cities remain in the bidding process, and two of those may soon be ruled out — leaving only Kazakhstan and China as contenders.

Why Sochi?  In all the comment about this month's Sochi Olympics, there is bewilderment above all about Sochi itself:  Why on earth would the Kremlin decide to host the Games in an underdeveloped place where terrorists lurk nearby — a place that a front-page New York Times story this week describes as "the edge of a war zone"?

At the Sochi Olympics, you have to be a Russian politician to know it's not raining.  Ignore the attacks from the rear by the perfidious Western conspirators and propagandists, our common enemies who falsify their reports about the Sochi Games.  This great national festival has dissolved all dissent, and every fear and problem has been resolved.  The Olympics are gigantically staged, and a smiling mood reigns.  We see no evidence that it is raining here.

The Media's Most Outrageous Olympic Outbursts: Saluting the Socialists.  Sports fans checking in on coverage of Team USA at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia might want to brace themselves for unexpected outbursts of liberal preaching from reporters covering the games.  Over the years the [Media Research Center] has documented lefty reporters and writers using the games to celebrate socialist policies, bash expressions of patriotism and even work in jabs against Republicans, like when Bryant Gumbel, in 2006, complained that the "paucity" of black athletes "makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention."

Russian Village Used, Abused, and Forgotten by the Olympics.  If any one place embodies the allegations of corruption, abuse, and alarming human cost of the Sochi Olympics, it's here.  Ashtyr, a tiny, impoverished village in the foothills between the coastal and mountain parks where the upcoming Winter Games will be held, has been used by Olympic planners for its limestone deposits, suffered from the effects of nearby construction, and had its pleas for help ignored.

Olympic visitors' horror at hotels awash with stray dogs, brown water, bugs and no light bulbs.  Journalists checking in were left stunned as they arrived for bookings made last summer to be told they would have to wait indefinitely.  The few that did get rooms, were met with stray dogs, half-built walls, and toxic yellow water spitting from the sinks.

The many, many problems of the Sochi Olympics.  [Scroll down]  "The Sochi Olympics are an unprecedented thieves' caper," says former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.  He claims that some $26 billion in phony costs may have been creamed off by contractors, many of whom are Putin cronies.  Consider the new 31-mile road and railway that run from the beachfront town of Adler to the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort, overseen by Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB general and Putin pal who heads Russian Railways.

The Most Expensive, the Most Corrupt, and the Most Dangerous Olympics in History.  There is a good summation of the problems with the Sochi Winter Olympics by Frances Weaver in The Week today.  It's about what you'd expect from modern day Russia ruled by former KGB agent Vladamir Putin.  In fact, the Olympic movement hasn't seen anything remotely like it.  First, the cost:  $51 billion.  By contrast, the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 cost around $8 billion.

IOC Makes U.S. Hockey Goalie Remove Constitution From Mask Before Olympics.  The International Olympic Committee is requiring U.S. women's hockey goalie Jessie Vetter to remove an inscription of the U.S. Constitution from her custom mask.  The IOC says the inscription is propaganda which promotes the United States above other countries.

Messiah Obama Turns 2014 Winter Olympics into Sexuality Games.  Anyone who thought the Olympics was about sports competition among nations apparently was wrong, at least according to President Barack Obama.  Just like he has tried to reinvent America off her throne of greatness, Obama uses the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia to remake the games into a forum on gay rights.

Olympic outsourcing: Team USA snowboarders' uniforms foreign-made.  The newly-unveiled uniforms for the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team are star-spangled and red, white and blue — but they're not made in America.

Olympic-Level Corruption in Putin's Russia.  Last week, there were two amazing, related stories out of the Putin dictatorship.  In the first one, the brilliant Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov, who specializes in watching the Russian secret police, broke the deeply disturbing news that Putin is planning a massive campaign of eavesdropping on all attendees during the Winter Olympics to be held next year in Sochi, Russia.

Russia planning 'near-total surveillance' of visitors, athletes at Sochi Winter Olympics.  Security measures at the Sochi winter Olympics will include such extensive electronic eavesdropping and surveillance that the US State Department has advised Americans headed to Russia to leave smart phones and laptops at home, an investigation has revealed.  Research by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, two Russian investigative journalists who specialise in covering the security services, reveals a picture of near-total surveillance, Soldatov said.

The IOC's Biggest Scandals.  Juan Antonio Samaranch ruled the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001.  Once a youth organizer for Spain's fascists, he was considered a pioneer in the modern Games.  He wanted to be called "Your Excellency."  He created bidding wars for the chance to host the Games, which also makes him the father of modern Olympic corruption, the architect of selling committee votes to the highest bidder.

Washington DC to Bid for 2024 Summer Olympics.  The inconveniences of the daily routine in the nation's capital will be a selling point as Washington, D.C., makes a push to host the 2024 Olympics.

D.C. bids for 2024 Summer Olympics; Capital tired of being snubbed.  Officials in Washington Tuesday announced plans to seek the 2024 Summer Olympics, a bid to finally bring the world games to one of the few major capital cities to never hold the event.

The Editor says...
The selection of the host city for the Olympics isn't about finding adequate sports arenas and hotels — it's all about politics.  Washington is run by left-wing Democrats, which makes it a perfect match for the Olympics, which promotes a massive world-wide government under which any given country is equivalent to any other.  The Olympics paints a picture of affirmative action on a global scale:  Obscure countries that produce nothing get the same standing as major countries that drive of the world's economy.

Enough with the Kumbaya Olympics. Let's keep wrestling.  The International Olympic Committee issued a surprise decision on Tuesday [2/12/2013] to exclude wrestling from the 2020 Olympic Games.  For a number of years, the committee has drawn fire for its lack of transparency.  With its secret vote to remove one of the original Olympic sports — one that dates back 2½ millennia to the first games in ancient Greece — it has added another decision that deserves scrutiny.

Women golfers rejoice after LPGA bars post-puberty males from female competition.  Multiple women's golfers came forward to praise and celebrate the LPGA's rule change on Wednesday that bars post-pubescent males from competing against females in pro competition.  The organization said in a news release that male players who have gone through male puberty are barred from competing in the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour and all other elite LPGA competitions.  The new rule will go into effect for the 2025 season.  "Players assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty are not eligible to compete in the aforementioned events," the organization said.  "The policies governing the LPGA's recreational programs and non-elite events utilize different criteria to provide opportunities for participation in the broader LPGA community."

How To Stop Trans Insanity In Women's Sports.  The trans madness continues, as biological males continue to smash glass ceilings and female faces in women's sports.  This past Monday, a Marxist activist in a black robe decreed that neither civil rights nor biological science factor into his reasoning process, and that biological male Brayden Fleming has every right to continue playing for the San Jose Spartans girls volleyball team.  Brayden goes by his stage name Blaire, but I'll be referring to him as Brayden.  Without a hint of irony, judge Kato Crews opined that the delay caused by the filed injunction "would risk confusion."  Um...I'd say there's already plenty of "confusion" afoot, and not on the part of the plaintiffs. [...] At this point, if you still think men belong in women's sports, there are no conclusions we can logically draw other than you're a misogynist, you support sexual predators, or that you're on a postmodernist binge to destroy as much of Western culture and its social norms as possible.  You're despicable, and I have nothing more to say to you.  But, as with all things left, full steam ahead.  Neither election results nor public opinion nor established law nor the safety of innocents nor basic decency were ever serious impediments to a leftist with a Cause.  Yes, we have the Trump presidency due to arrive shortly, but even he will only be able to do so much to stop this madness.

Navratilova condemns New York Times for calling female athletes 'non-transgender women'.  Martina Navratilova has criticised The New York Times for describing biological females as "non-transgender women".  The description was included in a story about women's college volleyball teams forfeiting games against San Jose State University, which has a trans player in its line-up.  In the story, the outlet used the term "non-transgender women" when explaining the sport's rules on varying levels of testosterone.  The term has been met with a backlash by readers, among them Navratilova, a feminist campaigner and one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Bravo to the brave women athletes who are standing up to trans madness.  A quiet revolt is stirring in women's sports:  Female athletes are saying "enough" and refusing to play unfair match-ups against biologically male opponents.  This season, woman volleyballers at the University of Wyoming, Utah State, the University of Nevada, Reno and Southern Utah have forfeited games against San Jose State instead of playing against a reportedly transgender athlete on the Spartans, Blaire Fleming.  The Boise State squad not only forfeited twice during the regular season, it made the painful decision to sit out the Mountain West Conference semifinals game against the Spartans.

Women's volleyball players urge judge to block transgender athlete from upcoming competition.  Twelve women's volleyball players asked a federal judge on Thursday to grant an emergency motion to block a transgender athlete from playing in next week's Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship in Las Vegas.  "The evidence points in a single direction: allowing males to play women's volleyball violates women's Title IX rights," the athlete plaintiffs' attorney William Bock argued Thursday.  San Jose State University recruited Blair Fleming from Coastal Carolina University's NCAA Division I team in 2022 with the offer of a full scholarship.  Fleming, a transgender woman, played with permission from her athletic director and the Mountain West Conference, though her teammates say they didn't know her life history.  In 2022, the Mountain West Conference adopted a rule allowing schools to roster transgender athletes at their discretion.

High School Volleyball Team Cites the Bible as it Forfeits Playoff Game Against Opponent with Trans Player.  The diabolical madness that has consumed the Western world in recent years has once again stolen young girls' dreams.  Fortunately, these particular girls, though criminally betrayed by dishonest adults, care more for truth than for their own earthly glory.  On Friday, the girls volleyball team at Stone Ridge Christian High in Merced, California, cited the Book of Genesis in announcing via news release that it would forfeit Saturday's playoff game against San Francisco Waldorf, which boasts a male player posing as female.  "At SRC, we believe God's Word is authoritative and infallible.  It is Truth," the school explained in a statement posted to the social media platform X.

The Great 'Splainin' Cometh.  The Woke Democrats of recent times were our Jacobins, and the election of November 5, 2024, marks the kick-off of America's Thermidorian Reaction.  The crazies have been overthrown and our country awaits a restoration of norms in culture and law.  No more sexualizing of children, no more flood of criminal mutts across the US border, no more furtive censorship of public speech, no more creative lawfare, no more women on the battlefield, no more "anti-racist" racism in the workplace, no more intel takeover of everyone's private life... you get the picture. [...] The voters, subject to years of trips laid on them, were eventually able to see through all this induced psychodrama as to how they were being manipulated, and on November 5, they finally revolted.  Their quandary was probably epitomized by the absurdity of watching men in women's sports — spiking volleyballs on the girls' heads, bashing them on the lacrosse field, humiliating them in the swim lanes — and, more to the point, being helpless to do anything about it, because the officials in-charge under "Joe Biden" said it must be, no matter what you think and feel about what you are seeing.

Schools That Forfeited Volleyball Matches Asked to Pay 'Damages" To San Jose State University.  Two of the five schools which chose to cancel and forfeit their women's volleyball matches rather than compete against biological male player Blaire Fleming have been asked for money from San Jose State University (SJSU).  [Advertisement]  Boise State University (BSU) and Utah State University, have been asked by SJSU to pay the school $1,250 each to compensate for revenue lost when the matches were forfeited.  [The same advertisement again]  [Tweet]  [Advertisement]  According to emails obtained by Outkick in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Boise State, SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya wrote to BSU Athletic Director Jeremiah Dickey asking that the school pay SJSU for the forfeit.

Unbelievable: Two 'Bearded Guys' Competed in a Women's Soccer Match.  Two women who think they're men competed in a women's soccer match in Spain, according to multiple reports.  The women are taking hormones to "transition" to live as men.  Reportedly, Club Esportiu Europa, based in Barcelona, played this past weekend.  Two players, Alex Alcaide Llanos and Nil Alcon Labella, are "transitioning" from female to male.  The New York Post noted that both players had "facial hair clearly visible" and that both are banned from playing in the men's leagues because they have not completed their transitions[.]

The Editor says...
I've got a news bulletin for you:  They will never complete their "transitions," because there is no way to change from a man to a woman or vice versa.  A man who dresses and acts like a woman is a transvestite, not a woman.

Female athletes lost staggering amount of medals to biological males, study finds.  Arguments about the rarity of men and boys stealing opportunities from women and girls crumbled as a United Nations report quantified the growing number of medals lost.  Too often, leftist claims of troubling matters being rare and of little consequence have proven to be neither.  Now, according to the findings of U.N. special rapporteur Reem Alsalem, such was the case for gender ideology's impact on sports as nearly 900 medals that would have been awarded to females had gone to males as of March 2024.  In the report initially published in August, Alsalem indicated, "The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals when competing against males."

Hundreds of female golfers demand removal of transgender player Hailey Davidson.  Hundreds of female golfers have complained about the participation of Scottish-born transgender player Hailey Davidson in the penultimate stage of the LPGA Tour's qualifying competition.  Davidson, a 31-year-old professional originally from Ayrshire but now based in Florida, has said that the intention is "to make Scotland proud" by earning a card on the women's premier circuit.  But after progressing through August's first stage of Q-School, the former player on a US male college team was accused of acting "unfairly", with Amy Olson, a two-time major runner-up, railing against Davidson being allowed to compete.  "These women have worked too hard and too long to have to stand by and watch a man compete for and take their spot," she said.  It has now emerged that this view was held by many in the field, with the International Women's Forum revealing that 275 signed a letter sent to the LPGA, the US Golf Association and the International Golf Federation, urging Davidson's removal from the tournament.

Kamala Harris can no longer hide from her dangerous stance on men playing in girls' sports.  For over a decade now, the issue of trangenderism has gained increasing prominence in American politics, which is natural when personal choices begin to intersect with public policy, and for Vice President Kamala Harris, it has risen above the surface at the worst possible time.  There have always been policy concerns around the idea that men can simply decide they are women.  There were questions about women's shelters and prisons, locker rooms and bathrooms, but nothing puts quite as fine a point on the issue as men competing in women's sports.

Fifth Women's Volleyball Team Chooses to Forfeit Rather Than Play Against a Biological Male.  Collegiate women's volleyball is in crisis over transgenderism.  A fifth volleyball team has decided to forfeit a match rather than play against San Jose State University (SJSU), which features Brayden (aka Blaire) Fleming, a male-born player who now claims to be female.  Thus far, the list of teams to forfeit rather than play against Fleming includes Southern Utah, Boise State, Utah State, and Wyoming.  Unlike the other forfeits, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) team made quite clear why they wouldn't be playing SJSU. [...] As with the previous forfeits, politicians joined the conversation.  U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown used it as a way to target his Democratic opponent, incumbent Jacky Rosen.  "Jacky Rosen VOTED to allow biological men in GIRLS' sports, betraying every female athlete.  As parents, this issue is personal," Brown posted on X.

Georgia University Leaders Ask NCAA to Ban Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports.  The regents who govern Georgia's 26 public colleges and universities voted Tuesday to ask the NCAA and the National Junior College Athletic Association to put a ban in place on transgender athletes participating in women's sports.  The vote was unanimous.  Reportedly, the vote was instigated by Republican Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones' oath to ban men who think they are women from women's sports[.]

Boise State Women's Volleyball Forfeits Match Against Team with Male Player.  The Boise State women's volleyball team has forfeited an upcoming match against San Jose State University (SJSU) amid controversy over a male member of that team.  Boise State released a statement to Outkick announcing their decision.  [Advertisement]  "Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San José State on Saturday, Sept. 28," the statement said.  "Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Boise State.  The Broncos will next compete on Oct. 3 against Air Force."  [Advertisement]  Boise State is the second team to forfeit a match against San Jose State this month.  [Advertisement]  While Boise State's statement did not explicitly mention the male athlete, it is known that Blaire Fleming, a transgender player who transferred from Coastal Carolina, is on the San Jose State roster.  [Tweet with video clip]

School Bans Parents Wearing XX Wristbands From Girls' Sports Event.  Sometimes people can take the entire idea of complying with ridiculous government mandates several bridges too far.  That appears to have been the case during a recent sporting event held in New Hampshire.  A girls' soccer game was scheduled between Plymouth Regional High School and their rival Bow High School.  Bow High School was fielding a boy who "identifies" as a girl to compete, but when the Plymouth Regional parents heard about this, they asked the Bow High athletic director to withdraw the boy from the roster.  He refused, saying that "his hands were tied" by a federal ruling allowing anyone who "identifies as female" to compete.  Having run out of other options, the parents decided to wear red wristbands to the match that were marked with two letter "X" symbols, signifying the women's chromosomes shared by all females as a silent protest.  That wasn't good enough for the Bow High School team who insisted that the wristbands be removed.  The parents refused.  That's when they called the police and had the offending parents removed from the venue.

Valentina Petrillo's Paralympics was a victory for sport's cowardice masked as inclusion.  After seeing the beauty of these Games defaced by the spectacle of Valentina Petrillo, a 51-year-old father-of-two, taking semi-final places in female sprinting from two women barely half the Italian's age, you might have expected Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, to commit — at the very least — to a review of the ridiculous policy that let this happen.  Instead he seemed, at his closing press conference, almost to celebrate it as a watershed.  "When it comes to transgender athletes, they are breaking barriers everywhere," Parsons said. [...] The IPC knew about the Petrillo case:  after all, at last year's World Championships, this self-declared "trans dad" had won two bronze medals as a woman in the 200m and 400m for visually impaired runners as a woman.  But rather than intervening, they sat back and did nothing, only to acclaim Petrillo's presence in Paris as a breakthrough.

We need to kick men out of women's football.  It's a shame that whenever women's sport makes the headlines these days, it's often because a man has ruined it.  Over the weekend, a South East Regional Women's League football match became national news not due to the hard work and dedication of the players, but because of a biological male intruding on their sport.  On Sunday, Sutton United's women's team were due to play an away game against Ebbsfleet.  But just a few hours before kick-off, Sutton called the match off, citing their inability to field enough players.  Though Sutton didn't say why, the Telegraph reports it is 'understood that the cancellation was related to increasing disquiet' over the team's newest recruit.  Sutton's sudden inability to field a team came hours after news broke that they had signed a transgender goalkeeper — 34-year-old, six-foot-tall Blair Hamilton.

Female darts players threatened with disciplinary action for refusing to play transgender rivals.  Female darts players have been threatened with disciplinary action if they refuse to play transgender opponents.  Almost four months after a British female player forfeited a match against a trans woman at a World Darts Federation event, the governing body has begun a controversial crackdown on such protests.  Ahead of announcing the provisional fields for this year's World Championship, the WDF said in a statement: "The WDF wishes to clarify its position on player withdrawals.  "Once the first dart has been thrown in a tournament, any player that subsequently withdraws from playing a match may be considered to be bringing the game into disrepute and could face disciplinary action.  "This stance has been taken to suitably protect our member countries, their tournaments and tournament sponsors, as well as to preserve the integrity of the WDF ranking system."

The Editor says...
What they're saying is that the normal people — the ones who still have common sense — are "bringing the game into disrepute."  What reputation is being developed or preserved here?

IOC: Zero Scientific Way to Identify Female Athletes.  The president of the International Olympic Committee stunned reporters when he declared there is zero chance of using science to identify a woman.  The question came amid growing outrage after two male boxers were allowed to compete in the Paris games as women.  Scientifically speaking, XX does not equal XY.

Science Brings Nuance To The Problem Of Bio-Male Athletes.  The Olympic controversy in Paris surrounding biological men competing in women's boxing brought the Gender Wars to the attention of millions around the world, as two medals in women's boxing are poised to land around the necks of two bio-males:  Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting.  That says it all.  Or does it?

The Erasure of Women in Sports.  Originally, the 1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments permitted "separate but comparable toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex." [...] The Biden/Harris changes to the Title IX amendment that just went into effect on August 1, 2024 will change women's sports forever.  The left's militant expansion of its ideas never ends.  In true progressive fashion, definitions of words change in order to drive radical ideas into the public square.  Thus, sex is redefined to "force schools to create special privileges based on gender identity."  In essence, Title IX is completely undermined.  In fact, the term "gender identity" is a term that was never mentioned in the original law.  Consequently, the updated 1,500-plus-word document seeks to erase women.  It will force colleges and universities that accept federal funding to "embrace the cultural radicalism of the left."

Where do you draw the line on biological men competing in women's sports?  Olympic boxing sunk to a new low last week.  An Algerian boxer with XY chromosomes — the ordinary definition of "male" — and commensurate male testosterone levels — beat up a woman in front of thousands of cheering spectators.  The woman who was beat up had to quit 46 seconds into the match, apparently with a broken nose.  In tears, she said in her native Italian "not fair, not fair" and explained afterward that she'd "never been hit so hard in my life."  The XY boxer was declared the winner.  Yesterday, the XY boxer won again in a decision where all three judges favored the XY boxer in all three rounds — it was effectively a 9-0 decision — and is headed toward the finals as a clear favorite for the gold medal.  This XY person had previously been disqualified from competition by the International Boxing Association for having tested positive for XY chromosomes and testosterone levels well above the normal range for women — and within the normal range for men.  But the International Olympic Committee disregarded those tests in a feud between them and the IBA.  The IOC says the XY has a passport with "female" checked on it, and that's good enough for them.

The simple way to protect women's sport at the Olympics.  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to find some far better answers to the transgender question if it is to restore its credibility in eyes of those who care about women's sport.  We might not have the spectacle of Laurel Hubbard — the transgender weightlifter who displaced a woman from the last games in Tokyo — but the debate is far from settled.  Some potential transgender competitors, such as the American swimmer Lia Thomas or British cyclist Emily Bridges, were excluded ahead of the Games in Paris by their own governing bodies.  There was no place for them there.  That is a good thing.  Nobody is excluding Thomas, Bridges or any other male transsexual from competing altogether; rather the rules quite rightly prevent them from competing in categories reserved for the female sex.  But, nevertheless, a row has blown up over two boxers, Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, who — according to the president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) — have taken DNA tests that 'proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the [women's] sports events'.

Female volleyball player, 17, left paralyzed with brain damage by transgender opponent who 'cackled with delight' after knocking her to ground.  A volleyball player left partially paralyzed by a transgender opponent has slammed the Olympics over its boxing controversy.  Payton McNabb was 17 when a ball spiked by a trans opponent with force struck her in the face, threw her to the ground and shut off her consciousness.  The 5ft 11in trans player cackled in delight, Ms McNabb said, after sending her to the floor.  As did other players in the opposite team.  Ms McNabb was left with brain damage and paralysis on her right side, which ended her dreams of getting a volleyball college scholarship and has made it difficult to walk without falling.

Italian Female Boxer Lasts Just 46 Seconds Against Fighter Who Failed Gender Test.  Forty-six seconds.  That was the sum total of time a female Italian boxer lasted in the ring at the Paris Olympics before she retired from a bout against an Algerian fighter caught in an eligibility furore.  Twenty-five-year-old Imane Khelif was cleared to compete at the 2024 Olympics, even after being disqualified from the International Boxing Association (IBA) 2023 World Boxing Championships for failing gender-eligibility tests, according to Fox News.  The International Olympic Committee, which uses different criteria to determine eligibility, ruled Khelif eligible to compete.

Algerian boxer in Olympic gender row wins in 46 seconds.  Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who failed a gender eligibility test last year, won her opening bout at the Paris Olympics in just 46 seconds on Thursday against her distraught opponent.  Khelif advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's 66 kg category after unloading two strong punches on Angela Carini, who shrugged off attempts by the Algerian to shake her hand and collapsed to her knees in floods of tears.  An Italian coach said Carini had suffered a badly hurt nose and the official decision was listed as an abandonment.  Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who fights on Friday at 57kg, were disqualified from the world championships last year but deemed eligible to box in the women's competition in Paris.

Brittney Griner reveals she wants her newborn son to call her 'POPS' not mom, leaving fans to question 'why is he in the WNBA?'.  WNBA star Brittney Griner revealed a controversial name she wishes her newborn son to call her.  Griner and wife Cherelle welcomed their first child together 19 months after the WNBA star's release from a Russian penal colony.  The 33-year-old revealed over the WNBA All-Star weekend that their baby boy had arrived, admitting she is over the moon to welcome their bundle of joy to the world.  However, the basketball star also revealed that she did not wish to be known as 'mom', opting instead for 'pops'.

The trans superiority narrative.  Trans lunacy is forcing its way into every aspect of life, but is perhaps most obvious in sports, where we are told there are no differences between boys and girls/men and women.  Mediocre male athletes, who competing against males would have no chance to win, pretend to be female and suddenly become champions.  There is no right to deprive females of their athletic accomplishments and scholarships.  Reality imposes itself when females identify as male and try to compete with men.  In those cases, females aren't winning, yet if there are no differences between men and women, shouldn't they be champions?

Bush-Appointed Judge Blocks Biden's New Title IX Rule in 6 More States.  A Kentucky federal judge blocked the Biden administration Monday from implementing its Title IX expansion for LGBTQ+ students in six states.  Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves sided with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman's lawsuit against the United States Department of Education in blocking the Biden administration's new Title IX rule in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to the court documents.  The new Title IX rule, set to take effect on Aug. 1, 2024, expands protections for LGBTQ+ students by preventing discrimination based on "gender identity."  The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and it alleges "the Department has used rulemaking power to convert a law designed to equalize opportunities for both sexes into a far broader regime of its own making."  Reeves limited the injunction to the six plaintiff states.

Behold the Monster You Created.  [Scroll down]  Well, my friends.  You miscalculated.  You supported the LBGTQ agenda without question when it was being shoved in the noses of uppity Christians.  But you have since discovered that what "love is love" really means is that mediocre males are allowed to dominate women's sports (and invade their locker rooms) and that you are expected to applaud along.

Federal Judge Rules Texas Can Ignore Joe's New "Guidelines".  Biden doesn't seem to learn his lesson even after his leftist pet projects fail upon judicial scrutiny. [...] The judge's 112-page ruling hammered Biden's Education Department Title IX changes and the overarching gender and sexual orientation ideology.  U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Reed O'Connor stated that nothing in the statute expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or other unexpressed grounds.  "And where Title IX allows for differentiation based on sex due to biological differences — such as intimate facilities and athletic teams — recipients may treat persons in accordance with their biological sex without regard to subjective gender identity," O'Connor ruled.  The Texas lawsuit followed a June 22, 2021, Education Department memo changing how the federal entity interprets the Title IX prohibition on discrimination "on the basis of sex."  The new guidance included discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as part of the interpretation.

Swiss Court Confirms "Lia" Thomas Is a Dude and Therefore Cannot Compete Against Actual Women at the Olympics.  Former collegiate swimmer and current conservative activist Riley Gaines shared excellent news following a Swiss court ruling against Lia Thomas, the male swimmer pretending to be a woman so he can demolish the sport at every level. [...] Thomas dominated women's collegiate swimming at Penn State, winning the national championship in 2022 by competing against girls despite being a 6'1" man.  But World Aquatics, swimming's international federation, established a policy against men competing against women in "elite" events, including the Olympics.  For now, the Swiss court ruling will keep Thomas from living out his female fantasies at the highest level of his sport.

At WNBA Ceremony, Biden Urges America to Support the Women's Sports He's Destroying.  In previous years, people might have missed the irony.  But not now — not after the meteoric rise of women's basketball.  When the WNBA champs visited the White House last week, reporters didn't cover it out of obligation.  They covered it because it was a real story.  And President Joe Biden's betrayal of girls' sports only made it more of one.  The timing of the photo op couldn't have been more politically inconvenient for the president, whose administration has been lit up by lawsuits over the dismantling of the very thing the team was there to celebrate — women.  While Biden was applauding the champs for "showing that the future of women's sports is brighter than the Vegas lights," most people couldn't help but notice how utterly disingenuous he was being.  After all, Biden is the one trying to eradicate 52 years of women's progress.  He's the one insisting biological men make better girls than our daughters.  And it was his idea — not Congress' — to turn Title IX into a manifesto of transgender rights.

Women Forced to Compete Against Men?  Just Say No!  During the Reagan presidency years, one of first lady Nancy Reagan's initiatives was the "Just Say No" approach to drug abuse. [...] Another social pathology, not much of an issue in the 1980s, is transgenderism.  LGBTQIA2S+ and whatever additional letters are needed to make the letter salad current and incoherent, wasn't a buzzword during Reagan's years.  In the 1980s, no person of rational mind believed men could become pregnant or breastfeed, that men should use women's bathrooms or locker rooms, or that men could fairly compete against women in sports.  But here we are in 2024, when these concepts are in many quarters, as seemingly normal as sunrise and sunset.

Lawyer up, Republicans.  Late Friday night, Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation wrote, "The Department of Education just released its long-delayed Title IX rule — a rewrite of the 50-year-old civil rights law so vast that it promises to turn Title IX's guarantee of sex equality in education completely upside down. [...] Most of the attention to this unconstitutional legislation by a president — not Congress — has focused on turning over women's sports to trannies and drag queens.  But Biden's Law — and hold him, not bureaucrats, responsible for this travesty of justice — also strips men accused of rape of their rights to due process and the presumption of innocence.  She's a lawyer and she ended her column on a positive note:  "The Independent Women's Law Center has already indicated it is readying a lawsuit against the Department of Education.  Others are likely to follow.  Let's hope so."  That's good because for once conservatives are fighting back.  Well, MAY fight back.  Democrats would have gotten an emergency national injunction from a Hawaiian judge over the weekend.

Biolgical Girls Refuse To Throw The Shot Put Against A Biological Male In West Virginia.  Five middle school female athletes in West Virginia refuse to throw shot put against a male, Becky Pepper-Jackson.  This comes just 2 days after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the WV law that says you must compete in the category that matches your sex.  West Virginia's transgender sports ban violates the rights of a teen athlete under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.  [Video clip]

WV Middle-School Girls Protest, Refuse to Compete With Transgender Athlete.  As my colleague Jeff Charles reported, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down West Virginia's "Save Women's Sports" law, saying it violated transgender student Becky Pepper-Jackson's right to compete with the school's women's track and field team.  [Advertisement]  [Tweet]  The ACLU brought the original suit in 2021 on behalf of Pepper-Jackson, and they are celebrating it as a victory.  Former collegiate competitive swimmer and activist Riley Gaines took to X to speak out against the ruling and excoriate the ACLU.  [Tweet]  The texts from the young female athletes expressed their fear, disappointment, outrage, and anger over this violation of their rights and safety.

Biden Admin's Title IX Rewrite Obliterates Female Spaces, Free Speech, And Due Process.  The Biden administration's Department of Education unveiled a sweeping set of rules on Friday that effectively erase protections for sex-based spaces by expanding the Title IX prohibition against sex discrimination to include "gender identity" — a term that's never mentioned in the original law.  A majority of Americans agree that males who claim to identify otherwise should not be allowed to infiltrate girls' and women's sports teams.  As of now, some 25 states have laws or regulations aimed at keeping boys and men out of female-only spaces, on and off the field.  Yet, come Aug. 1, the Democrat regime's radial redefinition of "sex-based discrimination" poses a threat to sex-based protections and welcomes males into female spaces including athletic competitions, locker rooms, and sex-specific clubs such as sororities, despite state laws.

Critics Blast Biden's New Title IX Regulations Championing 'Gender Identity'.  On Friday, the Biden administration released its new Title IX regulations, and its strictures engendered anger and outrage for those defending traditional values.  The document, which runs over 1,500 pages, states that the Department of Education "disagrees with the contention that including sexual orientation and gender identity in the scope of §106.10 harms women.  Recognizing these bases of sex discrimination under Title IX in no way lessens the force of Title IX's protections against discrimination that limits educational opportunities for girls and women.  Further, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is typically motivated by the same sex stereotypes that limit opportunities for women regardless of whether they identify as LGBTQI+."

Biden Admin Adds 'Gender Identity' as Protected Class in New Title IX Rules.  The Biden administration on Friday released its long-anticipated rewrite of Title IX, but left out any mention of transgender-identifying male athletes in women's sports.  The Biden administration's draft proposal included a radical revision that would have forced forced federally funded educational institutions to allow men to compete on their women's sports teams unless they demonstrate it compromises student safety.  Under that rule, the burden of proof would have been shifted to schools, which in effect would have to create separate policies for every sport.  But with the 2024 contest against former president Donald Trump in full swing, the Biden administration opted to punt on the issue of males competing in women sports.  With so much litigation surrounding the issue, it's unclear when the trans sports guidance will come down.

Federal Court Overturns West Virginia Law Protecting Women's Sports from Male Intrusion.  A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a West Virginia law that prohibits male athletes from competing in women's sports in the state, arguing that it violates Title IX, the federal law barring sex-based discrimination in schools.  In a 2-1 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed transgender-identifying males to participate on women's sports teams in the state.  This was one of several pending lawsuits addressing the issue of male participation in women's sports, with both sides laying claim to Title IX to support their cases.

Nadler Claims No Men Are in Women's Sports.  As leftists go about remaking reality to suit themselves or fooling themselves into thinking they're getting away with doing so, there are still a few pockets of resistance here and there.  But Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York SSR) has just done his part to shore up the party line, insisting that "men do not compete in women's sports."  Back in the real world, meanwhile, men who demand that the world treat them as women have now won nearly 300 titles in female sporting events.  LifeSite News reported Tuesday that during a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) "wanted to enter into the record stats on females injured by male athletes as well as stolen titles." [...] If the record books could remind the public of such distinctions, why not notify them also when the holder of a women's sports title was really a dude?

Men who claim to be 'transgender' have won nearly 300 titles in female sports.  Gender-confused men have won nearly 300 titles in female sports, according to the website SheWon.org.  But a leading Democratic congressman denies not just biological reality, but this reality as well.  "Men do not compete in women's sports," far-left New York Democratic congressman Jerry Nadler claimed during a congressional hearing several weeks ago.  "Transgender women [sic] may compete in women's sports," he said.  However, it is a biological fact and moral truth that no one can change his or her gender.  He said he objected to entering "mistruths" into the congressional record.  Republican congresswoman Harriet Hageman of Wyoming wanted to enter into the record stats on females injured by male athletes as well as stolen titles.  SheWon.org has cataloged the stolen titles, proving that men, in fact, do compete in women's sports.

WI Dem.  Gov. Tony Evers Vetoes Bill to Protect Girls' Sports from Trans Athletes.  Wisconsin's liberal Democrat Gov. Tony Evers arranged a showy veto ceremony Tuesday to deny passage to a bill that would protect girls' sports in the Dairy State.  The bill would have banned transgender students from picking and choosing which team aligns with their gender identity at any given time and would have restricted them to playing on teams that align with their birth gender, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported.  Evers put his veto on the bill in the state capital in Madison surrounded by progressive Democrats and extremist trans activists.  [Tweet]

Female Swimmers Sue NCAA over Male Competition, Demand Return of Trophies, Monetary Damages.  A group of female athletes on Thursday sued the National Collegiate Athletics Association for permitting male intrusion into their sex-specific sports and private spaces.  Spearheaded by the Independent Council on Women's Sports, the lawsuit accuses the NCAA and Georgia Tech — the site of the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships, where male University Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500 meter freestyle — of knowingly violating Title IX.  That federal statute prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions that receive federal funding, serving as the basis for sex-segregated school athletics.  The lawsuit, first reported by the Free Press, demands that males be disqualified from participating in women's sports.  It asks the NCAA to rescind awards given to trans athletes in women's competitions and to "reassign" them to the female players who lost trophies and titles to the men.

Letting trans players participate in girls' and women's sports is a ticking time bomb.  Another day, another example of how our illiberal "inclusivity" mandates are taking a jackhammer to the integrity and fairness of female athletics.  We've seen it in golf, swimming, skateboarding, cycling, surfing and volleyball.  The latest entry for the women's sports hall of shame happened on the hardwood.  During a girl's hoops game earlier this month in Massachusetts, Collegiate Charter School in Lowell forfeited a game against KIPP Academy at halftime because they had three players go down with injuries.  The team, already battered and bruised, wanted to preserve themselves for the upcoming playoffs, according to the school's athletic director.  An official statement from the school read, "In an effort to maintain safety for his team, [the coach] decided to forfeit."  There was no mention that KIPP's squad, according to the Daily Item, has a biological male player standing "more than 6 feet tall with facial hair" who identifies as female, reports Fox News.

High school basketball game ends after multiple girls get injured by 6-foot-tall player "with facial hair".  "He has a playoff game on Monday, so he didn't want to have any more of his girls go down."  That's a real quote from Collegiate Charter School of Lowell Athletic Director Kyle Pelczar.  His girls' basketball team had to forfeit at halftime because of stuff like this:  [Tweet with video clip] 

Finally! A swim mom speaks out about perversity in the pool!.  Astute viewers of Rebel News are no doubt aware that the Nicholas Cepeda fiasco continues to fester.  Cepeda is the 50-year-old man who "identifies" as a 13-year-old girl (his alias is Melody Wiseheart), and claims he's a "transwoman."  This charade allows Cepeda to swim and change and shower with REAL teenage girls.  It's gross.  But even more gross is the fact that this gender-bending grifter is being accommodated by the authorities.  [Video clip]  Apparently, Cepeda is an example of diversity, equity and inclusion — at least according to Canada's human rights tribunals (which identify as kangaroo courts). Indeed, swimming's international governing body, World Aquatics, decreed last year that trans swimmers must swim in a "other" category — not that any trans swimmers showed up to compete at the World Swimming Championships last October in Berlin, Germany.  Golly, why would that be?  Maybe for some of these creeps it's less about competing in the pool and more about getting into the changeroom and shower?  Then again, maybe we have it all wrong.  Maybe there is a valid reason why a 50-year-old male should be deemed a teenage female.  But Swim Ontario won't respond to our questions.

The 'Black National Anthem' Gets Almost Non-Existent Applause from Super Bowl Audience.  The "Black National Anthem" — "Lift Every Voice and Sing" — was played yet again during Super Bowl LVIII, as it has been before during the last few Super Bowls.  One big difference between this year's edition and years past, however?  This year, the "Black National Anthem" didn't get much applause.  In fact, the massive crowd in attendance at the biggest football game of the year didn't react much at all. [...] When is the NFL going to get wise?  There is only one national anthem.

Scientists Shocked to Discover That Male and Female Athletes are Different!  It was once a commonsense belief and universal truth that men and women, boys and girls, are different, especially in the realm of athletics.  With rare exceptions, men and women compete in their own categories, from high school level through college to the Olympic games and professional sports.  Mixed competitions place women and men on the same team, such as mixed doubles in tennis, or dancing, either in the ballroom, or on ice.  Equestrian sports are an exception, but the fact that a horse is a major part of the sport reduces the sex difference between competitors.  Based on strength and power, two major determinants of success for many sports, males have a clear advantage over females.  For decades, this was not in dispute with rare exceptions, the most notable that of tennis player Renee Richards.

Florida high school [is] punished [and] fined thousands for allowing [a] boy to play on [the] girls' volleyball team.  A Florida high school was fined and put on probation for allowing a boy to compete in girls' sports, a violation of state law.  The Florida High School Athletic Association reportedly informed Monarch High School and its principal that the school "permitted a biological male to participate on the girls volleyball team during the 2022-2023 and 2023-24 Girls Volleyball seasons," a violation of the law, the Daily Signal reported.  This followed an investigation that was started approximately two weeks prior, when the Broward County Public Schools district reassigned several staff members while the district looked into the incident.  The letter to the school's principal stated the school violated Bylaw 8.6.2, which states that "biological males may not participate on a female team in any sport."

AOC says preventing trans athletes from competing against women is racist against black women.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Fatima Goss Graves during a hearing on Title IX on Tuesday, and claimed that boys should be allowed to compete in girls' scholastic athletics because preventing them from doing so would not only be transphobic, but racist against black women.  AOC believes men should be allowed to compete against women in order to protect women, specifically black women, despite so many women and girls having suffered injuries at the hands of male athletes who say they are trans and compete in women's athletics, and women losing out on awards, prizes, or scholarships as a result of men beating them in those games.

Principal Allegedly Removed After Transgender Athlete Discovered On Female Sports Team.  A Florida high school allegedly removed several staff members, including its principal, after a transgender athlete was allowed on a female sports team, according to NBC6, a local media outlet.  Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) made the announcement via email Monday, stating that Principal James Cecil of Monarch High School, who has been a principal for Broward County for 25 years, had been removed pending an investigation into "allegations of improper student participation in sports," according to the Miami Herald.  Though the statement gave little insight into the decision, several sources with BCPS told NBC6 that the investigation has to do with a transgender athlete on one of the high school's female sports teams.

Ontario Museum Scrubs Female Powerlifter From Exhibit Following Her Calls For Fairness In Women's Sports.  A museum in London, Ontario, has removed a female powerlifter from an exhibit on resilience in apparent retaliation for her vocal opposition to males participating in women's sports.  April Hutchinson said the move quickly followed her suspension from the Canadian Powerlifting Union.  Launched in October at the Museum London, the exhibition, titled "Resilient London:  Meet Your Neighbours," was intended to be an inspiration for the community and featured a diverse panel of locals alongside obstacles they had overcome.  Hutchinson was featured not just as a local athlete, but also as a survivor of addiction.

Transgender Soccer Player Injures Female Opponent, Threatens Legal Action After Other Teams Cancel Games.  Sometimes it's not only OK to quit.  Sometimes it's necessary.  That's what some female athletes in England did when they learned they were going to have to play against a man claiming to be a woman, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported Monday.  They refused to play.  They weren't being transphobic.  They refused to play because they were afraid.  What caused the fear?  A female soccer player suffered a broken knee when blocking a shot from Francesca Needham, a 30-year-old man.  They were afraid that if they took the field against Needham, they could be injured too.

Female pool player Lynne Pinches forfeits final against trans opponent.  A female pool player received a round of applause when she forfeited a pool tournament rather than compete against a trans woman in the finals.  Lynne Pinches opted to walk away from the finals of the English Pool Association's 2023 Champion of Champions Ladies on Sunday rather than play versus Harriet Haynes.  A video of the moment shows that Pinches and Haynes vied to see who would break.  Pinches won and shook hands with Haynes, but then walked toward the tournament official and apparently declared a forfeit.  Pinches proceeded to unscrew her pool cue and pack it up as Haynes raised her hands in disbelief.  Realizing what was happening, the crowd loudly cheered and applauded Pinches for walking away.

Female Boxer Takes a Stand, Refuses to Fight After Finding Out Last Minute Opponent Was "Not a Woman by Birth".  Of all the sports where biology gives men who went through puberty as males an advantage over women, combat sports is at the top of the list.  You wouldn't stand for watching a dude punch a girl in the face.  Yet if that dude says they identify as a girl, we're supposed to accept it in the name of equality, tolerance, and all that gay stuff.  One female Canadian boxer took a stand and said that, no, she was not going to let a guy punch her in the face.  Katia Bissonnette was set to fight in the 2023 Provincial Golden Glove Championship.  Then an hour before her fight, she learned that her opponent was born a he while competing now as a she.

The Power of Love.  According to the left, which now controls most public schooling along with media, corporate culture, and politics in America, there is no difference between men and women.  Those very words, "men" and "women," must be eliminated and replaced by something like "person" or "womyn."  According to those on the left, men and women are interchangeable entities, equal and even identical in every respect.  Any biological differences that do remain can be removed by denying again and again that they exist to the point that no one dare point out that women are biologically and psychologically intended to nurture children or that men are better suited for some physically demanding and dangerous occupations.  The inconvenient truth that most men are physically stronger than most women is suppressed so that the "rights" of transgender athletes — many of them male but simply professing to be female — can be supported.

Federal judge sides with DeSantis on transgender athletes, upholds ban on biological males on female teams.  A federal judge in Miami sided with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the transgender athlete debate, upholding a ban on biological males competing with female sports teams.  DeSantis, now running for president in 2024, signed the Fairness in Women's Sports Act back in 2021, championing the legislation for empowering women and girls in Florida to continue to "compete on a level playing field" and ensuring "opportunities like college scholarships will be protected for female athletes for years to come."  Also known as SB 1028, DeSantis said the state law was based off "biology, not based off ideology."

Florida can ban boys from competing in girls sports: court.  A judge has upheld a Florida law that prohibits boys who identify as female from competing in girls' scholastic sports, arguing that the measure does not discriminate against trans-identified youth.  In an order released Monday, United States District Judge Roy K. Altman, a Trump appointee, granted the state's motion to dismiss, concluding in part that "promoting women's equality in athletics is an important governmental interest" and that "not all gender-based classifications violate the Equal Protection Clause."  "Courts around the country have similarly held that — given the historic (and ongoing) imbalance in the athletic opportunities that are available to male and female students — the government has an important interest in protecting and promoting athletic opportunities for girls," wrote Altman.  Altman also rejected the claim that the law discriminates against trans-identified students, noting that it lacks any confirmed animus in either its text or in the stated intentions of its sponsors.

Women Abandon Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament After Being Forced To Fight Males.  Female martial artists have come forward to reveal that male athletes claiming to be transgender have completely overtaken the women's categories of a major grappling association, leaving them fearing for their safety in many instances.  One of the men, Corissa Griffith, took home four gold medals in the women's category during a tournament in Georgia on October 21.  The North American Grappling Association (NAGA) is the largest submission grappling association in the world, and facilitates standards and tournaments in various martial arts, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  But while NAGA has provided competition categories for males and females since its inception in 1995, it has recently become the subject of controversy after a number of female athletes were found to have been matched up against trans-identified males.

Trans Athlete Takes Title Away from 14-Time Female Fencing Champion.  A biologically male "transgender female" athlete has removed the championship title from a 14-time female fencing champ at the 2023 FIE Veteran Fencing World Championships.  American Liz Kocab beat 14-time champion Marja-Liisa Someroja of Finland in the Women's Epee in Florida on Oct. 15, Fox News reported.  "I wanted to support USA Fencing," Kocab said after the win.  "I really did.  Otherwise, I was actually thinking of stepping away.  But the fact that it was in America, I thought that was important to support the USA.  This is my way of saying thanks to USA Fencing."

Transgender world champion fencer branded 'entitled cheat'.  A transgender fencer competing in the over-70s women's category has been branded an "entitled cheat" after beating a 14-time champion for a world title.  Liz Kocab, representing America, claimed victory over Finland's Marja-Liisa Someroja, 77, in the Women's Epee of the 2023 Veteran Fencing World Championships in Florida over the weekend.  Ms Kocab, 71, and USA Fencing came in for criticism following her [sic] victory with critics arguing the fencer should not have been allowed to compete in the women's category.  USA Fencing implemented a transgender and nonbinary athlete policy last year which allows competitors to participate "consistent with their gender identity", regardless of the "sex they were assigned at birth".  The sporting body said the policy was an "important first step" towards expanding access to the sport and promoting "equality and fairness for all".

The Editor says...
[#1] This policy does not promote "fairness for all," obviously, since it allows a man to beat a woman.  [#2] A transvestite does not "represent America."  [#3] One's sex is not "assigned at birth."  It is determined at the moment of conception by genetics.  The obstetrician who delivered me did not decide that I was a boy; he merely observed the evidence.  I was a boy the previous day, and had been for the previous nine months.  If you are confused about matters of this sort, you shouldn't have attended public schools.

Man wins women's poker tournament.  The latest "Florida Man" story to pop up in the news comes with a number of twists.  Typically, any story with that tag involves someone doing something incredibly stupid and either getting arrested or seriously injuring themself.  But Dave Hughs didn't do either of those things.  While visiting the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, Dave wound up winning the "Ladies No-Limit Hold'em" poker tournament.  But Mr. Hughs is not a transgender woman.  He's just a guy who likes to play poker.  In fact, he's "100% against" men competing in women's sports.

The Editor says...
What is the purpose of a poker tournament exclusively for women?  What disadvantage do women face while playing cards?

High school football team forfeits game against team with 2 female players.  A high school football team in California has elected to forfeit rather than play another team with a female player on the roster.  This is despite the fact that the team forfeiting the game recently settled a Title IX lawsuit after forfeiting another game against a team with a female player.  Valley Christian Academy in Santa Maria, California, forfeited its Sept. 30 game against Coast Union in Cambria, California.  This is not the first time Valley Christian has forfeited games for this reason.  In fact, it's the fourth year in a row they've elected to forfeit a game because the opposing team had a female player, and it's the second time they've forfeited against Coast Union.

Official Ruling:  Trans Competitors Banned from Women's Categories in International Fishing Competitions.  Male-born anglers have been banned from competing in women's categories in an official ruling made by the governing body of the international angling sport federation.  The new rule revealed by Prof Ugo Claudio Matteoli, the president of the Confédération Internationale de la Péche Sportive (international sport fishing confederation), maintains that male-born transgender fishing contestants will not be allowed to compete as women.  [TWeet]

Coach ousted after speaking against male athletes competing against women.  Oberlin College's head women's lacrosse coach, Kim Russell, has been "reassigned" to a desk job after she spoke out against allowing biological men to compete in women's sports, the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) reported.  Russell shared a post on social media praising Emma Weyant as the "real winner" when Weyant placed second after transgender athlete Lia Thomas during the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA women's swimming championship.  Two weeks after the IWF released a documentary about Oberlin's response to her post, the college has given her a new role as an "Employee Wellness Project Manager," where she will have virtually no contact with students, according to IWF.

Oberlin College coach: 'Felt like I was burned at the stake' over opinion on trans athletes in women's sports.  Oberlin College women's lacrosse head coach Kim Russell broke her silence about transgender inclusion in women's sports in a documentary for the Independent Women's Forum on Tuesday.  Russell, who became the head coach of the Yeowomen before the start of the 2019 season, talked about how administrators and her players ridiculed her after she posted on her personal social media account a message about Lia Thomas winning an NCAA Championship in the 500 in 2022.  In the video, Russell reposted a headline sarcastically congratulating then-Virginia swim star Emma Weyant for the victory over Thomas, a transgender female.

Dare to acknowledge reality at your own risk.  David Bloch, a high school snowboarding coach, has filed a lawsuit against his former employers alleging that he was fired for intimating that men can typically outperform women in sports.  The federal lawsuit, against the leaders of Woodstock Union High School, was filed in Vermont and states that Bloch was wrongly accused of violating the school district's harassment and bullying policy — for referencing a student "in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of [a] student competing on the girls' team."  Yes, because that student is a boy.

What did they expect?  For many months now, the transgender movement has defied biology, sociology, and logic, and yet it seems to barrel forward, a locomotive crashing through longstanding social mores with the false authority of the stubbornly ignorant.  Even though we are at last seeing some glimmers of hope in the resistance movement, it is utterly astonishing that matters ever got this far.  It is as if the Royal Astronomical Society were to have declared that Planet Earth is flat and that any dissent from that "fact" is a form of bigotry.  Evidence for a round Earth would be forbidden in the discussion.  Even those who are pushing back seem to have buckled under the pressure of that locomotive.  The recent women's power-lifting competition in Canada illustrates the point.  As if it were some sort of surprise, a male weightlifter dominated the event by a Canadian mile, leaving all the women in the dust.  He was allowed to enter the event simply by declaring himself a woman.  The appalling audacity of that policy is apparently entirely unnoticed by the social left, which insists that "trans-women are real women."  Even those who oppose the policy often do so only in tepid terms.  They focus on the details, such as testosterone levels and bone mass, instead of the elephant in the room.  Discussing blood chemistry is not going to win this vital confrontation.  The elephant is the moral issue, and any attempt to frame the matter as anything else is doomed to failure.

Wisconsin Parents Pulling Daughters From Sports Team After Transgender Player Leaves Them With Welts and Bruises.  Parents are pulling their daughters off a sports team in the Green Bay Area Public School District in Wisconsin after a transgender biological male player left them with "welts and bruises" during practice.  The biological male student has reportedly left girls with bruises and welts during summer practices.  The names of the students involved and the sport have not been revealed for privacy reasons.  "They're just not used to the ball coming at them that hard," said Ryan Gusick, one of the parents, according to a report from WTAQ.  "A lot of these girls are specifically quitting this team because they're concerned for their safety."

Disc golf org to cancel female divisions after trans activist pressure.  On Friday, Disc Golf Pro Tour announced that it would relocate the Female Professional Open (FPO) division at some of the largest events of the season to other states while canceling other FPO divisions completely in order to avoid more legal troubles as a result of lawsuits from Natalie Ryan, a male disc golfer who identifies as a female and has sued DGPT in California and Minnesota over gender eligibility policies that restricts him from competing.  In disc golf, players use plastic discs instead of balls and attempt to throw discs into baskets or targets situated on a golf course.

Mayo Clinic professor suspended after saying testosterone improves athletic performance.  A Mayo Clinic College of Medicine professor was recently suspended — and remains under the threat of termination — after he told a news outlet his stance on trans-athletes in women's sports and plasma treatments for COVID-19.  Administrators suspended Professor Michael Joyner without pay for a week, citing his "use of idiomatic language" and comments he made in a June 2022 New York Times article as justification for the disciplinary actions, according to a March 5 disciplinary letter that recently came to light.  The memo also told him to refrain from speaking to the media unless given permission.

'Fastest girl in Connecticut' Chelsea Mitchell suing state after losing to trans athletes.  "At the end of the day, this is just about fairness," Chelsea Mitchell told The [New York] Post.  "This is about biology."  The 20-year-old is fighting for the integrity of women's sports after she lost more than 20 races over the course of her high school career — thanks to a Connecticut policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports.  Now, Mitchell, who has declared herself "the fastest girl in Connecticut," is challenging her state's policy in court.  Mitchell is teaming up with fellow Connecticut residents Selina Soule, 20, Ashley Nicoletti, 19, and Alanna Smith, 19, who ran high school track in the state at the same time she did.

It Was Always Only About Power With the Left.  Title IX was an addendum to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.  Through liberal lawsuits and the intervention of activist courts, the statute soon was transmogrified into a sports equity act.  Title IX then began to revolutionize high school and college sports programs by demanding equity — in the sense of mandating equal budgets and facilities for women's and men's sports.  The rationale was that women's athletics could only achieve parity with male sports if they were gifted the same sorts of budgets, infrastructure, and institutional support.  Whatever the intent of the original statute, whatever the effects of activist court intervention, the result was that women's sports did achieve a much higher social and cultural profile.  So how ironic, then, that a half-century of athletic transformation has been completely undermined by the current ritual takeover of the sport by biological men declaring themselves transgendered women.  The transgendered have done more damage in three years to women's sports than a century of chauvinist pigs.

British Cycling Bans 'Transgender' Males from Women's Competitions.  So-called "transgender" males are to be banned from women's cycling competitions in the UK, the country's regulatory body has announced.  British Cycling, the regulatory body in charge of the eponymous sport in the country, has confirmed that it will be banning "transgender" males from taking part in women's events, which will now be limited to biological females only.

Transgender high school athletes no-show state track championships following backlash.  Two transgender female high school athletes were no-shows for their race at the California State preliminary Track and Field Championship on Friday — a week after they clinched a spot in the elite race.  Athena Ryan, from Sonoma Academy, and Lorelei Barrett of Sherman Oaks Buckley, opted not to participate in the scheduled girl's 1,600-meter run at Buchanan High in Clovis, Calif., according to The Los Angeles Times.  "The CIF is disappointed for two of our student-athletes and their families because due to the actions of others, they found it necessary to withdraw from the State Track and Field Championships out of concern for the student's well being," the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports in California, wrote in a statement to the outlet.

The Editor says...
Notice that the school bends over backwards to express their disappointment that the two men chose not to compete with the girls.  That shows you whose side they are on.  The school is actively promoting mental illness.

Jill Biden Praises "How Far Women's Sports Have Come" as Biological Males.  This is unbelievable gaslighting.  Joe and Jill Biden on Friday hosted a ceremony for the Louisiana State University Tigers Women's Basketball team to celebrate their 2022-2023 NCAA Championship season.  Dr. Jill told the female athletes how proud she was of how far women's sports have come.  Biological males posing as 'transgenders' are destroying women's sports.  The Biden Regime is also waging a war on women's sports with a proposed change to Title IX which would make it illegal for schools to ban transgender students from sports teams that so-called align with the gender they 'identify with.'

Cycling Champ Who Lost To Trans Competitor Speaks Out About Being Silenced.  A 35-time cyclocross champion said Wednesday that she retired after losing a podium place to a biological male competitor in a championship race.  "I was on form, did all the training right, been doing this for many years, so I've honed in the skills, but it was just not enough," Hannah Arensman, who retired at the age of 25, told Fox News host Dana Perino.  "It didn't matter that Austin couldn't ride a lot of the sections that were pretty technical.  He could run a lot faster than most women and it turned out that power that day won over skill and power honed over many years."  Arensman finished fourth in the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships in December behind Austin Killips and ahead of Jenna Lingwood, both of whom are biological males who identify as female, Fox News reported.

The demise of fairness in women's sports.  In 1972, thanks to the efforts of many, mostly women, a follow-on to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a clause in the 1972 Federal Education Amendment, known as Title IX, was created to protect people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.  On the day President Biden took his oath of office, he signed Executive Order (E.O.) 13988, adding new wording to the Title IX law to prohibit "discrimination based on gender," which effectively opened the door for males who identify as females to compete in women's sports.  Then, on March 8, 2021, President Biden released E.O. 14021 "Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the basis of ... Gender Identity."  Elections have consequences!  These orders and directives have effectively ruined women's sports.  Now genetic males can declare themselves females for the purpose of participating in women's sports.  Keep in mind that Biden's E.O.s were implemented without congressional concurrence, debate, or approval, and they amount to the establishment of policies, "laws," and rules via administrative action.  The rising number of these actions creates an administrative state that denies appropriate accountability to Congress and all of us voters.

Robert Kennedy Jr. opposes allowing trans women to compete in female sports.  Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a new interview that he does not support transgender females participating in women's sports.  The Democrat told CNN on Saturday that "biological males" threaten the integrity of women's athletics.  "I am against people participating in women's sports who are biologically male," Kennedy, 69, said,  "I think women who have worked too hard to develop women's sports over the past 30 years I watched it happen and I don't think that's fair."

ESPN and the Democrats Throw Women Athletes Under the Bus.  ESPN in recent years discovered a new sport, wokeness, in keeping with most of corporate America.  From the usual America bashing to playing Chinese genocide apologist, sports has become a sideshow for ESPN with their main event competing with CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times in the woke world series.  Women's sports have come a long way over the past decades, with most sports having both men's and women's divisions, including world championships and the Olympic Games.  But wokeness and leftist groupthink is threatening to send women athletes to the back of the bus to favor male athletes who choose to "identify" as women.

The Religion of the Left.  [Scroll down]  Accordingly, the Left's rhetoric is couched in the name of freedom, justice, charity, and so forth.  A biological male wants to play on the women's sports team.  They are all for it, since.  It is the height of morality to support the biological male; it is, they say, only fair.  But there is nothing fair about it:  to go along is to dismiss and ignore the effects, all negative, upon the women and girls.  Presumably they are not second-class citizens; but no, there is a choice made between the biological males and the females, and it is supposed to go against the females with no consideration for them whatsoever.

Female Athlete Injured by Fake Female Competitor Calls for an End to the Madness.  The funny thing about waging war against reality is that reality always wins.  There is simply no way around it.  Leftists will never prevail in their quest to claim that men can become women and women men.  Even if technology advances to the point where every single cell of an individual can be transformed, that person will still have a male or female mindset that will manifest itself in all manner of unexpected ways.  And the real-life downside of the transgender madness has still only partially emerged.  Another aspect of it became clear in North Carolina recently, when a female high-school athlete was seriously injured in competition against a male she should never have been forced to face.

High school volleyball player details 'severe' injuries she received during game with trans opponent.  Payton McNabb, a North Carolina high school volleyball player, is calling for a ban on transgender athletes after one spiked a ball into her face last fall allegedly causing a concussion and long-term physical and mental injuries.  The transgender athlete was able to compete on a girls' team at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, NC, because of a policy put in place by the state's high school athletic association.  McNabb spoke at a press conference on Wednesday, calling on state legislators to pass the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, HB 574, that would ban biological males from competing on girls' sports teams.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Says Men in Women's Sports is an Issue 'That Doesn't Exist'.  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries claimed today that men in women's sports is an issue 'that doesn't exist.'  He said this after House Republicans passed a bill to protect girls and women in sports with zero votes from Democrats.  The whole country is talking about this issue.  For Jeffries to claim that it doesn't exist is a blatant lie.  [Video clip]  Note how Jeffries talks about 'trans kids' as if that is a totally normal thing.  It isn't.

Zero Democrats Vote For House Bill To Protect Women's Sports.  The House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to protect women's sports leagues by banning male athletes who identify as females from competing.  The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 would amend Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 such that recipients of federal financial assistance which operate sports leagues cannot "permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls."  The legislation passed with 219 affirmative votes, all of which came from Republicans, and 203 negative votes, all of which came from Democrats.

Democrat Left Goes All in on Hate, Disruption, and Violence.  A gang of thugs at San Francisco State University who objected to swimmer Riley Gaines's opposition to having to compete against biological males forced her to take refuge in a classroom for three hours while some demanded money to let her leave.  A man, and I use the term loosely, allegedly used his fists on this woman, which normally constitutes misdemeanor assault.  I cannot give legal advice, but my understanding is that a demand for money backed up by a threat of physical force constitutes robbery or extortion.  False imprisonment, which can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony depending on the circumstances, also comes to mind.  SFSU's President, Lynn Mahoney, said of these events, "Last Thursday, Turning Point USA hosted an event on campus that advocated for the exclusion of trans people in athletics.  The event was deeply traumatic for many in our trans and LGBTQ+ communities, and the speaker's message outraged many members of the SF State community."  The President of SFSU is of course lying about anybody wanting to exclude trans people from athletics.  Nobody is going to stop Lia Thomas from competing against other men in a sport in which upper body strength conveys an advantage.

University Athletics Director Claims There's No 'Competitive' Difference Between Men And Women.  The San Francisco State University athletics director claimed there is no "competitive" difference between men and women following the alleged assault of University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who spoke on campus in favor of sports being separated on the basis of biological sex, according to the Golden Gate Express.  Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins said that believing men have an athletic advantage over women in sports is a common "mistake," according to the Golden Gate Express.  Shrieve-Hawkins' comments come after Gaines was allegedly "ambushed and physically hit" on campus after speaking out against transgender athletes on April 6.

US Supreme Court Rules Transgender Students (Males) in West Virginia Can Compete Against Female Athletes.  The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that transgender students (biological males) can compete against female sports teams.  The high court rejected an emergency request from West Virginia to lift an appeals court's injunction.  The transgender athlete will be able to compete against females until the appeals court makes a decision.

Biden administration's Title IX changes would prevent broad bans on transgender athletes.  Blanket bans on transgender athletes participating on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity would constitute a violation of Title IX under a set of proposed changes unveiled Thursday by the Biden administration.  Under the administration's proposal, schools would be prohibited from adopting or applying a "one-size-fits-all" policy that categorically bans transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

Megyn Kelly Loses It After Man Wins Women's Professional Golf Tournament: 'It's a Fraud, It's Immoral...'.  Megyn Kelly is making her feelings clear after a man claiming to be a woman won a women's professional golf tournament.  Over the weekend, Breanna Gill won the Australian Women's Classic in the city of Bonville in New South Wales, according to WPGA Australia.  While little has been reported on Gill's personal history, Golf Monthly and others have noted his transgender status.  Many on the left, naturally, will celebrate this as another momentous victory for the LGBT community.  But sane-minded people will have a rather different take on the whole affair.

NPR Issues Correction, Admits There Is Evidence Proving Male Athletes Have Advantage over Females.  NPR issued an official correction following a story published Friday which argued "there is limited scientific research" supporting the idea that males have a "physical advantage" over females in competitive sports.  "Correction: An earlier tweet incorrectly stated there is limited scientific evidence of physical advantage.  Existing research shows that higher levels of testosterone do impact athletic performance.  But there's limited research involving elite trans athletes in competition," the outlet's official Twitter account noted on Sunday afternoon.  [Tweet]

Girls Basketball Team That Refused to Play Against a Transgender Athlete Banned From Sporting Events.  A private Christian school in Vermont that forfeited a girls' basketball game against a team with a biological male "transgender" player has been banned from participating in upcoming sporting events.  The Vermont Principals' Association, which oversees school sporting events, announced on Monday that Mid Vermont Christian School would be ineligible to participate in sporting events and other activities done through the organization.  "The VPA again reiterates its ongoing support of transgender student-athletes as not only a part of building an inclusive community for each student to grow and thrive, but also as a clear expectation by Vermont state law(s) in the Agency of Education Best Practices, and in VPA Policy regarding transgender student athletes," the announcement said.

USA Powerlifting forced to allow biological males to compete against females following court order.  Women will now be forced to compete against gender dysphoria-suffering men after a Minnesota judge ruled against USA Powerlifting (USAPL) in favor of pseudoscience and progressive legislation.  Since 2019, JayCee Cooper, a male weightlifter who wants to compete as a woman, has undertaken a legal challenge against USAPL that began as a complaint to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.  Late February, that challenge that had grown into a 2021 lawsuit turned into a loss for women competitors as District Court Judge Patrick Diamond ruled in favor of Cooper.

Court rules men may compete as women in powerlifting.  A Minnesota state court ruled that USA Powerlifting must permit men to compete as women in its industry.  [Tweet]  In 2019, powerlifter JayCee Cooper, a man who identifies as a woman, filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, stating that USA Powerlifting violated the state's Human Rights Act by prohibiting him and other athletes from competing in the female division.  Cooper then filed a lawsuit against the organization in 2021.

A Minnesota judge has issued an order that will destroy women's powerlifting.  One of the most disgusting things about so-called "transgender women" is their insistence that they should be able to have their cake and eat it too.  It should be enough that these disturbed men get people to go along with the pretense that they are women.  However, in today's environment, that's never enough.  In addition, they must destroy actual women.  And thanks to a Minnesota judge, USA Powerlifting, a national powerlifting organization, will soon be forced to enact policies that will effectively erase women's accomplishments.

Christian high school girls' basketball team takes a stand, forfeits playoff game rather than compete against male opponent.  A varsity girls' basketball team at a Christian high school in Vermont has forfeited a playoff game rather than compete against a team with a male participant.  On the evening of February 21, the No. 12 Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles of White River Junction were scheduled to take on the No. 5 Long Trail Mountain Lions of Dorset in the first round of the Vermont Division IV girls' varsity tournament.  However, the Eagles dropped out of the tournament and therefore forfeited their chance to compete for a state title after they learned that one member of the Mountain Lions is actually a male.  "We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players," MVCS head of school Vicky Fogg stated in an email to Fox News Digital.  "Allowing biological males to participate in women's sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women's sports in general."

Jiggery-Pokery Wokery.  The woke love to destroy whatever they touch — culture, infrastructure, social cohesion, rational thought.  To be woke is to embrace chaos and injury as a philosophy.  From an anthropological perspective, wokeism is fascinating because its practitioners believe they are creative freethinkers while they act as lobotomized sheep.  Whatever the woke wizards posing as priests tell their needy followers, the woke herds accept as truth. [...] If deception, violence, and obedience are all part of the woke creed, then contradiction is its life-force. [...] We must believe all women unless those women are speaking out against men pretending to be women — in which case, we must first believe all men pretending to be women, no matter how much they do not appear to be women at all.  Biological sex is nothing more than a social construct, yet a man who wears a dress and wig and demands society treat him as he desires is somehow a demonstration of objective reality.  Women's and men's sports divisions and the separation of their locker rooms recognize the reality that women and men are physically different, yet physically different men who mentally pretend to be women are miraculously physically indistinguishable from women and should be allowed to compete against them.  Furthermore, any woman who objects to the imposition of men competing in her sport or undressing in her locker room is bigoted for acknowledging a fact out loud that can no longer be acknowledged as politically correct.  Science demands that reality be based on emotion.

The Coup We Never Knew.  Did someone or something seize control of the United States? [...] Was some state or federal law passed that allowed biological males to compete in female sports?  Did Congress enact such a law?  Did the Supreme Court guarantee that biological male students could shower in gym locker rooms with biological women?  Were women ever asked to redefine the very sports they had championed?

All normal girls banned from locker room because one cross-dressing boy demanded it.  They're coming for you next: This story, which broke on September 28, 2022, is so absurd that at first glance it is hard to believe:  Officials running Randolph High School in Vermont have banned from the girls locker room all girls from the school's volley ball team because one cross-dressing boy was using it and the girls had the unmitigated nerve to express strong discomfort changing clothes in the presence of a male.  The quote below tells the tale, but in order to make it more precisely describe reality, I have replaced the meaningless words ("trans", "transgender" "they") that our queer dictators have imposed on mainstream news sources with words that actually describe the facts. [...] This story illustrates perfectly the real goal of the queer agenda, all part of the larger critical race theory movement.  These goons aren't interested in "equity".  What they want is power.  In Randolph High, this one cross-dressing unstable boy now rules.  Don't you dare challenge him or question him in any way, for if you do, the school will punish you.

Vermont girls' high school volleyball team are barred from their OWN locker room after complaining about transgender student.  Members of a Vermont girls high school volleyball team have been banned from using their own locker room and now have to change in a single bathroom stall after they complained about a transgender teammate.  Some teammates allege that the transgender player at Randolph Union High School made an 'inappropriate remark' to some of them while they were changing in the locker room.  They now want the school to relocate the transgender player, who hasn't been named.

People still want boy-girl divide in school sports.  When hundreds of Virginia students this week left classrooms to protest Gov. Glenn Youngkin's effort to scale back pro-transgender policies in schools, it was heralded by some media outlets as a slam-dunk sign that teenage LGBT rights have won out.  But coming on the anniversary of when former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe blew his chance in the 2021 election battle with Youngkin by suggesting parents shouldn't tell schools what to do, it reminded others that the issue is far from closed.  In fact, Youngkin's office sent Secrets a handful of stories about parents walking out of school board meetings across the commonwealth to protest proposed policies to give transgender students new rights, such as the right to enter bathrooms or participate in sports as their desired sex, not the one "assigned at birth."

The Editor says...
One's sex is determined by immutable genetics at the moment of conception.  It is not "assigned at birth," or assigned at any other time.

Most Americans Less Likely To Vote For Candidates Who Let Biological Males Compete In Women's Sports.  More than 60% of voters are less likely to back candidates who support allowing biological men to compete in women's sports, according to a September CRC Research poll obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.  Approximately 49% of voters are "much less likely" and 13% of voters are "somewhat less likely" to choose a candidate who is in favor of permitting biological men to compete in women's athletics, according to the poll.  About 86% of Republicans, 65% of Independents and 37% of Democrats said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who support transgender athletes.  Of the voters, 57% believe the transgender movement undermines "significant opportunities and essential protections for women," the poll showed.  Nearly 45% of Democratic voters and 69% of Republican voters believe this statement to be true.

Nonbinary Nonsense: Boston Marathon Creates New Division For 2023.  Boston Marathon Registration began Monday for next year's Boston Marathon, with a new pronoun category for nonbinary runners.  They, them and their will compete in a separate division for the first time and will no longer have to suffer the agony of checking the box for male or female upon registering.  Aiming to please demanding LBGT fascists, the Boston Athletic Association is "currently working on expanding opportunities" for nonbinary athletes in the Boston Marathon and other road races, according to Huffington Post's Sanjana Karanth.  "While we do not currently have qualifying standards for non-binary athletes, we are working on ways nonbinary participants are accepted into the event," the Boston Athletic Association said.  "Discussions are ongoing with non-binary athletes in an effort to further promote inclusion at all BAA events."

Biden's New Title IX Proposals Will Codify the Gender Derangement of the Left.  If there is anything that has advanced American society, you can be sure that 'woke' leftists will destroy it.  So it is with Title IX — a one-sentence statute of the Education Amendments of 1972 that ended sex-based discrimination in educational institutions, opened the doors for women aspiring to become doctors, engineers, or experts in any field of choice, brought parity to college sports, and launched the battle against sexual harassment.  In this fiftieth year of that landmark law, the Biden administration wants to rewrite it to suit the radical leftist ideology of gender identity and fluidity.  This is dangerous because it codifies the spreading gender derangement of the left.  Worse, it will immerse young minds in learning environments that condition them to believe, without critical thinking, that the biological idea of sex is false.  It will unleash other complications as well.

WaPo Op-Ed Claims Trans Athletes Will Help Girls Learn to Lose Gracefully.  An op-ed in the Washington Post has argued that men in women's sports could actually be a good thing for young girls by teaching them the art of losing gracefully.  According to Alyssa Rosenberg, the aim of school athletics is not to teach children the art of achieving excellence but rather to build character, and what better way to build character in a teenage girl than having her experience the frustration of losing that championship title to a biological male?  Her argument largely hinges on the unicorn of "sports-crazed parents" who will theoretically use transgender athletes in women's sports as an excuse in the event their daughter loses.

A man is competing in the Ladies Professional Golf Association.  Before going any farther with this, I have a major complaint about conservative outlets: they keep referring to people as "transgender."  There is no such thing.  It's like calling people "unicorns."  You can say that Jill Biden is a unicorn, but that doesn't make her one because there is no such thing.  When you use the word, you're accepting the delusional premise.  There are definitely transvestites, because that refers to a real phenomenon: men who sexually fetishize women's clothing by wearing it.  Some are gay men; some aren't — but they are real.  However, there is no such thing as crossing over from one sex to another.  There is no medical literature supporting this.  There are no studies saying, aside from the minute number of people born genetically intersex, that a man can be a woman simply because he wants to be or vice versa.  What we call transgenderism is a form of mental illness called dysphoria, and it's identical to the person whose weight is normal but nevertheless insists she is obese.

Another Biological Male Dominates in Women's Sports, This Time It's Women's Golf.  In another women's sport, another biological male competes with women.  As we saw with Lia Thomas, the transgender who dominated in women's swimming but lost badly in men's swimming, and as we saw with Laurel Hubbard, the transgender who competed in the women's Olympic weight lifting competition. Hubbard lost, but the media turned it into a "historic" achievement because Hubbard became the first transgender to compete in the Olympics. Hubbard won the University of Otago "sportswoman of the year award."  Thomas was nominated for NCAA "Woman of the Year."  Now, transgender golfer Hailey Davidson is competing at The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) as the professional women's golf qualifying school tournament is underway.  Davidson finished the first round at 2-under, which puts the golfer in a strong position to win. Davidson is competing against 310 biological females.

Federal Judge Blocks Biden Admin's Guidance Allowing Biological Males In Girls' School Bathrooms.  A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration's Title IX guidance on gender identity and sexual orientation.  U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley in the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled last week that the administration's guidance misquoted the Supreme Court to equate sex and gender identity, likely violating federal law.  The administration's guidance effectively forced states to allow biological males to use girls restrooms, forbade states from barring males from participating in female sports, and forced employers to use employees' preferred pronouns, all at the risk of losing federal funding, according to the state attorneys general who sued the administration.  The guidance was released last year by the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Rationalizing Transgender Sports.  Much has been said about categorizing transmen as men and transwomen as women for purposes of sport competition.  Many oppose this vehemently.  Many support this vehemently.  Just about any system of categorizing will have some weakness.  Hence, the exception to the rule.  The idea is to make a system of categorization as solid as possible.  My modest proposal is to categorize athletes according to the presence or absence of the Y chromosome.  This will assist in making athletic competitions fairer, as in like competing against like.  In essence, athletes can be divided into Ys and Y-Nots.  Such a system would avoid the current tensions in the Men-Male/Women-Female system.

Federal Judge Blocks Biden Administration's Effort to Allow Males to Compete in Women's Sports.  A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration's recent rules giving gays and transgender people extended rights in schools and the workplace because Biden's regulators bypassed a critical requirement of federal law that must be satisfied before issuing such a regulation: giving the public notice of the regulation, time to file comments, and forcing the agency to respond to those comments.  U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. agreed with 20 state attorneys general that the regulations may infringe on states' rights and could be seen as having been improperly drawn.  Atchley blocked the implementation of the rules until a lawsuit addressing the changes could be resolved, the Associated Press reported.

Will Transgendered Athletes Now Give Back Their Medals and Titles?  A decade or two ago, who would have thought a topic such as this would be newsworthy or relevant?  Athletic competitions and sports leagues were always separated by age, gender, weight class, or other physical attributes which could convey an unfair advantage to some athletes, with a goal of creating a "level playing field."  Yet here we are today, in the age of wokeness and virtue-signaling, with biologic males, under the guise of transgenderism, competing against biologic females, putting the latter at a huge and often insurmountable disadvantage.

This used to be called bullying.
Trans-Identified Adult Male Takes First Place Against 13-Year-Old Girl in Women's Skateboarding Event.  Netizens are expressing outrage after an adult man beat out a 13-year-old girl for first place in a women's skateboarding competition held today [6/25/2022] in New York.  Ricci Tres, also known as Ricci And Tres, took top spot in the women's division of The Boardr Open today held in New York City, taking home a $500 prize for a first place win.  Tres, a 29-year-old trans-identified male, came in first place against 13-year-old Shiloh Catori.  Of the 6 competitors, 4 were under the age of 17, with the youngest being 10-year-old Juri Iikura.

Biden Administration Moves to Expand Title IX to Eliminate Gender-Exclusive College Facilities, Sports Teams.  The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed changes to the federal civil-rights statute banning sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, including expanding protections to sexual orientation and gender identity.  One proposed change "would make clear that preventing any person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity would subject them to more than de minimis harm on the basis of sex and therefore be prohibited, unless otherwise permitted by Title IX or the regulations."  If adopted, the rule change would bar universities any other federally funded institutions from maintaining men and women's sports and sex-segregated spaces like locker rooms and dormitories.

US women's soccer legend Megan Rapinoe says she is '100% supportive' of including transgender women in women's sports.  US women's soccer hero Megan Rapinoe has come out strongly in favor of including transgender women in women's sport, labelling the arguments against 'cruel and disgusting'.  The veteran soccer star, who co-captained the United States Women's National Team in 2019 as they won a second successive World Cup, was dismissive of the notion that trans women are dominating women's sports and thus need regulating.  Instead, she argued that excluding them from competing at lower levels is cruel, as people value their 'kid's high school volleyball team' ahead of the lives and wellbeing of transgender people.

This battle is all about creating "rights" which have never existed before.
Title IX's next battle:  The rights of transgender athletes.  When the gender equity legislation known as Title IX became law in 1972, the politics of transgender sports was not even a blip in the national conversation.  Today, it is one of the sharpest dividing points in American culture.  As the transformational law heads into its second half-century on the books, the Biden administration wants transgender athletes to enjoy the same protections Title IX originally gave to women when it was passed 50 years ago.  That stance is at odds with efforts in states across the country.  "We're at a time where Title IX is going to be exploited and celebrated," said Donna de Varona, the Olympic champion swimmer who heads the Women's Sports Policy Working Group, which seeks a "middle way" to be inclusive of transgender athletes while also not "forcing" what it sees as unfair competition.

International Swimming Federation Will Ban Some Biologically Male Athletes from Women's Competitions.  The international swimming federation FINA announced a new policy on Sunday to ban biologically male athletes who have gone through male puberty from competing in women's competitions.  To qualify for women's competitions, the swimmers must either have never gone through male puberty or had male puberty suppressed at the stage when physical changes begin to appear or before the age of 12, whichever occurred later, according to the policy.  The athletes also have to prove that they have continuously suppressed their testosterone levels since that time.  "We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women's category at FINA competitions," FINA president Husain al-Musallam said in statement.  The policy also includes proposals for an additional open competition category.  FINA is set to form a new working group that will spend six months studying the most effective ways to set up the new category.

Teammate Says Trans UPenn Swimmer Lia Thomas is 'Mentally Ill'.  A teammate of Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who upended college swimming last season, says that Thomas is "mentally ill."  According to an interview the University of Pennsylvania swimmer anonymously gave to the Washington Examiner, Thomas spent the 2021/22 swimming season refusing to come to terms with the damage he was doing to his "real" female opponents and teammates.

The Editor says...
All transvestites are mentally ill.

Republicans Introduce a Bill That Defines What a Woman Is.  Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko is doing something for women, and not the kind no one can define.  The Republican has sponsored a "Women's Bill of Rights" to provide ladies legal protection against gender ideology.  "[T]here are important reasons," H.Res.1136 asserts, "to distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletes, prisons, domestic violence shelters, restrooms, and other areas, particularly where biology, safety, and privacy are implicated."  The initiative goes so far as to claim it knows what a woman is.

Indiana Lawmakers Override Governor's Veto to Enact Law Banning Males from Girls Sports.  GOP lawmakers in Indiana voted Tuesday [5/24/2022] to override a veto by Governor Eric Holcomb (R) and enact a law banning male athletes identifying as female from competing in girls' sports.  Indiana joins at least a dozen other U.S. states in enacting similar laws.  "State senators voted 32-15 in favor of overriding Gov. Eric Holcomb following the same action in a 67-28 vote by the House earlier in the day," the Associated Press reports.  "Holcomb had said in his veto message that bill did not provide a consistent policy for what he called "fairness in K-12 sports" when he unexpectedly vetoed it in March."  Dozens of pro-trans activists protested at the state capitol but to no avail.

New South Carolina law bans biological males from women's sports.  Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) signed a bill that bans biological males from participating in women's sports into law.  The Save Women's Sports Act was passed by the South Carolina General Assembly on May 10 and signed by McMaster on Monday [5/16/2022].  The law seeks to "ensure that fair opportunities are preserved for all children to compete in sports" based on "a student's biological sex on the student's official birth certificate."  "Athletic teams or sports designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to students of the female sex, unless no team designated for females in that sport is offered at the school in which the student is enrolled," the bill reads.  "Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex."

World Swimming Coaches Association Announces Stance on Transgender Athletes.  On Friday, the World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) released its official position on transgender athletes.  This comes after biological male swimmer Will "Lia" Thomas made headlines for competing on the women's swim team at University of Pennsylvania after competing on the men's team for three consecutive years.  At the NCAA women's swimming championships in March, Thomas came in first place in a race against female swimmers, as Townhall covered.  The WSCA's position is that the "grounds of fairness" in swimming cannot be maintained with the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports.  This was published in a lengthy statement on the organization's website.

Don Quixote and the Trans Madness.  The Spanish novel, written by Miguel de Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha, is often credited as the first modern novel in Western literature. [...] In short, Alonso Quixano is delusional, and, in throes of his madness, he is bent on imposing his own self-perception upon the world around him. [...] Alonso Quixano imagines himself to be the wealthy and revered Don Quixote, and he makes efforts to look, dress, speak, and act in a manner that the society around him would recognize as authentic.  Similarly, a perfectly average male collegiate varsity athlete named Will Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania imagines himself to be a woman named Lia Thomas, making some efforts to look, dress, speak, and act as the society around him would expect of an authentic woman.  Both fail at that task in the eyes of the audience and onlookers, of course, and both appear as caricatures rather than authentic.  But both have people around them that find the delusion fascinating, and who are eager to take part.

LGBTQ+: Leftism's corruption of God's sacred gift to humankind.  In other news, one Lia Thomas, a twenty-two-year-old man masquerading as a woman, finished first in a freestyle swim race.  This unsurprising result seems readily explained as deriving from Thomas's masculine physique, easily outclassing the feminine physiques of the other competitors.  The only thing actually surprising is that a substantial number of officials and observers see this outcome as the result of anything other than overt, deliberate fraud.  Or maybe, in this current age of sexual confusion, it's not so surprising anymore.

Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Barring Male Students from Girls' Sports.  Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed legislation that bans transgender athletes from participation in girls' high school or college sports on Wednesday [3/30/2022].  The Save Women's Sports Act passed the Oklahoma House by a 79-18 vote last week, and was subsequently approved by the state Senate.  "This bill... to us in Oklahoma is just common sense," Stitt, a Republican who is running for reelection this year, said at the signing.  "When it comes to sports and athletics, girls should compete against girls.  Boys should compete against boys.  And let's be very clear:  That's all this bill says."

Utah legislature overrides veto of transgender sports bill.  The Utah State Legislature has voted to override the governor's veto of the bill banning transgender children from participating in school sports.  The House voted 56-18, while the Senate voted 21-8 for House Bill 11 on Friday, overturning the governor's veto of the bill.  It came after some passionate debate in both chambers.  Outside the Utah State Capitol, people for and against the bill demonstrated at times shouting over each other "trans rights" and "girls rights."  "It preserves the integrity of women's sports," said Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, who sponsored HB11.  The bill, which was amended in the final hours of the legislative session, now bans transgender children from middle and high school sports.  In the event of a lawsuit, however, the bill defaults to a special commission that would evaluate transgender children's eligibility to play a sport that matches their gender identity.

The Editor says...
"In the event of a lawsuit," they say.  That's amusing.  Of course there will be a lawsuit.

Arizona, Oklahoma pass bills banning transgender youth in girls' sports.  Arizona and Oklahoma passed bills on Thursday that would ban transgender youth from participating in girls' sports, the latest in a flurry of state legislation passed by Republicans on the hot-button, election year issue.  In addition to the Republican-sponsored "Save Women's Sports Act," Arizona lawmakers passed legislation that would prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming surgery to minors.  Both bills are now headed to the desk of Governor Doug Ducey, also a Republican.  The votes largely fell along party lines.

Call Him William Thomas.  [Scroll down]  You'll know exactly how we got here by how every mainstream media outlet, even the ones that feign rage, has reported on the man who, pretending to be a woman, has secured a position in the NCAA Women's swimming finals this year.  That man's name is William Thomas.  He was ranked in the mid-500s when he competed as a man — after being recruited as a man to swim for the University of Pennsylvania.  Naturally now, he ranks first among women.  But even as, say, Fox News (with the exception of Tucker Carlson), makes noise in opposition to the unfairness of it all, even as they opine the physiological differences between men and women, they call him "Lia Thomas."  They call him "her."  They bring on Bruce Jenner and call him Caitlyn and nod enthusiastically as he, too, says this is a bridge too far.  If sex differences matter, they matter.  If they don't, they don't.  Actions speak louder than words:  by conforming to the delusion of transgenderism by any degree, the issue is lost completely.

4 Reasons Why Lia Thomas Is Not the New Jackie Robinson.  In an op-ed piece for NBC News, Cheryl Cooky, professor of American studies and women's, gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University, likened "Lia" Thomas (formerly Will) to Jackie Robinson.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, Prof. Cooky's editorial is a slap in the face to female athletes and an insult to the legacy of Jackie Robinson, who courageously broke the color line in professional sports.  Yet, according to Cooky, and with reference to Thomas's blow-out victory in a national swimming competition last week, "For anyone who cares about the advancement of sports, and women's sports in particular, her win should be celebrated."  To repeat: nothing could be further from the truth.  To the contrary, and in the words of Haley Tanne, a female, college athlete (herself a runner), "My teammates and I are watching our records, our scholarships and our competitive opportunities slip away... wondering if anyone in authority is going to have the courage to step up and save women's sports."  This is a travesty, and it must be stopped.

Men Now Dominate Women's Sports.  Last week University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, became the first transgender athlete to win the NCAA title in the women's 500-yard freestyle.  During the award ceremony, Thomas towered over the biologically female runner-ups, including University of Virginia's Emma Weyant, a silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics who finished 1.75 seconds behind Thomas.  [Podcast]

Lia Thomas saga highlights instances of biological men winning women's sports.  University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas is only the most recent and most visible example of biological men competing and winning against female athletes, with examples now dating back several years.  Thomas, who is biologically male, finished first in the women's 500-yard freestyle event at the NCAA championships last week over three swimmers who had each won silver medals at the last Olympics.  The result capped the collegiate swimming season with a shadow of controversy while providing the most high-profile image of a biologically male transgender athlete competing in women's sports.

DeSantis Dismisses Lia Thomas, Declares NCAA Women's Swimming Event Winner the Second Place Finisher.  Many may have to play along with declaring Lia Thomas as one of the greatest female athletes of all time, but everyone else lives on planet Earth where dogs bark, the sky is blue, and men can't suddenly be women because they said they were.  Thomas is definitely a man and there's no escaping that fact.  It's why when he was declared the winner of the NCAA women's swimming championship, many people immediately rejected his first-place victory and focused on the girls who finished below him.  In one stunning moment, the girls did the same.  [Tweet]

DeSantis Turns the Tables on the Gender-Bending NCAA Women's Swimming Wokesters.  We've got quite a post-modernist culture war on our hands over transgender issues.  Former Navy SEAL and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just went kinetic with fiery remarks about the NCAA.  On Tuesday, DeSantis issued a proclamation announcing that native Sarasota, Fla., athlete Emma Weyant, who swims for the University of Virginia, logged "the fastest time among all women swimmers" at the NCAA championship in the NCAA Division I final over the weekend.  He accused the NCAA of "destroying opportunities for women" and perpetuating "a fraud on the public," and berated them for "putting ideology ahead of opportunity for women athletes."

GOP Indiana governor vetoes transgender girls sports ban.  Indiana's governor on Monday vetoed a bill banning transgender females from participating in girls school sports.  Opponents of the transgender sports bill argued it was a bigoted response to a problem that doesn't exist, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana saying it planned a lawsuit against what it called "hateful legislation."  Republican sponsors of the bill said it was needed to protect the integrity of female sports and opportunities for girls to gain college athletic scholarship but pointed out no instances in the state of girls being outperformed by transgender athletes.  Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signaled support for the bill last month but said in his veto letter that the legislation "falls short" of providing a consistent statewide policy for what he called "fairness in K-12 sports."

Social Media Users Congratulate Emma Weyant for Winning 'First' Instead of Lia Thomas.  University of Virginia swimmer Emma Weyant won second place in the women's 500-yard freestyle championships, losing to a man, Lia Thomas.  Many viewers took to social media to congratulate Weyant for actually winning first place.  A tweet by the University of Virginia (UVA) Swimming and Dive account, which congratulated Weyant — who attends UVA — for winning second place, "with the third-fastest time in UVA history."  Weyant also won a silver medal in last year's Summer Olympics.

Congratulations to Emma Weyant, the real woman who won the NCAA 500-yard freestyle event.  Until sanity is restored in our country, records will show that Lia Thomas was the winner of the 2022 women's NCAA 500-yard freestyle event.  However, we all know the story behind Thomas by now.  Lia is not a woman, but a man identifying as a woman.  Anyone interested in the sanctity of competition, biological integrity, and saving women's sports, should celebrate Emma Weyant, the actual woman who won the 2022 women's NCAA 500-yard freestyle event on Thursday night.  The records will show that Weyant finished in second place behind Thomas.  But Weyant is the actual she who should be recognized as champion.  Thomas's victory represents everything that detractors feared would happen in the national championships: that females would not be able to compete against a man claiming to be a woman.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler's account locked for tweet criticizing transgender athletes in women's sports.  Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Missouri Republican, was locked out of her Senate campaign account for a tweet declaring that "men pretending to be women" don't belong in female sports.  Hartzler campaign manager Michael Hafner posted a shot Monday of the Twitter message saying that his boss' account had been "locked for violating the Twitter Rules," specifically for violating prohibitions on "hateful conduct."  Her tweet said:  "Women's Sports are for Women, not men pretending to be women."

UPenn, Philly DA ignore complaints about Lia Thomas's male nudity in women's locker room.  Imagine you are a parent to a female college student-athlete.  Now, imagine, what would you do if your daughter told you that someone who was a man and still had male genitalia was frequently naked in front of your daughter every day after practice.  How would you feel as a parent?  That is a current predicament at the University of Pennsylvania.  A letter was sent to city and school authorities addressing the vast concerns over the situation.  It appears to have been ignored by all those addressed in the letter.

Lia Thomas is a bad man.  I don't hate Lia Thomas because she's a transsexual; I hate her because she's a cheat.  At the Ivy League Championship Swim Meet last weekend, Thomas easily won four events, setting pool and league records.  She may be the most-improved swimmer in history.  She was ranked 462nd in the country a few years ago, and is now ranked Number 1.  The difference is not that her swim times have gotten better.  It's that her competition has gotten worse.  Her Number 462 ranking was against men, while her Number 1 ranking is against women.

The Editor says...
I don't hate Will Thomas.  He is obviously a confused young man.  But he should keep that confusion to himself, instead of using it as a weapon.

Dude Looks Like a Lady — Ivy League Swimming Style.  Rock group Aerosmith released a song in 1987 entitled, "Dude looks like a lady" about a man with an effeminate appearance who could be mistaken for a woman.  Today the inverse is playing out in the athletic world, where a lady who looks like a dude — a male who has transitioned to a female as much as basic biology permits — is making a mockery of women's sports.  I speak of Lia Thomas, a transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer who last week, "Dominates 200 yard freestyle at Ivy League swimming championships and sets a new tournament record."  But Lia wasn't always a woman swimmer.  In fact, not too long ago she was a dude, but she looks more like a lady these days, yet she still swims like a dude, and that is where the problem lies.

Lia Thomas Has Exposed The Fallacy Of The LGBTQ Narrative.  Guys competing in girls' sports is becoming a real thing.  Lia Thomas is all over the news these days. [...] Lia is the male swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team, who stuffs his man parts into a girl's Speedo, and struts out onto the pool deck — while the crowd is expected to pretend as if it's all perfectly normal.  Never mind that as a male swimmer he was mediocre at best.  On the female team, he's the star — both of the media and the statisticians.  He's in the news, and he's breaking all of the collegiate swim records — for women.  It seems sex is no longer defined by anatomy or genetics.  It is defined by wishful thinking.  Of course, wishful thinking is the definition of fantasy, not reality.

16 Penn Swimmers Say Trans Teammate Lia Thomas Should Not Compete.  Is the dam finally breaking on maintaining the fantasy that trans women do not have an inherent advantage over biological females in competitive sports?  Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team sent a letter to the school and to the Ivy League, asking them not to take legal action that would challenge the new NCAA rules for transgender athletes to compete.  The new rules would make it very difficult for their trans teammate, Lia Thomas, to compete as a female.  The 16 swimmers — out of 39 on the team — are asking that Thomas be sidelined.

The Editor says...
It is impossible to "transition" from a man to a woman or vice versa.  The DNA in every cell in your body shows you're male or you're female — permanently.  But today's college students have been indoctrinated for years already, and badly mis-informed about homosexuality, individual expression, and "inclusion."  You can't have it both ways:  You can't insist that it's okay for a male transvestite to claim he's a woman, and then be offended when he shows up in the women's locker room — or restroom, or dormitory, or anywhere else.  This can of worms will remain open indefinitely, so now you have to decide if swimming is really that important to you.  Or, for that matter, a college degree.

I Will Stop Crying Out When the Transanity Stops.  One of my colleagues has been combating LGBTQ extremism for several decades, working tirelessly for almost no money, and with constant vilification as his main reward.  I asked him one day on the air, "Why don't you just stop?"  He answered, "I'll stop when they stop."  That is exactly how I feel.  When I no longer have to read headlines like this, I'll stop:  "'We're uncomfortable in our own locker room.'  Lia Thomas' UPenn [female] teammate tells how the trans swimmer doesn't always cover up her male genitals when changing and their concerns go ignored by their coach."  Seriously?  Her male genitals?  What kind of madness is this?  And the fact that a biological male with male plumbing (who, by the way, is attracted to females), shares a locker room with women — where they disrobe and shower — is absolute insanity, not to mention terribly unfair.  In fact, it is outright abusive.

Female Swimmers Complain Trans Teammate Lia Thomas Exposes Male Body Parts in Locker Room.  There are plenty of legitimate objections raised against allowing transitioning transgender athletes to compete as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.  But it's the practical objections that resonate the most with the rest of us.  And for those objections, trans activists have no good answers.  One such practical objection is the locker room situation.  Anyone who has ever competed in any sport — either as an individual or as a member of a team — knows that segregating the sexes in a locker room is necessary to maintain a comfort level for everyone.  And comfort is vitally necessary to aid in creating an atmosphere that allows for peak performance from an athlete.  But what if a transitioning male athlete is allowed to walk around naked in a locker room full of women?  That's the situation that is facing members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team who are forced to share a locker room with transitioning male Lia Thomas.

Lia-bility Issues and the Dictatorship of the Subjunctive Mood.  "Penn swimmer Lia Thomas came away with wins in the 100 meter and 200-meter freestyle races against Harvard on Saturday," Fox News reported last week. [...] Based on the new NCAA policy, "there is nothing that would preclude Lia from racing in March at the NCAA Championships."  Michael Phelps, who won 13 individual Olympic gold medals, has problems with the policy.  "I believe that we all should feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin, but I think sports should all be played on an even playing field," Phelps told reporters.  "I don't know what it looks like in the future.  It's hard.  It's very complicated and this is my sport, this has been my sport my whole entire career, and honestly the one thing I would love is everybody being able to compete on an even playing field."  The Olympic champion might rethink the "very complicated" part.  The pool is already perfectly level, and the disparity belongs to Thomas.  This swimmer transitioned from the Penn men's team to the women's team, where Thomas now demolishes the competition.  That could send a signal to other athletes.

Lia Thomas' UPenn teammate tells how the trans swimmer doesn't always cover up her male genitals when changing.  Sharing a locker room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has become a point of contention for some of her University of Pennsylvania teammates, who feel uncomfortable changing in the private space with someone undergoing gender transition, the DailyMail.com can reveal.  'It's definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women,' one swimmer on the team told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.  Lia has told her teammates that she dates women.

The Editor says...
Fifty years ago, a man caught in the women's locker room would have been immediately expelled from any university in the U.S.  Five years ago, what newspaper editor would have permitted the phrase, cover up her male genitals?  Wake up, fools!  It's a man!  This problem will persist until you get rid of the people who caused it.

Maybe that's because he's a man.
Teammates say they are uncomfortable changing in locker room with trans UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas.  A member of the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team said some team members are uncomfortable changing in the locker room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, according to a teammate.  Thomas, 22, who spent the previous three years swimming with the men's team before she began transitioning to a woman, has created an uneasy environment in the locker room, as she still retains her biologically male genitalia — which are sometimes exposed — and is attracted to women, one teammate told the Daily Mail in an interview.

The girl is a man.  Our insane world has hit woke bottom.  This is from Fox News:  ["]Penn swimmer Lia Thomas came away with wins in the 100 meter and 200-meter freestyle races against Harvard on Saturday.  The victories came days after the NCAA updated its policy for transgender participation and how it will be determined on a sport-by-sport basis.["]  What did Thomas do?  He, and he is a he, shattered women's records.  Who knows what women were denied scholarships because of this?  The answer is for men to compete with men and women with women.  It's not discrimination.  It's common sense.

NCAA changes transgender athlete participation policy amid calls for reevaluation.  The NCAA changed its policy regarding transgender athletes, it announced Wednesday.  The new approach to allowing transgender athletes will follow a sport-by-sport model similarly adopted by the U.S. and international Olympic committees, Sports Illustrated reported.  The NCAA said if there was no international federation policy then the "previously established IOC policy criteria would be followed."  "We are steadfast in our support of transgender student-athletes and the fostering of fairness across college sports," John DeGioia, Georgetown University's president and the NCAA board's chairman, said in a statement Wednesday, announcing the change.

Lia Thomas Is Guilty of Institutional Cheating and Gender Eugenics.  You were born a biological male.  You have XY chromosomes that irrevocably designate your sex as male.  You began to identify as either non-binary or female around two years ago.  You are currently a member of the University of Pennsylvania's women's swim team where you recently were victorious against Cornell University women's team.  As a transwoman with the physical advantages of still being a biological male, you have broken several of the University of Pennsylvania's women's swim records.  In your 1,650-meter freestyle win, you beat second-place finisher and teammate Anna Kalandadze by 38 seconds.  Because of you, women such as Kalandadze who held records no longer hold them.  You, as a biological male, have unfairly stripped them of their hard-fought honors.

USA Swimming official who resigned over trans swimmer Lia Thomas says athlete is 'destroying women's swimming'.  A USA Swimming official who resigned in protest of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas told Fox News on Monday that she can't stand by and watch as girls are "thrown under the bus" by "biological" male competitors.  Cynthia Millen stepped down last week after officiating USA Swimming meets for over three decades.  Her decision came days before the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Greensboro, N.C.  "The fact is that swimming is a sport in which bodies compete against bodies.  Identities do not compete against identities," Millen said in an appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."  "Men are different from women, men swimmers are different from women, and they will always be faster than women."

It's Time to Stop Denying Reality About Transgender Athletes.  A transgender athlete, Lia Thomas, dominated during a Nov. 20 women's swim meet with athletes representing Cornell, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. [...] Just a few weeks after Thomas trounced biologically female teammates, President Joe Biden's Department of Education announced plans to amend Title IX regulations to conform to the president's executive order on what it calls "Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation."  Such amendments by the Education Department would allow biological males to compete against women in the name of "equality" and "preventing discrimination."  But the truth is, these amendments would contradict reality, equality, and popular opinion.  Hormone levels alone don't make someone a woman.  And no amount of cross-sex hormones can undo the biological benefits of male genetics and development.

Kristi Noem Advances Bill Requiring Trans Athletes to Compete According to Their Birth Gender.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has advanced a bill in the state legislature that would codify her executive orders limiting transgender athletes to competing only in categories that correspond to their birth gender.  Noem filed the bill on Tuesday to limit K-12 girl's school sports and state-funded colleges to allowing only natural-born girls to compete in girl's categories, according to the Argus Leader.  The governor issued her two executive orders in March after the legislature rejected her revisions of House Bill 1217.

The Real War on Women is From the Left.  Remember how the left not long ago went on and on and on about the supposed "war on women" from the right?  The irony is that according to current leftist dogma, women no longer exist.  After all, the Biden Administration's Department of Health and Human Services is insisting in referring to mothers (once understood as a significant subset of beings known as "women") as "birthing persons," because current leftist dogma says men can have babies, too.  Which means women no long have anything naturally distinctive about them. [...] Which brings me back to the story I've commented on before of Lia Thomas, the "woman" swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania who is shattering women's swim records after having competed for three years as an average male swimmer for Penn.

Men Make the Best Women.  There is no difference between men and women, we're told by leftist activists, none whatsoever.  We're also told by these same people that there's nothing a man can do better than a woman, [...] We've all heard about the high school sprinters who were not very good as boys, but mopped up the track when they started competing as girls.  I couldn't care less how someone chooses to live in their personal life, my problem with the idea of "trans" is when I'm forced to deny reality to make someone else feel comfortable.  If you're a man and you want to wear a dress and be called Betty, I'll call you Betty.  But if you want me to pretend you can get pregnant or have to worry about cervical cancer, you've lost me.  In the UK, they are spending good money reminding women to get screened for prostate cancer and other absurd things that simply are not real.  Forcing me to pretend they are is when you lose me, and you're not getting me back.

Why I'm celebrating news that a man is breaking women's swimming records.  Will Thomas is a strapping 22-year-old man who swam competitively at the University of Pennsylvania for three years.  This year, though, Will announced that he's a woman named "Lia" and, thanks to Biden's executive orders regarding so-called "gender identity," got a place on UPenn's women's swim team where, to no one's surprise, he swam faster than the women.  Frankly, I think it's wonderful.  That's not because I've gone woke; it's because this is so blatantly unfair to women, and Will is so obviously a man, that Americans are finally saying that the emperor is wearing the wrong dress.  I will never, absolutely never, use female pronouns for a man who claims to be "transgender."  He is either mentally ill, which is sad, but does not make him a woman, or he's a sleazy, skeezy opportunist.  It's amazing how many of these so-called "transgender" men who suddenly get to compete in women's sports and use women's locker rooms and restrooms (and women's prisons), have kept their original biological equipment and are "lesbians," rather than real women who like men.  Let me say this as clearly as possible:  There is no such thing as "transgenderism."

Boys Replacing Girls in Sports — Feminists Yawn.  Women's sports are again under attack.  Decades ago, it was due to tradition and patriarchy, with funding and attention lavished primarily on men's sports.  Title IX came in 1972, leveling the playing field.  At the time, there were just over 300,000 women and girls participating in high school and college sports.  Female athletes only received 2 percent of college athletic budgets and few if any women received athletic scholarships.  Forty years later in 2012, great progress was made with 3 million girls participating in high school sports and 190,000 in college sports, a sixfold increase since 1972.  But instead of continued progress, our new woke culture is turning back the clock on women's sports, all in the name of equity, tolerance, and diversity, setting female athletes back decades.

Male Swimmer Dominates UPenn's Women's Swim Team.  Will Thomas was a moderately successful swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania's men's swim team for three years.  But then he took a year off, reemerged as transgender, and started dominating the women's swim team.

The 'Equality' blues:  Feminists cry foul when boys' netball team wins girls' tournament.  The Queensland Suns won the Nissan State under-18 netball tournament last month, and the wrath of many, by easily defeating seven other teams.  The issue?  The Suns are sons — not daughters like the rest of their competitors.  Netball is a variation on basketball played in many Commonwealth countries.  The game also apparently doesn't have many male competitors in Australia, which is why the Suns were allowed to compete with the lasses.  As Netball Queensland, the organization running the Nissan tournament, stated, it was choosing "inclusion over exclusion."

Texas Senate Passes Bill Requiring Athletes To Compete On Team That Matches Birth Gender.  The Texas Senate passed a bill on Friday night [10/15/2021] that requires student athletes to play on sports teams that match their birth gender and not the gender with which they identify.  "The legislation is primed to become law after the state Senate voted 19-12 on Friday to pass House Bill 25, authored by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring," The Texas Tribune reported.  "The Senate floor vote followed a swiftly held committee meeting where a 24-hour notice rule was suspended and the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee voted to advance the legislation.  Under HB 25, students would only be permitted to compete on sports teams that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate that was assigned at or near the time of birth."  The Texas House must now approve an amendment that the Senate added before it heads to Governor Greg Abbott's desk.

Texas House Passes Bill Banning Students from Competing against Opposite Sex in Sports.  The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday [10/15/2021] mandating that transgender athletes participate in school sports teams corresponding to the biological sex listed on their birth certificate.  The bill passed 76 [to] 54 after failing to advance on three previous attempts, and will now be sent to the state Senate for deliberation.  Representative Valoree Swanson, the bill's sponsor, said it would protect women and girls from unfair competition.

Christian Schools Join Fight To Protect Female Athletes From Transgender Competitors.  A coalition of Christian schools and female athletes are fighting back against President Joe Biden's efforts to redefine sex to be based on "gender identity," not biological sex.  If successful, female athletes would have to compete in sporting events against biological men who "identify" as women and force them to share private spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.  The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a nonprofit Christian legal organization, filed a motion on Monday asking a federal district court to allow the Association of Christian Schools International and three female athletes in Arkansas to intervene in the case, State of Tennessee v.  United States Department of Education.

Piers Morgan:  Transgenders in women's MMA will get someone killed.  It's no longer a surprise when Piers Morgan weighs in on hot-button cultural issues in favor of the conservatives, as he does today in the question of transgender access to women's sports.  Today, he writes in the Daily Mail that such crossovers in MMA are likely to get someone killed, and uses one bout this weekend as a prime example: [...] Morgan makes his pitch against transgenders in women's sports on a broader basis than safety.  It's not only "incredibly dangerous" in the context of MMA, but also unfair and unequal for all women forced to compete with biological males.

Leftists cheer as a violent man assaults a woman.  Mixed Martial Arts took a serious hit the other day when the sport allowed a man to beat a woman brutally and then claim a victory for having done so.  ESPN, others in the leftist establishment, and the Combate Global competition were all incredibly excited about this violent, misogynistic event.  Worse, the man had trained for years in the United States Army's Special Forces.  Why was this all condoned, indeed, applauded?  Because the man suffers from body dysphoria which has led him to believe that he's a woman.  I feel sorry for him but — and this is the important point — he's not a woman and it's a travesty that people pretend he is.

Transgender MMA fighter who used to be in US Army special forces wins debut — reigniting debate over trans women in sports.  The second openly transgender MMA fighter in the US has won her debut match — reigniting the debate over trans women in sports.  Alana McLaughlin, 38, won her first professional fight in the Combate Global prelims Friday against Celine Provost, ending the match with a rear-naked choke 3 minutes and 32 seconds into the second round.  McLaughlin, from South Carolina, began her transition in 2010 after spending six years in the US Army special forces.

Reporter Asks Women Weight Lifters About Trans Competitor, Room Goes Completely Silent.  During their press conference after medaling in the women's +87 kg weightlifting competition, the three medalists gave a very telling reaction when a reporter asked them about the "historic" participation of transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, a biological male.

If They Can Make You Believe a Big Strong Man Belongs in the Women's Division, They Can Make You Believe Anything.  Today, Monday, August 2, 2021, a big strong man bombed out of the superheavyweight class of the Women's division of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.  Read that sentence again:  We are living in a post-truth society.  The best that can be done with it is to finely hone your cynicism, question everything you are told, and learn to appreciate dark humor.  Gavin Hubbard is 6'1" at 285 pounds.  He was most assuredly born a physical male and competed somewhat successfully in the Men's Division of Olympic weightlifting up until 2001.  Psychological issues caused him to reevaluate his gender identity, previously based on his physical sex, and he was reportedly "surgically re-assigned" in 2012 to reflect his commitment to his new gender identification as "Laurel."  All of this is entirely his own personal business and has nothing to do with the rest of humanity.  If a guy wants to castrate himself and have cosmetic surgery, he should have the freedom to do so.  But being born a male — having developed in utero under male levels of testosterone exposure — makes you forever and always different from having been born a female, whose congenital development took place without testosterone at those levels.

Olympic Medical and Science Official Says "Everyone Agrees" That Trans Women Are Real Women.  International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical and Science Director Dr. Richard Budgett recently made some eyebrow raising comments when he claimed that "everyone agrees" that trans women are real women.  The comment came during a press conference on Friday [7/29/2021] when Budgett was praising male-turned-female New Zealand trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard for their "courage and tenacity."  "To put it in a nutshell, the IOC had a scientific consensus back in 2015," Budgett explained as he came up with an excuse for the IOC's decision to let a man compete with women.  "There are no IOC rules or regulations around transgender participation.  That depends on each international federation."

We Are Doctors.  Here's the Truth About Transgender Females' Bodies and Athleticism.  The International Olympic Committee ruled in 2015 that transgender athletes "who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category" so long as their testosterone level has been below a certain threshold for at least 12 months.  At least two recent peer-reviewed studies challenge this rule.  One published in the journal Sports Medicine found "the muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women [men on estrogen] is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed" for 12 months.  A second review article found the male strength advantage to remain even after three years of testosterone suppression.  Even if the strength advantage could be eliminated, however, to reduce the definition of female human being to having a certain level of testosterone in your body for a certain amount of time completely ignores the scientific reality that genetics — not testosterone — is at the root of all that makes the two sexes different.  When males are allowed to compete in athletic leagues designed for females, they deprive female athletes of the opportunity to safe and fair participation in sports.  As Vanbellinghen said, "Life-changing opportunities are missed for some athletes — medals and Olympic qualifications — and we are powerless."

Judge blocks West Virginia law banning transgender students from girls sports.  A federal judge blocked a West Virginia law banning transgender athletes from competing in girls sports, saying the legislation likely runs afoul of the Constitution.  Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, said if West Virginia wants to treat people differently, there must be a compelling reason to do so.  "I have been provided with scant evidence that this law addresses any problem at all, let alone an important problem," the judge wrote in a 15-page opinion.

Biden administration 'erasing the borders' of biological sex, women's sports activist says.  The first half of 2021 has been marked by a series of fierce cultural and legal battles over policies relating to transgender athletes participating in girls' and women's sports.  More battles loom as the Biden administration and some states take significantly divergent positions on the hot button issue.  One of the first actions President Joe Biden took following his inauguration was to sign an executive order preventing discrimination against people based on gender identity, which said children "should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports."  Opponents — including leaders in states such as Florida, Tennessee, and Idaho, and activists including Beth Stelzer — insist that female-identifying biological males playing against women is unfair to biological females.

The Problems with Laurel Hubbard's Qualifying for the Olympics as a Woman.  Weightlifting has always been an Olympic sport, practiced in Ancient Greece.  At the modern revival of the Olympics in 1896, and for the next 100 years, only men were allowed to compete.  But since the Sydney Games of 2000, there have been women's events too, in weight categories like the men's events.  Equity of the sexes is important to the Olympic movement nowadays.  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says that inclusion is important, too.  To that end, it has decreed that males who feel themselves to be women may compete in the women's events.  The only stipulation, besides declaring their commitment to their desired "gender," is that such athletes take a pill daily to lower their testosterone to below 10 nanomoles/Liter (nmol/L).  The typical female testosterone range is below 1 nmol/L.  So, we have Laurel Hubbard, born male 43 years ago, and now presenting as part of the New Zealand women's weightlifting team for Tokyo 2020, to be held this summer.

Laurel Hubbard is the beginning of the end of Women's sports.  The decision to allow Laurel Hubbard, a 43-year-old weightlifter who transitioned from male to trans woman in 2012, to compete in the forthcoming Olympic Games against female competitors is the beginning of the end of women's sport.  Why does women's sport exist at all?  Because biology in sport matters.  Separate categories give females equal opportunities of sporting success.  Australian Weightlifting Federation's chief executive, Michael Keelan has spoken out about how unfair Hubbard's inclusion is to female competitors.  We all know it is unfair, even those speaking out in support of Hubbard's inclusion in the Olympics — they just don't care about women.

Cece Telfer, Champion Transgender Hurdler, Ruled Ineligible For US Olympic Trials.  Cece Telfer, a transgender woman who won an NCAA Division II championship in 2019, was ruled ineligible Wednesday [6/23/2021] to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials.  USA Track and Field (USATF) said in a statement Telfer failed to meet the World Athletic requirements to be eligible for trials.  She had initially been on the list for Friday's opening heats but an updated list Wednesday did not include her name.  World Athletics' guidelines, released in 2019, stated that female athletes' testosterone levels were at 5 nanomoles per liter or more were barred from events between distances of 400 meters and a mile.  Telfer was readying to compete in the women's 400-meter hurdles at Olympic trials.

The Editor says...
A man who wears women's clothing is not a champion.  A man with low testosterone levels is still a man.

Women's Olympic Weightlifters Should Take a Knee if Trans Athletes Are Allowed to Compete.  The International Olympic Committee has laid the groundwork for the destruction of the women's divisions in Olympic sports by permitting New Zealand to enter a congenital male in the women's division of Olympic weightlifting in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.  And as odd as this sounds, the only way to save women's sports is for the female competitors to boycott the event in its entirety. [...] It is why we have men's and women's divisions in all sports, with no sport allowing direct competition between men and women.  It has been apparent throughout human history that the sexes are different in terms of physical capacity, that this is true from birth, and I shouldn't have to point this out to anybody.

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar, Just not at the Olympics.  Helen Reddy sang a Grammy Award-winning hit in 1972 called "I Am Woman," an ode to the newly blossomed feminist movement. [...] Remember a time when major sporting competitions, like the Olympic Games, separated men from women, perhaps not in the Olympic Village, but on the track, in the pool, and in the gym.  One time, this was commonsensical as men and women differ greatly in terms of size, strength, and power due to a hormone called testosterone, abundant in growing boys, but not so in girls, leading to higher bone density, larger muscle mass, and more efficient power generation.  In last week's Olympic Trials, these differences were quite evident.

NFL legend Brett Favre blasts transgender Olympian as 'unfair': 'It's a man competing as a woman'.  Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre built a legendary career out of being on target when it counted.  But he was never more on target than when he nailed the issue of transgender "women" competing against true females on the biggest stages in sports.  Liberals are going to hate it, but no sane, honest person — man or woman — could disagree.  "It's a man competing as a woman," Favre said with characteristic bluntness.  "That's unfair."  The issue arose during Tuesday's [6/22/2021] episode of Favre's podcast "Bolling with Favre," co-hosted by former Fox News personality Eric Bolling.

New Zealand weightlifter to become first trans athlete to compete in Olympics.  A New Zealand woman has become the first transgender athlete to be selected to compete in the Olympics — a decision that is expected to launch debate about gender identity in sports.  Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, 43, who was born male but transitioned to female, was picked to participate in the upcoming summer games in Tokyo, New Zealand Olympic Committee chief Kereyn Smith said in a Monday [6/21/2021] statement.  "We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play," Smith said in a statement.  "As the New Zealand team, we have a strong culture of manaaki (caring) and inclusion and respect for all."

Law banning trans athletes from women's sports unconstitutional:  DOJ.  The Department of Justice is mounting a case arguing that laws in West Virginia and Arkansas that bar transgender athletes from competing in women's sports are unconstitutional, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans supporting biological gender segregation in sports, according to a report citing court papers.  "The United States has a significant interest in ensuring that all students, including students who are transgender, can participate in an educational environment free of unlawful discrimination," the DOJ said in court documents filed in a West Virginia court case Thursday [6/17/2021], according to a report by the Daily Mail.  The DOJ asked a judge to overturn the West Virginia rule — signed into law by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in April — which blocks transgender athletes from playing in women's sports from middle school through college, the outlet reported.

San Francisco Giants Become First MLB Team to Wear Pride-Themed Uniforms.  The San Francisco Giants told fans Tuesday that the team will add gay pride colors to its hats and uniforms in recognition of Gay Pride Month.  "The 11 colors of the new Pride logo are emblematic of the Progress Pride Flag and signify inclusion and progression with the six pride colors," the team said in a statement, "red (life); orange (healing); yellow (sunlight); green (nature); blue (serenity); purple (spirit); and black and brown to recognize LGBTQ+ people of color and light blue, pink and white to recognize people who are transgender."

Our Increasingly Unrecognizable Civilization.  Over the same period as the pandemic lockdowns, we have seen an escalation of so-called wokeness.  And if you look at one of the most startling manifestations of this, transgender fanaticism — which involves, after all, the abolition of biological sex and, I'm sorry to have to say it, the physical mutilation of children — one notices that America is farther down this road than any other country in the Western world.  In other words, at this moment of crisis for Western Civilization, or for what we used to call Christendom, the leading country of the free world is pulling the wrong way.  Think of it.  Your daughter has been training since she was a little girl to run in school sports.  Now at 17, she's in the state high school track championships, and you are forbidden even to notice that she's competing against a woman who is 6'2" with thighs like tugboats, a great touch of five o'clock shadow on her face, and the most muscular bosom you've ever seen.  You're not supposed to notice the craziness of this, and the craziness is at its craziest right here in America.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bill barring transgender athletes from female sports.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation barring transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, joining seven other states in what he described as an effort to protect female sports.  Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, gave the Fairness in Women's Sports Act his signature flanked by teenage athletes at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville.  "I can tell you that in Florida, girls are going to play girls' sports, and boys are going to play boys' sports," Mr. DeSantis said at the event.

Trans Golfer Who Played On Men's College Team Wins Women's Title, Eyes LPGA.  Hailey Davidson, who is biologically male but identifies as female, played in women's golf last week and won a professional title after competing against biological women.  The transgender golfer, who previously played in men's college golf, now hopes to qualify for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) for female golfers.  According to a Golkweek report, Davidson beat LPGA player Perrine Delacour to win the women's title at Providence Golf Club in Orlando, Florida last week.

The NCAA Was All Threats and Bluster Against Non-Trans Athlete States, But It Just Crumpled Like a Cheap Suit.  The NCAA was threatening states that if they didn't allow men to compete in women's sports then they would pull tournaments from those states.  The entire issue even caused a once-loved Republican governor, Kristi Noem, to lose her support within the party after she bent the knee and refused to sign a bill banning biological men from declaring themselves women and signing up to compete against them out of fear of losing the revenue.  As it turns out, the NCAA was totally bluffing and picked three states for their tournaments to happen in.  According to Breitbart, the NCAA has announced that Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee will be host to the Women's College World Series softball regionals.

So much for fairness:  Transgender woman golfer wins mini-tour event, aims for LPGA.  Last week, Hailey Davidson, a transgender woman, won her first professional title in Florida, topping LPGA player Perrine Delacour for the win.  The same day, she was sent an email by the USGA saying she's met the organization's Gender Policy eligibility criteria and can now compete in its championships and she's hoping to hear similar news from the LPGA via a reciprocity agreement, according to Golfweek.  So much for fairness in women's sports.  In January, Ms. Davidson underwent gender reassignment surgery, and she's been undergoing hormone treatments since 2015.  Since transitioning, Ms. Davidson said she hits shorter and swings slower — yet she still was born a man, and obviously, has a physical advantage over biological women.

NCAA Caves, Will Allow States [Which] Place Restrictions on Trans Athletes to Host Events.  The NCAA made loud proclamations in April that it could pull events from states with limits on transgender athletes.  Still, now the college sports governing body has caved and will allow tournaments in states including Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas despite their laws restricting trans athletes.  The NCAA sided with transgender athletes only last month, saying they may cancel events in states that aren't "free of discrimination" against transgender athletes.

Transgender Female to Compete as Weightlifter in Olympics — Never Competed in Weightlifting as a Male.  Tell me a story about how it's just about letting little boys compete in sports using the gender identity that they are most comfortable with.  New Zeland transgender female weight lifter Laurel Hubbard, who lived life for 35 years as a man, will likely participate in this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo as a 43-year-old female weightlifter.  Hubbard finished 2nd in the 2017 World Championships in the Women's Super Heavyweight division, but a serious elbow injury in 2018 put his/her career in jeopardy.  Under the revamped qualifying rules announced earlier this week due to the inability of most countries to have qualifying competitions, Hubbard will automatically be included as New Zealand's only entry in the Super Heavyweight Division if New Zealand decides to nominate Hubbard to be part of its Olympic Team.  At 43 years old, Hubbard would be the oldest weightlifter competing in Tokyo.

Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard set to make history at Tokyo Olympics.  History and controversy is expected to be made at the Tokyo Olympics this summer after the transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was effectively guaranteed a place in the women's super heavyweight category.  While the 43-year-old has not yet been named in the New Zealand team, an International Weightlifting Federation insider confirmed to the Guardian that she [sic] would automatically qualify because of amended rules approved by the International Olympic Committee.

Alabama Enacts Law Banning Transgender Athletes From Participating in Biologically Inconsistent Public School Sports.  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law a bill that bans transgender student-athletes from competing on K-12 public school single-sex teams that match their gender identity, making her state the second in the nation to enact such a ban.  House Bill 391, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-controlled state legislature last week, mandates that those who aren't biologically male or female won't be able to participate in school-sponsored sports events that are inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth.  "A public K-12 school may not allow a biological female to participate on a male team if there is a female team in a sport," the bill reads.  "A public K-12 school may never allow a biological male to participate on a female team."

The Editor says...
One's sex is determined by genetics at the moment of conception.  It is not "assigned at birth."

This newspaper article reeks with bias:
Texas Senate passes transgender sports bill that critics decry as another 'bathroom bill'.  The Texas Senate approved a controversial transgender sports bill Thursday [4/15/2021] that would force young athletes in Texas to compete in sports that align with the sex designated on their original birth certificate rather than with their gender identity.  The 18-12 vote followed a marathon March 26 hearing that featured emotional testimony on the bill, which foes decry as discriminatory and anti-LGBTQ.

USA Today Beats Up On 'Hateful,' Ignorant Red States For Opposing Trans Athletes.  USA Today ultra-leftist Nancy Armour swung a big bat Tuesday [4/13/2021], verbally bludgeoning hateful, ignorant conservative state lawmakers working to protect women's sports.  She accused them of trying to "otherize" trans athletes and open a new front in the culture war, repeated LGBT talking points and urged the NCAA to hurt conservative states in the pocketbook.  Nearly half the state legislatures are trying to protect women's sports from the intrusion of confused males competing with females.  Armour accused them of passing bills that aren't based on scientific facts.  It's bigotry that comes with a price, and she exhorted the NCAA to inflict financial pain on conservative states.

NCAA backs biological males competing in women's sports, as showdown looms with Florida over pending law.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association, a cartel controlling the multibillion-dollar college athletics business, may be painting itself into a corner.  Probably because it is a creature of the higher education industry that has gone off the deep end in its commitment to far-left politics, the NCAA is taking an extreme position on transgenderism and apparently seeking a confrontation with the State of Florida if it passes a law currently under consideration that would limit participation in women's sports to women.

NCAA Upholds Policy of Transgender Women Competing in Women's Sports.  The NCAA reaffirmed its decision to refuse to hold college championships in states where laws "discriminate" against male athletes who identify as female.  The board of governors issued a statement that "firmly and unequivocally" supports the inclusion of transgender athletes in college sports.  The statement comes after several states have passed laws preventing biological males from competing in girls' athletics.  Apparently, the NCAA, which governs rules on competition in college sports, thinks it's OK for biological males to compete against biological females.  The only way they can allow this is if they ignore the biology in favor of being fashionable.

NCAA issues stern warning as Texas Senate prepares to debate transgender sports bill.  Amid all the talk of boycotts and corporate criticism of election bills going through the Texas Legislature, major resistance is shaping up to another top priority of Republican state lawmakers.  With the Texas Senate set to debate a bill to ban transgender girls from competing in girls' interscholastic sports, the NCAA recently issued a warning that it is watching the legislation.  NCAA policies allow transgender athletes to participate without limitation.  "The NCAA continues to closely monitor state bills that impact transgender student-athlete participation," NCAA officials said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle.  "The NCAA believes in fair and respectful student-athlete participation at all levels of sport.  The association's transgender student-athlete participation policy and other diversity policies are designed to facilitate and support inclusion."

America's creation of the transgender child.  [Scroll down]  One might imagine the locus of concern would be the ethics of medicating and operating on children physically to alleviate mental distress, but it is the impact on sport which has captured the public imagination.  The repeated triumph of biological males who identify as girls over actual girls in athletics has left the "transwomen are women" mantra looking a little flimsy.  There has already been one legal case challenging the fairness of allowing competition on the basis of "gender identity."  In some states, laws are coming into effect to ensure that girls are given a fighting chance and that events are divided by physical sex.  The evidence is clear, as developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton explained in a 2019 review of the International Olympic Committee guidelines:  "Males can run faster, jump longer, throw further and lift heavier than females.  They outperform females by 10 percent on the running track to 30 percent when throwing various balls...  Males have around 40 percent more muscle mass, even when height is taken into account, and 40 percent less body fat."

TN governor signs transgender sports bill, will require students to prove their sex before playing.  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Friday [3/26/2021] signed a bill into law that will prohibit transgender students from playing on the team of the sex with which they identify, one of numerous such bills currently working their way through statehouses around the country.  Tennessee's H.B. 3 directs that "a student's gender for purposes of participation in a public middle school or high school interscholastic athletic activity or event must be determined by the student's sex at the time of the student's birth, as indicated on the student's original birth certificate."  The rule effectively bars transgender athletes from selecting a team based on their internal sense of "gender identity."

SD House Speaker to Reject Gov. Kristi Noem's Request to Rework Bill on Transgender Athletes.  The battle over legislation in South Dakota to prevent biological men from competing against biological women in school sports will come to a head on "Veto Day," which takes place on Monday [3/29/2021] — also the last day of the state's legislation session.  And now House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a Republican, announced he would recommend lawmakers reject Gov. Kristi Noem's controversial stance to not veto House Bill 1217 but to ask for revisions to it, including removing the language to eliminate the ban in collegiate sports and removing the requirement for birth certificate sex to be proven annually.

Governor signs bill barring transgender athletes from female sports in Arkansas.  Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed Thursday [3/25/2021] legislation barring transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, an issue gaining steam in Republican-led state legislatures despite pushback from LGBTQ and business groups.  The Republican governor signed SB 354, the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, shortly after it passed both chambers by wide margins.  The bill was delivered to his desk Tuesday.  "I have studied the law and heard from hundreds of constituents on this issue," Mr. Hutchinson said.  "I signed the law as a fan of women's sports from basketball to soccer and including many others in which women compete successfully.  This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women's competition."

Cancel the 'Cancel Culture' Defense of Terrible Republicans.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem claims she's a victim of "conservative cancel culture."  After vetoing a popular bill to defend women's sports from the transgender lobby, Noem insists she did no such thing.  She claims she only rejected the bill because legendary (but unnamed) conservative legal scholars told her she would lose a fight with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  "If any number of conservative pundits are to be believed, that same governor who refused to cave is now caving to the NCAA and Amazon on the issue of fairness in women's sports.  What?  Apparently, uninformed cancel culture is fine when the right is eating their own," Noem spokesman Ian Fury said in a press statement.  "Furthermore, the bill picked a fight with the NCAA — a fight that renowned conservative legal experts advise Governor Noem that she will lose, especially considering South Dakota's unfriendly federal bench."  Apparently, if the NCAA threatens a lawsuit, you get a pass to betray your constituents.

The Worst Thing About Kristi Noem's Sports Capitulation Is Her Lies.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem raised some valid concerns when she returned House Bill 1217 to the state legislature for "style and form" changes.  But two of the proposed amendments to the bill that legislators drafted to prevent males from competing as females in athletic events, coupled with the spin since Noem announced she would not sign H.B. 1217 as written, give the governor's game away:  She caved.  As I explained earlier this week, H.B. 1217 originally consisted of four sections, with Section 1 providing that elementary, secondary, and collegiate athletic teams must be defined as male, female, or coeducational, then further stating that teams or sports designated as female are "available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex."

Oh Noem, Not Another Squish!  You know who is laughing right now?  Nikki!  Haley is, because Kristi Noem may have derailed her own electoral freight train as it rolled down the conservative governortrix tracks toward the GOP nom in 2024. [...] What did she do?  She vetoed a bill defending women athletes from the insanity of letting men dominate them, a "style and form" veto, and then offered the most weaksauce weasel word explanation imaginable.  Here tweet thread trying to explain it was lame; her appearance on Tucker was condescending gibberish.  Watching it, woke cons started out disappointed with her and ended up infuriated at her.

Alternative viewpoint:
Have We Lost Nuance?  What did [South Dakota Governor Kristi] Noem do that upset so many of my fellow conservatives?  She didn't sign a bill banning boys from playing in girls' sports in South Dakota.  That sounds simple enough, it's something she's said she's for and she went against it.  But, like everything in life, it's more nuanced than that.  But nuance isn't allowed anymore.  If Noem had signed the bill, it would have been immediately tied up in court and there would have been years of litigation, likely blocked by a court throughout.  Noem didn't veto it, she sent it back to the legislature to be revised.  How?  She wants the part about the law applying to colleges removed.  That might sound bad, and it's certainly not what most people want, but it's important to avoid that injunction and long legal battle because the governor has little to no say over college sports.  State governments have enormous influence over public schools K-12, but very little over private schools and universities.

Dakota Gov. Noem says she'll sign legislature's transgender sports bill after minor fixes made.  South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday she'll sign a state legislature bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in women's sports — after creating a conservative uproar last week by vetoing the measure.  Noem, considered a top potential 2024 presidential candidate, said at a press conference that she'll sign the bill after legislators make what she considers minor changes — limiting the ban to high school and elementary schools for male athletes who identify as female athletes.  The governor does want such a ban on college athletics at this time, she said, over concerns about the National Collegiate Athletic Association's standing on the matter.

Kristi Noem v. NCAA.  Kristi Noem should have paid attention to some of the history behind her own name rather than the listen to the advice of attorneys and lobbyists.  She didn't realize that she had the power to wreck the NCAA if it didn't bow to her wishes.  If she had signed the "women's protection" legislation she would have stayed on the path to the presidency.  Now, that future has almost certainly vanished. [...] By standing firm she would have directed a brilliant and withering light onto the power-mad cowards that run the NCAA.  She could have easily created the coalition against men-in-women's-sports that she desires.  Maybe she still can.  But now, all perceive her as weak.  Will she recover politically?  Maybe.  Probably not.

Bowing To Corporate Demands For Watered-Down Bill, Gov. Kristi Noem Sells Out Women's Sports.  On Friday [3/19/2021], South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem balked on signing House Bill 1217 when the bill to promote fairness in women's sports crossed her desk.  But instead of vetoing the legislation, Noem returned the bill to the House with what she called "recommendations as to STYLE and FORM."  The Republican governor's spin, however, cannot withstand scrutiny — most specifically her claimed reasoning for removing collegiate athletics from the bill's protections.  As finalized by the South Dakota legislature, Section 1 of H.B. 1217 provided that athletic teams and sports in the state, including at institutions of higher education, must be expressly designated as male, female, or coeducation.  It also stipulated that teams or sports designed as female must be "available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex."

Gov. Kristi Noem Sends Transgender Athletes Bill Back to Legislature for Changes.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) returned a bill designed to prevent biological men from competing in biological women's sports back to her state legislature on Friday for changes.  Noem cited in a public letter changes she is requesting to the bill, specifying they are revisions of "style and form." The changes include removing collegiate athletics from the bill, thereby limiting its application to K-12 athletics, and modifying language about civil liability and performance-enhancing drugs.

Track star's dream dashed by transgender rules.  The Louisiana State University Lady Tigers have won 25 national championships in track and field, and Alanna Smith dreams of contributing to another someday.  She just doesn't think she should have to beat guys to get there.  "When I didn't have to run against biological males, I felt I had a chance," said Alanna, 17.  "Whether I came in first or fifth place, I knew that was the spot I deserved.  Now it's dispiriting to know who is going to win."

Where Are All the Girls In Boys' Sports?  It's probably a question I'm not allowed to ask, but I honestly don't care.  And the fact that it will upset a bunch of pearl-clutching leftists and gender fascists just makes me want to ask it more, and louder.  But with all the talk from the left about transgender rights and how boys who believe they are girls should be allowed to compete in any sport they so choose, why aren't there any stories of the opposite happening?  Where are the girls in boys' sports?  It's pretty easy to find stories about boys competing in girls' sports, particularly track and field events, largely because they tend to win... by a lot.  Records are being broken, record books rewritten, and scholarships awarded to boys who "identify" as girls, but has there been one case of a girl identifying as a boy, not only competing in boys' sports, but dominating?  I can't find one.

Tate Reeves Signs Bill To Ensure 'Young Girls Are Not Forced To Compete Against Biological Males'.  Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed the Mississippi Fairness Act into law on Thursday so that "young girls are not forced to compete against biological males."  "This is an important day for the women and girls of Mississippi," Reeves said.  "This important piece of legislature will ensure young girls in Mississippi have a fair playing field in public sports."  "I never imagined dealing with this, but POTUS left us no choice," Reeves wrote on Twitter.  "One of his first acts was to sign an EO encouraging transgenderism in children.  So today, I proudly signed the Mississippi Fairness Act to ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological males."

Mississippi Governor Bans Transgenders From Participating In Female Sports.  Not everyone is bowing down to the Biden regime.  The Governor of Mississippi has just banned transgender athletes from competing in female sports.  Gov. Tate Reeves's new ban defies Biden's Executive Order that called on schools to allow students to participate in athletics under their chosen gender identity.  Hats off to Gov. Reeves for standing up for woman's rights!

Arkansas Advances Bill Protecting Girls From Having To Compete Against Biological Males In Sports.  The Arkansas state Senate will vote on the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act" after the state's Senate Education Committee endorsed the measure with a 5-3 vote at the start of the week.  "Senate Bill 354 by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, would allow students 'deprived of an athletic opportunity' or suffering 'direct or indirect harm' as a result of a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school or higher-education institution not maintaining separate teams for cisgender female students to seek injunctive relief against the school, as well as monetary damages," the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.

Saying 'No' to the Cancel Culture.  [Scroll down]  On second thought, don't laugh.  If there's one thing we've learned from chronicling the inimical antics of the cultural-Marxist left for more than half a century, there's no idea too stupid or malignant for them to advocate and then channel into public policy.  Notions too absurd for words just a few years ago — such as allowing biological males in sports bras to compete with real women in various sports, including wrestling and boxing — are now mandated in some places.  Meanwhile, the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6 has become an "insurrection" and supporters of former president Trump have become "far-right extremists."  And if you object, you're a "bigot" or a threat to "our democracy."

Biden Celebrates International Women's Day by Forcing Girls to Share Bathrooms, Sports Teams, With Boys.  President Joe Biden pulled out all the stops for International Women's Day on Monday, but he arguably undercut women's advancement while paying lip service to it.  He issued a glowing statement about women's empowerment, launched a Gender Policy Council, and signed an executive order barring "sex discrimination" — including discrimination on the basis of gender identity — in public schools.  On one hand, Biden celebrated women's advancement, and on the other, he forced schoolgirls to share bathrooms and sports teams with biological boys.

These girls are hurt by transgender competition.  Alanna Smith's dedication to her sport is profound.  Just listening to the elite high school track star explain her training schedule is exhausting.  Yet no matter how hard she trains, if she has to compete against biological males, she stands no chance of winning.  "There is simply a biological advantage that males have over females," explained the daughter of baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Lee Smith.  "Here is a perfect example," Smith told me.  "I have a twin brother who is an athlete but does not run competitively for his sports.  We raced against each other recently, and he beat me.  Not because he trained harder, but because there are biological and physical advantages boys have over girls in some sports."

I Refuse to Play Make Believe Any Longer.  Unfortunately we have tens of millions of people still playing make believe, pretending that something is true when it absolutely isn't.  The simplest example on this is this whole idea that a teenage boy can declare himself a girl and now join the high school girls track team.  This requires everyone around him to suspend belief and pretend that he isn't a boy.  In fact, they DEMAND that we do so.  Even when it is patently obvious that it is simply not true.  Think about it.  If they can make you go along with the idea that a human body with a penis is actually a girl, in spite of all science saying otherwise, they can make you believe anything.  The make believe is designed to destroy the concept of absolute truth.

Judge Rules Miss USA Can Exclude Transgender Women.  A federal judge on Thursday [2/25/2021] dismissed a lawsuit brought by a transgender woman who accused Miss United States of America of discriminating against her after they denied her the right to compete because she was not a biological female, according to reports.  Pageant contestant Anita Noelle Green sued Miss U.S.A in December of 2019 after she alleged the pageant denied her application and refunded her entry fees on the day she applied.  The Miss U.S.A pageant only allows "natural born biological females" to compete, according to a Motion to Dismiss filed by the pageant.  The pageant argued that under the First Amendment it has rights to free association.  The pageant argued that the pageant is meant for biological women and that allowing Green to participate would "undermine its vision" and that had the court ruled in favor of Green it would be undermining the pageants "message about empowering only biological women."

Connecticut girls lose support from Biden administration in transgender athlete case.  The Biden administration has withdrawn from a Connecticut lawsuit that aims to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' high school sports.  A group of three female runners sued state and local education officials after losing state titles to transgender athletes in 2018.  Backers of the lawsuit contend that athletes who were born male have a natural and unfair advantage over competitors who were born female.  Supporters of the transgender athletes in the case argue that once hormone therapies take effect, the male genetic advantage fades away — although those effects aren't immediate, and many teens don't begin taking such drugs until after puberty.

DOJ withdraws from transgender athletes case.  The Biden administration has withdrawn its support for a federal lawsuit in Connecticut that seeks to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' high school sports.  Connecticut allows high school athletes to compete in sports according to their gender identity.  The lawsuit was filed a year ago by several cisgender runners who argue they have been deprived of wins, state titles and athletic opportunities by being forced to compete against two transgender sprinters.  The Justice Department and the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights withdrew their support for the case ahead of a hearing scheduled for Friday on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Governor: Transgender athletes will 'destroy women's sports'.  Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday [2/10/2021] that transgender girls should be banned from playing on middle and high school sports teams or they will "destroy women's sports."  "I do believe that transgenders participating in women's sports will destroy women's sports," Lee, who is up for reelection next year, told reporters.  "It will ruin the opportunity for girls to earn scholarships.  It will put a glass ceiling back over women that hasn't been there in some time.  I think it's bad for women and for women's sports."

Psaki When Asked About Biden's EO Forcing Girls to Compete Against Biological Males:  Transgenders are More Important Than Your Daughters.  What about the rights of young girls?  When asked about the White House's message to young girls being forced to compete against biological males, Psaki said Biden's belief is trans rights are human rights.  In other words, Joe Biden believes biological males who identify as transgender, are more important than your daughters.  Psaki then deferred the reporter to the schools that are forced to allow biological males to compete with biological females — because of Joe Biden's executive order.

Girls will be Boys, and Boys will be Girls.  [Biden's] January 20 executive order, "Preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation" means that women's sports are now open to males who "identify" as females, [...] Not only sports, but also restrooms, locker rooms, and any school sports.  If members of the boys' high school soccer team decide to identify as girls, they can join the girls' soccer team and shower with them too.  What could go wrong?  Joe Biden instinctively knows there are biologic differences between boys and girls.  There are multiple photos and videos of Biden inappropriately touching and sniffing girls and women, but not boys or men.  He is disregarding his own executive order by discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Rand Paul Denounces Biden Transgender Sports Policy.  Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) challenged President Joe Biden's Education Secretary nominee on his statement it is "appropriate" to allow boys to compete in girls' sports by asking, "What planet are you from?"  During a confirmation hearing Wednesday [2/3/2021] of the Senate committee that oversees education, the Kentucky senator asked Miguel Cardona if he thinks it is "fair" to allow boys claiming to be transgender to participate in girls' sports, and about how it affects girls competing in these athletic events.  "I think it is appropriate," Cardona replied.  "It is the legal responsibility of schools to provide opportunities for students to participate in activities and this includes students who are transgender."

Be a tribe of one.  Suppose you're a die-hard Democrat.  What do you do about such issues as:  Transgenderism in women's sports.  Do you side with persons having male chromosomes but identify as women when they want to compete in sports against women, simply because such persons are overwhelmingly Democrats?  Or do you side with genetic women — who are also predominately Democrats — who are concerned that subjecting genetic women to competition from persons who've spent most of their lives developing height, girth and muscle mass as a man with male chromosomes and testosterone levels will destroy women's sports?

Retired NFL Player Calls For Separate Transgender Category Of Sports After Biden Executive Order.  Retired NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley suggested a separate category for transgender athletes after President Joe Biden recently issued an executive order allowing males who identify as female to participate in women's sports. [...] Biden's executive order mandates that any school that receives federal funding must allow males who identify as females to play on girls' sports teams or face repercussions from the Department of Education.

So much for Joe Biden, moderate.  [For example,] allowing men in women's sports.  My guess is that Biden's day-one executive order that vastly expands the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision will come back to haunt both him and Democratic political candidates.  The order's language with respect to public schools says, "All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation."  Schools will likely interpret that as saying boys who simply identify as girls must be allowed to compete in girls' sports.  Ironically, the Supreme Court's 6-3 Bostock decision specifically excluded the Biden approach.  Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority, "we do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind." — which is exactly what Biden's order does.  Given the undeniable additional strength, speed, size and stamina of most male athletes when compared to their female counterparts, it means that male athletes who identify as females will dominate their respective sport.  There are perks to being the top athletes in a class, including college scholarships and high-paying professional opportunities.

Kamala Harris undermines her historic vice presidency by supporting policies ruinous to women.  Kamala Harris made history when she became our country's first female vice president.  While electing the first woman to a nationwide office serves as an important milestone, Harris's policy positions themselves provide little comfort to women.  On numerous issues, Harris will undermine, rather than advance, causes that are important to women.  Take, for instance, Harris's support for the Equality Act.  This legislation, which adds gender identity and sexual orientation as protected categories to the Civil Rights Act, would be bad for those born biologically female.  If enacted, the Equality Act would functionally give individuals born biologically male federal approval to enter sporting competitions previously reserved for those born biologically female.  It could also subject parents who prohibit their underage children from undergoing gender transition procedures to potential civil rights enforcement actions.

On Day One, Biden Destroys Women's Sports With Anti-Science Executive Order.  President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office, mandating that any schools that receive federal funding must function as if biological males who claim to be females are the same, and vice versa, or risk losing that funding.  This pro-transgender policy extends to male athletes who claim their gender identity as a female should allow them to compete on women's teams, receive women's scholarships, and be admitted in women's locker rooms.  "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports," the executive order reads, promising that the Biden administration is committed to "prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation."

Activists: Biden's Embrace of Transgender Athletes [is] a Blow to Women's Rights.  President-Elect Joe Biden's promise to embrace transgender ideology will likely include supporting biological men who say their gender identity is female to compete in sports against biological women.  Attorneys representing transgender athletes and women athletes expect Biden's Department of Education to reverse course in two lawsuits in Idaho and Connecticut that the Trump administration had backed to protect women's rights.

Equality Laws Should Protect Biological Women, Not Those Claiming to Be.  Title IX is landmark legislation that was passed to ensure that women would have the same opportunities as their male counterparts in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.  While Title IX did not explicitly mention athletics, it's come to be known for its impact on women and their participation in collegiate sports.  Fast forward a few decades.  Whereas it was clear that Title IX would apply to women, it has become increasingly difficult to define what, exactly, qualifies as a "woman" or more specifically, a female.  That is because the trans rights movement has made biological certainty less important than "identification."  Now we have biological men identifying as women, even though they were born with male genitalia, and may in fact still have that genitalia.  We have individuals who have all of the biological attributes of males, including their strength and innate athletic abilities, who present themselves as females.

Keeping Male Bodies Out of Women's Rugby.  From November 2015 until February 2020, World Rugby, rugby's global governing body, incorporated guidelines established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on transgender participation in sports.  According to these rules, males who wish to self-identify into women's rugby could do so if they committed to reducing their testosterone levels to 10 nmol per liter or lower for at least 12 months.  (The average level for men is about seven times that level.)  During this period, instances of biological males playing in the women's game increased, and some participants began to express alarm.  One rugby referee posted on the website Fair Play for Women, for instance, that "being forced to prioritize hurt feelings over broken bones exposes me to personal litigation from female players who have been harmed by players who are biologically male.  This is driving female players and referees out of the game."

New Bill Would Ban Biological Males From Women's Sports.  There is a reason why, even when discrimination based on sex is outlawed, we still allow separate sports teams (not to mention separate bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers) for males and females.  That reason has nothing to do with their psychological "gender identity."  Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that males and females have different anatomies from birth, with those differences accentuated after puberty.  The average man is larger, stronger, and faster than the average woman, so women would simply have no chance of reaching elite levels of competition if forced to compete against men.  Female high school track athletes in one state alone (Connecticut) have lost 15 medals to biological males in state competition in the last two years — reducing their chances for college athletic scholarships in the process.

Judge Blocks Idaho Law That Prevents Transgender Women From Participating In Female Athletics.  U.S. District Judge David Nye of Idaho ordered a preliminary injunction on Monday temporarily halting a state law that prohibits transgender girls and women from competing in female athletics, The Idaho Statesman reported.  Nye's ruling will allow transgender girls and women to participate in women's sports this upcoming fall at colleges and in secondary schools as the lawsuit proceeds, the Statesman reported.

High School Runner Who Lost to Transgender Athletes Will Compete in College.  By now, millions know the story of Selina Soule, the high school track star from Connecticut who missed qualifying for the New England track and field regionals by two spots in her top event.  Those two spots were taken by biological boys who identify as girls.  Soule, who is wise beyond her years, was well aware that she could face consequences for speaking out about being forced to compete against biological males.  But she recognized a greater need.  Little did Soule know that she would do more than speak out.  She became one of the most well-known faces of the movement to protect women's sports from being erased.

Ted Cruz:  Biological Males Should Not Be Allowed to Compete in Girls' Sports.  When asked whether biological males who identify as females should be allowed to play girls' sports, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, "no," and explained that it would undermine girls' sports and be unfair to be millions of female athletes.  At the Capitol on Wednesday [6/24/2020], CNS News asked Senator Cruz, "When the House Judiciary Committee considered the Equality Act it rejected an amendment that said the act would not require biological females to face biological males in sports competition.  Should biological males who say they identify as females be allowed to play girls' sports?"  "No.  I think it is unfair to girls to force them to compete against biological males," the senator said.  "And we're seeing a serious undermining of girls' sports — as state championships, state records in locations across the country, one after the other, after the other, are falling and being taken by biological males.  And I think that's unfair to millions of female athletes."

Congressional Dems Sign Letter Demanding Education Dept.  Allow Males in Girls Sports.  A group of congressional Democrats signed a letter on Wednesday demanding that the Department of Education allow males to participate in girls sports.  Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and 27 other Democratic members of Congress signed the letter, which stated that the department's order "discriminates against transgender youth" by ruling that it is a violation of women's access to education and athletics for public schools to allow biological males who identify as female to participate in female sports.

I'm a female student athlete.  Please protect women's sports from transgender athletes.  A female athlete at Idaho State University who is seeking to defend Idaho's new Fairness in Women's Sports Act has shared her story in the pages of the Idaho Statesman.  The law bars biological boys from participating in girls' sports and it faces a challenge from the ACLU.

Connecticut transgender sports policy discriminated against biological girls, feds conclude.  The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has determined Connecticut schools' transgender athletics policy improperly discriminated against biological girls.  The finding was contained in a Letter of Impending Enforcement Action dated May 15 that concluded biological females were negatively impacted because the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and public schools allowed biological males to compete against them.  "For the aforementioned reasons, OCR also determined that the CIAC, Glastonbury, Bloomfield, Hartford, Cromwell, Canton, and Danbury treated student-athletes differently based on sex, by denying benefits and opportunities to female students that were available to male students," the letter states.

Idaho Bars Biologically Male Athletes From Competing in All-Female Sports.  Idaho governor Brad Little (R.) on Monday [3/30/2020] signed the Fairness in Women's Sports Act to prohibit biologically male students from participating in all-female sports.  "Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex," the bill states.  The law cites differences in male and female physiology that results in distinct athletic capabilities.  "Under this bill, boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it is not fair," state representative Barbara Ehardt told Reuters.

Trump DOJ defends female athletes.  The Justice Department has filed a statement of interest in a case challenging a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) policy that enables biological males to compete against biological females. [...] From a legal standpoint, it's important to note that Title IX of the Civil Righs Act and its implementing regulations prohibit discrimination "on the basis of sex," not on the basis of transgender status.  Therefore, the law neither requires nor authorizes CIAC's transgender policy.  Moreover, as the Attorney General explained, one of Title IX's core purposes is to ensure that women have an "equal athletic opportunity" to participate in school athletic programs.  This purpose is fulfilled by the establishment of separate athletic teams for men and women and by ensuring that those teams are on equal footing.

Transgender sports:  Trump's Justice Department weighs in on the side of science.  Title IX says that, in the education setting, people cannot be discriminated against based on their sex.  Congress passed Title IX in 1972, at a time when people had the old-fashioned idea that there were two sexes, one with XX chromosomes and the other with XY chromosomes.  Fast-forward almost fifty years, and you have Connecticut government entities insisting that if a boy claims to be a girl (and there's no requirement that he actually believes this false notion), schools must allow him to compete in girls' sports events.  That's how these two boys ran away with the Connecticut High School track championships and, in all probability, with the college scholarships that could go with them.

Ohio Joins Fight To Keep Boys Out Of Girls' Sports.  The battle lines are still being drawn in the effort to save women's and girls' competitive sports in the United States and the fight has now moved on to Ohio.  In the Buckeye State, legislators have introduced a new bill with the appropriate name of the Save Womens' Sports Act.  Much like similar legislation being debated around the country, this measure would bar boys who "identify" as girls from competing in girls' sports for all of the usual and obvious reasons.  This measure would apply to all public schools and colleges, as well as private schools and colleges that are members of a state or national athletic association.  As I'm sure you've already guessed, the proposal is drawing howls of protests from the usual suspects.

Arizona House passes ban on transgender females in women's sports.  Arizona House Republicans passed a controversial bill that would ban biological males who identify as transgender females from participating in women's sports.  Supporters say the "Save Women's Sports Act" is intended to prevent young girls and women in K-12 schools, community colleges, and state universities from being forced to compete against biological males, but opponents argue it allows for discrimination.  House Bill 2706 passed along party lines 31-29 and is headed to the state Senate, FOX 10 reports.  The bill is strongly opposed by Democrats.

Feminists Created the Monster Now Devouring Women's Sports.  [Scroll down]  They ought to point the finger at Equality Dogma, at whose altar moderns worship and which has been preached, incessantly, to advance an agenda.  The idea was that if you could convince people the sexes were basically equal in worldly capacities, no one would think there was any reason to keep women out of what traditionally had been male realms.  Voila!  Goodbye, discrimination!  This was convenient when girls/women wanted to join police forces and fire departments, enter military academies such as the Citadel or Virginia Military Institute, join boys' sports teams and Little League, and previously all-male clubs.  It's not so convenient now that the thinking is being taken closer to its logical conclusion.  But the point is this:  If because the sexes "are basically equal in capacities" there's no reason to keep women out of men's arenas, there's also no reason to keep men out of women's arenas.  In fact, not only is this turnabout an imperative of equality, there isn't even a good reason to have separate, sex-specific arenas in the first place.

Should Transgender Athletes Compete Against Women?  On February 12, three female high school students in Connecticut filed a federal lawsuit against the participation of transgender athletes (with male anatomy) in female track and field events.  The three students, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, have a fairly simple and straightforward argument:  They claim allowing biologically male students to compete against biologically female students is unfair and runs afoul (no pun intended) of their basic civil rights.  They also argue, quite convincingly, that allowing biologically male students to compete against them has undermined their ability to win races as well as opportunities for scholarships.  Alanna Smith, who is a sophomore at Danbury High School, described her frustration running against males who identify as women, "Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts."

Summertime Blues for the Olympics.  Although we are currently in the dead of winter, summer will be here before we know it.  Democrats may be singing the Summertime Blues along with Eddie Cochran, "I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler" when they are forced to nominate a socialist to represent their party in the upcoming presidential election.  Or alternatively alienate half of their base.  There will also be a bit of fussing and hollering over the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.  Assuming the coronavirus outbreak doesn't turn into a science fiction movie leading to a near extinction event, gender politics and intersectionality are likely to provide a healthy dose of dyspepsia for Olympic committees and organizers.  As a preview of coming summertime gender wars, a biological male was invited to the US Olympic track and field trials to compete against American women.

Biologically Male Runner To Compete In USA Women's Olympic Trials.  A biologically male marathon runner who identifies as a transgender woman is set to compete in the USA Olympic trials later in February.  Megan Youngren "is set to make history on Feb. 29 as the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials," Sports Illustrated reported.  Youngren qualified for the trials after a strong performance on Dec. 8, 2019 in the California International Marathon. [...] The International Olympic Committee requires transgender athletes in women's sports to keep their testosterone levels below a certain threshold, but scientific research suggests that suppressing testosterone isn't enough to neutralize biologically male athletes' inherent physiological advantages.

Three female students file lawsuit against Connecticut transgender-athlete policy.  Three female high school athletes filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging Connecticut's prep sports rules that allow biological males to compete against girls, arguing that the policy robs them of competition and scholarship opportunities.  The lawsuit argued that teen track athletes Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell and Alanna Smith have been deprived of "honors and opportunities" after losing track-and-field races to biological males who identify as females, thanks to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference's policy allowing students to compete based on their gender identity.

Families Unite to Prevent Transgender Athletes From Competing in Girl's Sports.  When men compete against women in sports, men compete with an advantage over their female opponents.  Denser bone and muscle structure, more lung capacity for extra oxygen, and more lend to a physical advantage that usually makes it easy for a man to come out on top.  This is why transgender athletes, specifically biological men competing as women, tend to easily win competitions meant for women.  It's unfair, and three families are doing something about it.  According to ABC News, these three families from different high schools are coming together to file a federal lawsuit that would block transgender athletes from competing in competitions not meant for them.

NH bill limits women's sports to girls born female.  Legislation to prevent students born male from competing on female sports teams drew passionate testimony Tuesday, with supporters defending it as a way to ensure fairness and opponents decrying it as a violation of state anti-discrimination law.  Victoria Galla of Chesterfield told the House Education Committee she moved from Massachusetts and New York City to get away from the gender-identity politics she believes are destroying the lives of confused young people.

Georgia Introduces Bill to Make Transgender Students Compete as Assigned Birth Gender.  The Georgia legislature is set to debate a bill that would require students to compete in the category of their birth gender.  The bill was filed by Philip Singleton, a recently elected Republican State Representative from Sharpsburg, Georgia.  Singleton said that his bill aimed to eliminate the "unfair advantage" transgender athletes might have, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Male Transjacking Will Ultimately End Women's Sports.  This Friday, the top four NCAA Division III women's soccer teams face off in the national semifinals.  One of the final four teams' goalkeepers, Isa Berardo, is a male transgender playing as a female for Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.  Not surprisingly, the male goalie has dominated the field against opposing female players, giving his own a chance to win the national championship thanks to his physical advantages in a key position.  This is increasingly happening throughout women's sports, at all levels from elementary school through professional competitions.  It's creating not equality, but inequality.

Transgenderism and the Olympics.  Next year's Tokyo Summer Olympics may spell the swift death of the transgender movement as a dominant politically-correct touchstone.  Biological men, self-identifying as women, are poised to make a clean sweep of the Women's Olympics, triggering a very public debate on this third-rail subject.

Rachel McKinnon Is a Cheat and a Bully.  Rachel McKinnon — the so-called defending "world champion" of women's track cycling — is a man.  I'll repeat that so my meaning cannot be misconstrued.  He is a man.  Maybe my kind-hearted reader is offended by this blunt phrasing.  Why am I calling McKinnon a man — when, perhaps for complicated reasons, he would rather be called a woman?  Why don't I compromise and call him a "trans woman," as others do?  Or be polite and address him by "she/her" pronouns, like everyone else in the media?  Well, I'll tell you why, since you asked.  This is precisely the well-meant, tragically naïve logic that has enabled a structure of lies and tyranny to be erected around us, a structure that most cannot opt out of without incurring an enormous social cost.  It is a structure in which cheating and viciousness are rewarded while civility and truth-telling are punished.

Male Runner Wins NCAA Conference's 'Female Athlete of the Week'.  Earlier this week, the Big Sky Conference named a male runner as the female cross-country athlete of the week.  Jonathan Eastwood (yes, I'm deadnaming, sue me) previously competed on the men's team but joined the women's cross-country team at the University of Montana this fall.  By joining the women's team and competing under the name June Eastwood, he became the first "transgender" athlete to compete on an NCAA Division I women's running team — which is likely the only reason he was given the honor.

Biologically Male NCAA Runner Named Conference Female Athlete Of The Week.  The Big Sky Conference named University of Montana runner June Eastwood, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, the cross-country female athlete of the week.  "June Eastwood finished second in a field of 204 runners at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational," helping "Montana place seventh as a team," the conference noted in its announcement Tuesday.  Eastwood previously competed on the University of Montana's men's team.

Transgender Woman Wins 'Female Athlete of the Week' in NCAA Conference.  The Big Sky Conference named University of Montana runner June Eastwood, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, the cross-country female athlete of the week.  "June Eastwood finished second in a field of 204 runners at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational," helping "Montana place seventh as a team," the conference noted in its announcement on Tuesday.  Eastwood previously competed on the University of Montana's men's team.

Feminist Democrat:  Media Won't Let Us Speak Out Against Transgender Agenda.  In an interview on his Fox News show Wednesday night [10/23/2019], host Tucker Carlson spoke with Women's Liberation Front board member Kara Dansky — a self-described "lifelong" Democrat — about the controversy swirling around the latest championship won by a biological male in a women's sports competition.  In response to Carlson's questions about transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon — a biological male who just set a world record in a women's track cycling championship — Dansky said that many on the Left strongly oppose the transgender agenda but are "subjected to a media blackout."

Transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon dominates as competitors raise questions.  Transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon keeps dominating women's cycling.  And she keeps creating controversy all the way.  Last weekend at the Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, England, the 37-year-old Canadian first set a world record in qualifying for the 35-39 age category 200-meter sprint, then went on to defend her title in the finals.

Transgender Cyclist Wins Female Cycling World Championship, Claims Only Objections Come from 'Losers'.  Cyclist Rachel McKinnon, a biological male who presents as a woman, won the women's world championship on Saturday, and set a women's world record in the qualifying event.  McKinnon, a Canadian philosophy professor at the College of Charleston, won the same event in 2018.  In a Friday [10/18/2019] interview with Sky News, McKinnon said that attempts to level the playing field for women's sports by discriminating against transgender athletes was the equivalent of "denying their human rights."  "All my medical records say female," McKinnon said.  "My doctor treats me as a female person, my racing license says female, but people who oppose my existence still want to think of me as male...["]

Democrats Are Making Girls' Sports A 2020 Campaign Issue.  Establishment Media Aren't Telling You.  Democrats have made girls' sports a 2020 campaign issue, but establishment media outlets are keeping their viewers and readers in the dark.  Every Democratic frontrunner has pledged their support of the Equality Act, which would make "gender identity" a protected characteristic under federal anti-discrimination law.  Among other things, the bill would force public schools to expand female athletic teams to include biological males who identify as transgender girls.  Every Democratic frontrunner for president has pledged their support for the bill, which passed the House in May with unanimous Democratic support.  But when establishment media outlets have covered the Equality Act in relation to the 2020 election, the girls' sports issue has gone missing.

Poll: 'Transgender' Men Ads Lead to 8-Point Voter Swing to Republican Matt Bevin from Democrat Andy Beshear.  A conservative group notes polling data shows an eight-point swing in voters' shift to incumbent GOP Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin from Democrat candidate Andy Beshear after they view ads highlighting Beshear's support of biological men competing in women's sports.

Transgender athletes deserve compassion, but not the right to transform women's sports.  Since the advent of Title IX — a federal law that expanded athletic and educational opportunities for women — millions of girls and women have benefited from their own teams and chances for growth.  But these opportunities risk being redefined and obliterated, because of a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will be argued this October.  The case centers on the question of whether the meaning of the word "sex" in employment law (Title VII) also covers gender identity.  While its outcome obviously matters for the people immediately involved, the Supreme Court's ruling on the meaning of the word "sex" has direct and profound implications for other parts of federal law.  It matters for the millions of girls and women affected by analogous laws such as those that ensure equal opportunities for education and athletic opportunities "on the basis of sex."

Dems' Transgender, Sexual Assault Policies Wage War On Both Sexes.  A new ad supporting Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who is in a tight race with his Democratic opponent Andy Beshear, shows female track athletes being left in the dust by a male competitor who identifies as female.  The looks on the faces of the girls watching the male athlete celebrating are unforgettable.  "Andy Beshear supports legislation that would destroy girls' sports.  He calls it 'equality.'  Maybe.  But is it fair?" asks the ad's female narrator.

Liberals Embrace Anti-Feminism in Transgender Sports Debate.  Anti-feminists continue their unapologetic efforts to destroy women's sports at all levels.  Not satisfied to just ruin high school girls' athletics, they are setting their sights higher.  This week's headline indicated that Juniper Eastwood, a University of Montana cross-country runner, will become the first transgender (i.e. biological male) athlete to compete as a female in division I cross country.  Anyone want to bet against him completely dominating his sport?

Is It Trans Discrimination or Legitimate Concern for Women?  The landscape of women's sports has changed drastically in the last few years.  Natural-born males who now identify as women can compete athletically against natural-born women simply by stating they identify as a woman.  This includes quite masculine males who have long since passed the age of puberty before their purported "transition."  What has been buried under the identity politics cacophony are facts of biology, and the indisputable differences between the two sexes.  Those who have spoken out against the sudden turn of events say they are being censored; some professionals have been fired for not following the trans activist narrative that prevails in public discourse.

This Is What LGBTQ Organizations Are Doing to Society.  Last month, a transgender weightlifter won multiple gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.  Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand won two gold medals and a silver in the three heavyweight categories for women weighing more than 87 kilograms, or 192 pounds.  Hubbard is physically male.  Last year, two biologically male sophomores at different Connecticut high schools competed in the female division of the state open track and field competition.  They came in first and second place in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.  Because the Western world cowers before LGBTQ demands, no matter how unfair they are to women athletes, men who deem themselves female must be allowed to compete against women.  They almost always win.

Feds Investigating Violation Of Girls' Civil Rights In CT After Trans Athletes Smoke Competition.  The U.S. Department of Education Office has agreed to investigate a violation of girls' civil rights in Connecticut following a complaint filed in Boston concerning two biologically male transgender teens triumphing over biologically female competitors in high school track.

Democrats Denied Transgender Athletes Have Advantages In Women's Sports.  Science Says They're Wrong.  Suppressing testosterone levels in male athletes isn't enough to eliminate their natural advantages over female athletes, according to a recently published paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics.  The paper's findings contradict congressional Democrats' claim that male athletes who identify as transgender don't have an inherent advantage over their female competitors.  The paper, "Transwomen in elite sport: scientific and ethical considerations," concluded that male athletes who identify as transgender women have an "intolerable" advantage over their female competitors.

Democrats, Transsexuals, and Women's Sports.  The gradual subversion of women's sports by the LGBTQ movement could receive a steroidal-like boost with a victory by Democrats in the 2020 elections.  All Democratic presidential candidates have pledged their support for the Equality Act, which declares one's sex to be whatever he or she self-identifies as, regardless of the "designated sex at birth."  House Democrats voted overwhelmingly in May to approve the measure.  Joe Biden says getting the act passed would be his top legislative priority.  Critics say it could devastate girl's and women's sports.  It comes down to a numbers game.  Transgenders are just now coming out, much as gays came out 40 years ago.

Transgender weightlifter wins two gold medals in women's competition.  The transgender conquest of women's sports continued over the weekend as a New Zealand weightlifter took home multiple gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.  Laurel Hubbard won two gold medals and a silver in the three heavyweight categories, for women weighing more than 87 kilograms, or 192 pounds, finishing first in the snatch-lift and combined categories and second in the clean-and-jerk.  The 41-year-old weightlifter was born as Gavin Hubbard and reportedly transitioned while in the mid-30s.

Sorry, Ladies:  It's Just Biology, Psychology, and Economics.  The "inequality" that exists in women's sports is nothing new, and in spite of what many on the left would have us believe, it involves nothing nefarious.  The fact that consumers overwhelmingly prefer men's sports to women's sports is merely a matter of biology and psychology and not due to some mythical misogynistic plot.  The facts and the data clearly bear this out. [...] Unless the Left continues down this road, where gender-deluded (or financially savvy?) men are allowed to compete as women, there will never be "equal pay" or "gender equality" when it comes to athletics, because human sexes are not — and will never be — equal.

Female athlete alleges retaliation by coach because her mother complained about transgender policy.  Boys are competing in girls' track and field events in Connecticut, at the direction of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, so that transgender students don't feel invalidated.  They are often winning, and the girls are afraid to publicly object for fear of "retaliation," according to Selina Soule, one of the female competitors.  That's why Soule and two of her unnamed female peers are asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate CIAC for Title IX violations.

Understanding Leftists in Three Easy Steps.  America is fighting a culture war and the Progressive Left is the aggressor.  The latest front was opened on June 21 when the House of Representatives passed the so-called "Equality Act," which would allow boys who self-identify as girls to compete in school sports as girls.  Conservatives point to the Democrats' embrace of transgender ideology as further evidence the party has gone off the rails, but typically left unexplained is how and why Leftists get to the positions they hold.  Here is an attempt to do that.

Hey, 'Trans' Men in Women's Sports:  Good Luck, Fellas — Go for the Gold!.  "Equality" cries were cherished by feminists when they gave females entry into military academies, boardrooms and the ranks of police; prize-money parity in some sporting events; and access to boys' athletics.  But with these appeals now putting sexually confused men in women's sports, well, feminists' cries are a tad different.  Equality can be a real downer when it's principle and not ploy.

Survey: 1 in 4 okay with trans athletes competing in women's sports.  The survey, conducted by ScottRasmussen.com, was conducted in mid-April 2019 — and according to the findings, less than a quarter of respondents (23%) believe men should be able to compete in women's competitive sports events.  But Steve McConkey, president of 4 WINDS Christian Athletics, is concerned that individuals under 35 are evenly divided on the question (41% yes, 44% no).  "[The poll] showed that the younger generations ... are not opposed to transgenders in sports — [whereas] the older adults ... are more situated in their belief, thinking there are two sexes," he summarizes.

High School Track Star Who Lost Race to Transgender Athletes Explains Why She's Fighting Back.  The female high school athlete who was forced to sit on the sidelines at a major track tournament because two transgender runners landed the No. 1 and No. 2 spots isn't just speaking out about the unfairness of her situation — she's fighting back.  Hours after filing a complaint with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Selina Soule and her attorney, Christiana Holcomb of Alliance Defending Freedom, sat down with Kelsey Bolar on this week's edition of "Problematic Women" to discuss the latest developments in her case.

Transgender Policy Forces Catholic Girls School Out Of Athletic Conference.  ConservativeHQ.com has obtained exclusive information that Oakcrest School, an independent Catholic school for girls in grades 6-12, has withdrawn from the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) due to the athletic conference's decision to allow boys who "identify" as girls to compete in the conference's girls athletic programs.  According to information shared exclusively with CHQ, back in March the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) voted to amend its constitution to allow students to participate in athletics in a manner that is "consistent with their gender identity."

High School Girl Who Lost Race to Transgender Athletes Files Federal Complaint.  A female high school athlete who didn't qualify for a track event because two boys who identify as girls ran faster filed a complaint Monday with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.  "No one in the state of Connecticut is happy about this, but no one has enough courage to speak up," Selina Soule said during an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired Monday night [6/17/2019] on his Fox News Channel show.

Girls file federal discrimination complaint after transgender track wins.  Three Connecticut girls who have run high school track have filed a federal discrimination complaint saying a statewide policy on transgender athletes has cost them top finishes in races and possibly college scholarships.

Female Track Runner Sidelined By Male Competitors Petitions The Department Of Education For Justice.  It's striking how quickly the culture can change.  Just a short time ago, surely few would've believed that a common viewpoint — that it would be unfair to let guys take away athletic victories from girls by allowing them to compete in women's sports — would be labeled the result of an irrational fear.  Yet here we are:  What was considered common sense and common goodness is now a symptom of mental illness.  "Transphobia" has gotten so much traction, in fact, that Brazil just criminalized it — it's punishable by a half decade in prison.

Run-of-the-mill as a man, champion as a 'woman'.  Last year, Craig Telfer (pictured, center) was a solid but not dominating athlete competing in men's track and field at Franklin Pierce University.  But this year, Telfer — now identifying as a woman — competed in women's events, setting numerous school and conference records, and ended up qualifying for the Division II NCAA championships in two events: 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles.  Steve McConkey of 4 WINDS Christian Athletics says that's unfair because "the physical characteristics of this athlete ... are far superior than women — the length of the joints, the top parts of the leg are far superior than women for hurdling, [the event] in which this person was successful in doing."  McConkey is opposed to this trend, claiming it will ruin women's sports.  However, he says that some notable female athletes are beginning to speak out.

Finally! A poll on transgender athletes competing as women.  The concerted push for the public to accept the notion that men can become women by an act of will, perhaps with the aid of hormones and surgery, has always struck me as a measure intended to ratify mind control by means of institutional pressure and ostracism of non-compliant people.  The fact that transgenderism is blatant scientific nonsense makes the exercise all the more important.  A subject population that can be made to assent to such nonsense will accept totalitarianism as it creeps up.  That's why until now I have not been able to find any poll asking the public what it thinks.  The danger in mass mind control exercises is that people will recognize they are not alone in [questioning] what the media, the deep thinkers, and the activists tell them.  But, as I expected, it turns out that a majority of the public isn't buying the party line that the media, the education establishment, Hollywood, and the entire arts and culture establishment fanatically push.

Transgender hurdler easily wins NCAA women's national championship.  A hurdler who competed as a man last year won an NCAA championship in women's hurdles over the weekend.  CeCe Telfer of Franklin Pierce University easily won the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II outdoor track-and-field championships Saturday, winning the final race by more than a second.  Telfer also finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles, earning All-America honors.

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them
  than to have them and not deserve them."

— Mark Twain         

Transgender Woman, Who Remains A Biological Male, Wins NCAA Women's Track Championship.  A biological male won the first Women's Track and Field NCAA title, even though she was previously competing as a man named Craig as recently as 2018. CeCe Telfer, a transgender woman from New Hampshire attending Franklin Pierce University, won the first ever NCAA title for the sport, and also made history as the first biologically male competing on a woman's team to do so.

The Editor says...
EVERY "transgender woman" remains a biological male.  You can make drastic surgical alterations to your body, but you cannot change your chromosomes.

Liberals Are At War With Science In The Transgender Athlete Controversy.  [Scroll down]  Nowhere is this disconnect between science and modern liberal ideology (and its harm to those the party claims to champion) so evident as in the dispute over transgender athletes who demand to compete in women's sports.  On one side of the debate you have people like Jaycee Cooper, a transgender woman who is in a dispute with USA Powerlifting because the federation doesn't allow biological men to compete with women.  USA Powerlifting says Cooper has an unfair advantage over them as a biological male, but Cooper says it's discriminatory to ban transgender people from competing with the sex they identify with.  "I really do love this sport, and it's not fair to genetically eliminate an entire group of people," Cooper told NBC News.  The federation rules do allow transgender athletes to compete freely in competition with people of their biological sex, with the exception of biological women who use testosterone.  But more importantly, Cooper's discrimination argument disregards the fact that women's sports are designed to exclude an entire group of people — men — from the competition in order to level the playing field.

Trans Powerlifter Stripped Of Titles In Women's Championships.  This is the latest in our apparently endless series of stories covering the destruction of competitive women's sports by the introduction of "transgender women" into the events.  This time we're back to the sport of weightlifting.  A transgender powerlifter named Mary Gregory recently "dominated" the field at a Powerlifting Federation competition last month, smashing four world records for that weight class in the process.  This had the actual women competing in the event understandably upset and protests were lodged.  But after an investigation was conducted, the federation chairman posted an announcement saying that the record lifts were being taken off the books.

Sports League Rejects Transgender Athlete's Claim to Female Weightlifting Records.  A weightlifting league has revoked awards to a transgender weightlifter who claimed to have broken several women's weightlifting records.  "Our rules, and the basis of separating genders for competition, are based on physiological classification rather thana identification," said a statement from Paul Bossi, president of 100% RAW Powerlifting Federation.

8th Place:  A High School Girl's Life After Transgender Students Join Her Sport.  When two high school athletes who were born male but identify as female took first and second place at Connecticut's girls indoor track championship this year, it wasn't just a local news story.  To some, it was a story of triumph and courage.  The winner, a junior from Bloomfield High School, set a girls state indoor record of 6.95 seconds in the 55-meter dash, and went on to win the New England titles in both the 55-meter dash and the 300-meter dash.  To others, it was a story of shock and disappointment:  Is this the end of women's sports?

Girls and Women Deserve Single-Sex Sports.  Our culture is so steeped in the idea of equality (in most ways, a very good and noble commitment) that we lose sight of obvious but important facts that we must acknowledge if we are to create a truly level playing field and make functioning equality possible.  Take sports.  Today, most people recognize that participating in athletics is associated with positive benefits for both males and females.  It's just as important to encourage our daughters to join a team as it is to encourage our sons.  Individuals of both sexes have the capacity to be great athletes.

Man Competes In Women's Powerlifting, Sets Four World Records.  Do people no longer realize the extreme difference between XX and XY muscle?  Reality keeps rearing its ugly head in sports, as a liberal position eliminates women from competition like Dolly Parton crashing a Men's Largest Chest championship.  Case in point:  Mary Gregory.  On Sunday [4/28/2019], Mary — who's a man — shattered four women's division powerlifting world records.  Due to his dominance in girls' deadlift, squat, and bench press, he set a Masters total record.

Transgender Athletes Dominate at Connecticut Girls' Track State Meet.  According to FairPlayForWomen.com, a nonpartisan grassroots campaign based in the UK dedicated to fighting for the sex-base rights of women and girls, there are a number of skeletal and muscular differences between men and women.  Women are, on average, 9 percent shorter than men, and have shorter and weaker bones.  Women also have shorter arms and legs relative to body size — one can easily see where longer legs might benefit males in track sports.  As for muscles, women "are around 30-35% muscle by weight, while men are 40-50% muscle."  Women's ligaments are also thinner and softer than men's.  The impact these biological differences have when it comes to competitive sports is undeniable — and there are victims whose concerns are not being heard.

Every House Democrat But One: 234 Elected Officials Demand The Extermination Of Women's Sports.  Sarah Warbelow of the left-wing Human Rights Campaign testified before a House subcommittee Tuesday [4/9/2019] that the notion of men having an athletic advantage over women is not "rooted in fact."  Here's a secret:  The very much "rooted in fact" fact that men have an advantage is the very reason there's such a thing as women's sports in the first place.  If there's no advantage, then just eliminate women's sports.  Which, effectively, they're doing.

All but one Democrat in the House co-sponsors a bill to allow males to compete on female athletic teams.  It may be counterintuitive to rationally examine an irrational proposal, but it's the only way to defeat it.  Not all male athletes will be able to beat all female athletes.  This is especially true at the highest levels of competition.  But it is also true that the best male athletes will defeat the best female athletes every time.  And in some sports — field events in track — even average male athletes will have a competitive advantage over females.  This hardly matters to female athletes who train for years, bringing their bodies to peak conditioning, only to find that their best wasn't good enough because a biological male who might be an average or above average male athlete was allowed to compete against her.

Former Olympic medalist:  Female athletes afraid to speak out about males competing as women.  British former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies said Monday that she knows of "quite a lot" of female athletes who are afraid to publicly share their concerns about biological males who identify as transgender women competing in women's sports.  Davies told Sky News that she's had "many" conversations with female athletes who are afraid to speak out, especially "people who are competing at the moment."  "They're worried that their governing bodies will frown on it, they're worried that their sponsors will think it's not PC and that they're not allowed to do this," said Davies, who won a silver medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

First They Came for the Catholics, Then for the Christians, and Then for the High School Kids.  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, in Colorado, they now have disqualied Brendan Johnston from the state's high-school wrestling championships.  Johnston is a Christian teen boy who politely, as a matter of religious principle and personal conscience, refused to wrestle a girl.  As he explained, "There is something that I really do find problematic about the idea of wrestling with a girl, and a part of that does come from my faith and my belief.  And a part of that does come from how I was raised to treat women.  I don't think that I am looking at them as not equal.  I am saying that they are women, and that is dierent than being men, because I do believe that men and women are different, and we are made differently.  But I still believe that women are of equal value to men.  I don't think that seeing men and women as different... [opposes] the idea of equality."

Girls' sports being decimated by biological males claiming to be females.  There are only two genders in this world of ours, male and female, and it doesn't matter how someone "identifies," that biological fact is established and unalterable. [...] With that being said, the Left is nevertheless hard at work trying to convince us that gender is a 'fluid' thing and in some cases, an outright choice, so old societal constructs like "male" and "female" sports are no longer necessary or relevant.  That's why they go along with allowing biological males to participate in (and dominate) all-female events simply because they 'identify' as a girl, claiming — remarkably and unbelievably — that there are no physical differences between the sexes.

If You're A Biological Man Competing In A Women's Sport, You're A Cheater.  It's one thing to have someone shout that they are female when they're really male.  If they just kept it to that, then that's not something I particularly care about.  You do you, just don't force everyone else to pretend along with you and we're good.  However, it's another to not only force everyone else to agree with you but then applaud you as you put women down.  That's exactly what's going on in the sports community, as headline after headline comes out detailing victories by transgendered "women" in women's sports as highlighted by my colleague Elizabeth Vaughn on Tuesday [2/26/2019].  These are only being celebrated today as triumphs because the current trend says people not only should cheer it on, but they have to.  Any talk to the contrary evokes the wrath of the mob, and God have mercy on your soul if you become their target.

The Testosterone-Fueled He-Men of Women's Sports.  Female sprinters (good ones) tend to have broader shoulders and narrower hips, but still cannot match the anatomical advantages that a biological male does.  In addition, all females, even masculine ones, have a wider Q-angle.  That's the hip to knee ratio.  And here, that difference is again obvious.  Finally, look at the muscle density.  The biological girls could work out their whole lives and not build that muscle naturally.

Boys Will Be Boys, Except When They Are Girls.  In the recent Connecticut girls' state indoor track championships, two men calling themselves women finished first and second place in the 55-meter sprint, one of them setting a state record.  Connecticut is one of 17 states allowing high school athletes to compete without restriction with members of the opposite sex.  States, in an effort to be diverse, tolerant, and woke, have passed anti-discrimination laws requiring students who so desire to be treated in school as members of the opposite sex.  Interestingly, the sporting competitions are binary:  male or female.  If these school administrators were true to their intentions, they would have separate sporting events for each of the 60 genders in order to make things fair.

Trump-Hating Lesbian Tennis Champ Destroyed for Saying Men and Women Are Different.  Navratilova defected from communist Czechoslovakia in 1975 and became a U.S. citizen in 1981. That same year, when there was still a price to be paid for doing so, she came out as a lesbian and has since engaged in a long career of LGBT activism.  She lent her name and support to ballot initiatives, spoke at LGBT marches, and in 2000 was the recipient of the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT lobbying group.  She is active on Twitter and firmly in the Orange Man Bad camp.  No one could ever accuse Martina of not being down for the cause.  All this was not enough to protect Navratilova from ostracization and accusations of bigotry last week when she questioned the wisdom of allowing men pretending to be women to compete in women's sports.

Martina Navratiola Removed From Board of LGBTQ Organization.  Tennis legend Martina Navratilova was officially removed Wednesday from the advisory board of a prominent LBGTQ organization after making comments about transgender athletes.  Navratilova released an op-ed in The Sunday Times on Feb. 17 discussing her opinion on why transgender athletes should not be able to compete against female athletes.  She wrote that having men compete as women is unfair because of the physical advantage.

Political Correctness Is Ruining Sports.  For the second consecutive year, Mack Beggs, an 18-year-old transgender wrestler, has won the Texas girls' Class 6A 110-pound division.  Born a female, Beggs is in the process of transitioning to a male, or so she thinks.  Beggs, who takes a low dose of testosterone, had wanted to compete against boys, but Texas public high schools, which have yet to get with the progressive times, require athletes to compete under the gender on their birth certificate.  Last year two girls, not wanting to risk being injured by her, forfeited against Beggs.  So did a girl this year.  Whether they were compelled to undergo empathy training I don't know. [...] Transgenderism is a problem in the Olympics, too.  Per the latest rules, transgender "women" must test below a specified level of testosterone for more than one year in order to compete.  But while this is doubtless somewhat effective, aren't these athletes, with their still bigger, still stronger, and still more durable bodies, out of place even so?

Man "Identifying" As Woman Wins Women's World Cycling Championship.  Having covered the topic of transgender athletes extensively here, this is a story I've been expecting to cross our path for quite a while now.  At the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles this weekend, the winner of the women's 35-39 age bracket was Canadian competitor Rachel McKinnon.  McKinnon is a male who identifies as a female.

The Editor says...
If a heavyweight boxer "identified" as a middleweight, and then beat his opponent to a pulp, would that be unfair?  Yes, because there are pragmatic ways (involving a calibrated scale) to determine (before the contest begins) who's a heavyweight and who's not.  Similarly, there are ways to determine if one has XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes; and indeed, there are no others.

World cycling bronze medalist cries foul after transgender woman wins gold.  The American bronze medalist who lost a world-championship cycling race to a transgender woman from Canada has criticized the results as unfair.  "First transgender woman world champion...ever," Rachel McKinnon, an assistant professor of philosophy at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, bragged Sunday in a tweet that set off a massive debate.

Biological Male Wins World Championship In Women's Cycling.  A biological male who identifies as a transgender woman won a women's world championship cycling event on Sunday [10/14/2018].  Rachel McKinnon, a professor at the College of Charleston, won the women's sprint 35-39 age bracket at the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles.  McKinnon, representing Canada, bested Carolien Van Herrikhuyzen of the Netherlands and American cyclist Jennifer Wagner to take home the gold.

It's time to end women's sports.  It's time to end women's sports — especially since they're not just "women's" sports anymore.  A case in point is "Rachel" McKinnon, Ph.D., a man masquerading as a woman (MMW), or a "transgender," as the enlighteners say, who just won a women's masters cycling event.  As The Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft (almost) put it, he "whooped them little girls."  McKinnon isn't alone, as many MMW have won women's sporting events during the last decade.  To name just a few, a 55-year-old MMW won a women's long-drive competition (golf) in 2008.  Last year, a 39-year-old MMW won a women's weightlifting event.  Then there were the Connecticut's State Open track and field championships in June; the top two finishers in the 100-meter dash were both MMW (okay, being boys, they were BMG), with one of them setting the girls' state record in both the 100- and 200-meter runs.  Hey, you go...uh...girl.

State of Modern Sports:  Boy Identifies as Girl, Boy Competes as Girl, Boy Wins Everything.  A high school in Connecticut has accepted a new boy on their track team.  Except, he won't be going to the boys track team, he'll be going to the girls team.  Andraya Yearwood, a freshman and biological male from Cromwell High School in Connecticut, identifies as a girl and recently received permission to join the girls track team after competing as a boy in middle school.  Not surprisingly, Yearwood has been extremely successful as a male competing against females.

NFL: Hey, you know what would really improve our ratings?  A transgender bathroom bill fight.  You may have missed it in the rush of "other news" last month, but Texas is considering implementing their own transgender bathroom bill similar to the one in North Carolina which we spent most of 2016 fighting over. [...] One unexpected entrant into this particular field of battle seems to be the National Football League.  For reasons which currently baffle me, the NFL decided to weigh in on the subject this week and issue what sounds something like a warning to the Lone Star State, hinting that Texas may not be hosting any more Super Bowl events if they follow such a path.

NFL more forceful on Texas 'bathroom bill' after Super Bowl.  The NFL sharpened its warning to Texas on Friday [2/10/2017] about a "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people, suggesting for the first time that the football-crazed state could miss out on hosting another Super Bowl if the proposal is enacted.

NFL Warns Texas There Could Be Consequences for 'Bathroom Bill'.  Days after the Super Bowl in Houston, the NFL is warning Texas that legislation requiring individuals to use public bathrooms in accordance with their biological sex could cost the state future opportunities to host the big game.

Seattle Mariners apologize after lesbian couple are told to stop kissing at the baseball team's first ever gay pride night because it was against their 'family-friendly' policy.  The Seattle Mariners had to make a groveling apology after a lesbian couple were told off for kissing at the team's first ever Pride night.  Mary McHale and her partner Sara Hinton had enjoyed the game against the Milwaukee Brewers — which the Mariners won 7-6 — and were waiting for a ride afterwards when a steward told them to stop smooching because it was a 'family-friendly' event.

Trans-thinking: When 98 Percent of Students Would Let Men in Women's Sports.  Imagine a fairly muscular, athletic young man, acting like a man and dressed as a man, tells you he identifies as a woman and asks you to sign a petition supporting his effort to play on his college's women's basketball team.  Your response?  If you're like 49 out of 50 students approached at the University of Maryland recently, you may sign and say "You go, (girl?)!"  And, no, according to Campus Reform's Cabot Phillips, who masqueraded as the aspiring woman, he didn't show just the eyebrow-raising responses.  He says that he asked only 50 students for support, and 49 offered it.

7 Reasons Why the Equality Act Is Anything But.  [#4] It would allow more biological males to defeat girls in sports.  Two biological males who identify and compete as women easily defeated all of their female competitors in an event at the Connecticut State Track Championships.  Transgender athlete Terry Miller broke the state record in the girls'100-meter dash.  Andraya Yearwood, also transgender, took second place.  Selina Soule, a female runner, not only lost to the biological males in the championships but also lost out on valuable opportunities to be seen by college coaches and chosen for scholarships.  Soule said about the 100-meter event:  "We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it's demoralizing."

Transgender Prof Claims Excluding Men from Women's Sports is Like Excluding Black Women.  This comparison seems awfully unfair to black women, but what do I know?  I'm not a professor.

Opera singer becomes first transgender woman to sing national anthem at professional sporting event.  History was made at the Oakland Athletics stadium this week when a transgender woman sang the national anthem at a professional sporting event for the first time ever in the country.  Classically-trained opera singer Breanna Sinclaire took the mic at the O.co Coliseum for a sold out game between the A's and the San Diego Padres on Wednesday [6/17/2015].  Sinclaire had a 30,000 audience at the A's LGBT Pride Night as she belted out the Star-Spangled Banner, and that wasn't counting the people who were watching the game on television.

Transgender Woman Sings National Anthem at Pro Sports Event for First Time.  Transgender woman Breanna Sinclairé made history Wednesday night [6/17/2015] by becoming the first transgender person to sing the National Anthem at a professional sporting event.

The Editor says...
I'd be at the ticket counter demanding a refund before the first batter took a swing.

Men will now compete against women:
Olympics Loosen Rules to Allow Pre-Op M-to-F Transsexuals to Compete with Women.  There's great news for adventurous male Olympic hopefuls:  if they declare themselves women and reduce their testosterone below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to competition, they can compete against ladies.  There's even better news for these men; according to transgender guidelines approved by the International Olympic Committee, genitalia does not serve as a prerequisite.  The guidelines state:  "To require surgical anatomical changes as a pre-condition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights."

The problem with the FA's rainbow laces furore.  The suits who run football in this country can always be relied upon to make a pig's ear of things.  The latest example of their capacity to cock up matters is the farce over this week's return of the rainbow laces campaign in the Premier League.  This campaign, now in its eleventh year, is an initiative backed by the charity Stonewall, in which team captains wear rainbow armbands and laces to signal support for LGBT+ inclusion and the fight against homophobia.  It would be fair to say that things have not exactly gone to plan.  The England and Crystal Palace defender, Marc Guehi, chose not to play ball at the weekend, writing 'I love Jesus' — with a love heart drawn instead of the word 'love' — on his rainbow-coloured captain's armband during his team's match against Newcastle.  Cue horror and panic from those in charge of the game.  Why?  This is, technically speaking, a breach of Football Association rules which state: 'For any offence the player and/or the team will be sanctioned by the competition organiser, national football association or by Fifa.'

The NFL needs to freshen up its messaging.  After having watched another Sunday of NFL games, I must say I am sick and tired of the virtue-signaling the league engages in via the trite sayings in the backs of its end zones and on the backs of its players' helmets. [...] Rhetorical question:  has anyone who has ever seen one of these 'messages' ever promptly changed their outlook or behavior because of them?  Of course not.  That's not the point.  That's not the point of any 'progressive' message aimed at us by giant corporations, 'social justice warriors,' Democrat politicians — or their brain-dead sycophants in mainstream media and 'entertainment.'  The point is to make them appear to be something they are demonstrably not:  smarter, better, and more caring than us.  Which is ironically self-defeating, as no one who might conceivably be smarter, better, or more caring than us would so shamelessly attempt to parade that 'fact.'

NFL hands Nick Bosa $11K fine for crashing interview with MAGA hat.  Star 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa was fined $11,255 by the NFL for crashing a postgame, on-field interview while wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat on Oct. 27, according to multiple reports.  Bosa donned the hat following San Francisco's "Sunday Night Football" victory less than two weeks before the 2024 election, showing his support for Donald Trump, who ended up defeating Vice President Kamala Harris to become the country's President-elect.

49ers Nick Bosa fined for wearing 'MAGA' hat in postgame interview despite appearing on-screen for less than 5 seconds.  The NFL has fined San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa for sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat during a post-game interview.  Following a 30-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys on October 27, Bosa crashed an interview on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" where several of his teammates were speaking to network reporter Melissa Stark.  Bosa ran up behind quarterback Brock Purdy, pointed to his white and gold "MAGA" hat, and ran off-screen.  The entire incident lasted less than five seconds.

Update:
Cowardly NFL Waited Until After the Election to Fine Nick Bosa for MAGA Hat Display.  It's often said that timing is everything, and when it came to the right time to fine 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa for crashing an interview while wearing a MAGA hat, the league decided it was after the election. [...] According to the NFL Football Operations website, fines for the previous week are posted at 4 p.m. EST on the following Saturday, making the nearly two-week delay in Bosa's case highly unusual.  Why would the league wait before deciding whether to fine Bosa and for how much?  [Advertisement]  As Breitbart Sports reported earlier, the NFL has had a policy of not allowing former President Trump to "weaponize" the league, going back to the Kaepernick protests.  [Advertisement]  If the NFL were to have announced a Bosa fine on the Saturday following the offense, It would have given President Trump ample time to blast the league before Tuesday's election.

Buffalo Bills Security Dork [Tells a] Man With A Trump Shirt He Can't Wear It At The Game.  An NFL fan who was at Highmark Stadium to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Miami Dolphins on Sunday was asked to remove his shirt supporting former President Donald Trump's re-election.  The incident was seen in a video shared by the Erie County GOP. It appeared one man was concerned about the Trump supporter's T-shirt while he was sitting in the first row of the stadium.  "It's an NFL policy he cannot wear his Trump shirt in the first row of a game," a man in the video can be heard saying to a security guard right below the fence separating the field from the seats.  It is unclear if the NFL has a separate dress-code policy for fans sitting in the front row at stadiums.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
How much do front-row seats cost?  Quite a bit.  And that's the treatment you get when you spend that kind of money?

NFL Get-Out-The-Vote Initiative Partners With Democrat Activist Groups.  The all-powerful National Football League says the "League-wide, nonpartisan initiative supports and encourages civic engagement among NFL players, and legends, club and league personnel, and fans."  Launched in 2020 as a joint effort between the NFL and NFL Players Association, NFL Votes "focuses on three key components of the electoral process: voter education, voter registration, and voter activation," according to the league's website.  Sounds noble enough.  But if you're scoring along at home, the NFL's teammates include some of the most left-wing activist organizations on the election field today.  Starting on the campaign's roster is Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, and I am a voter.

The NFL Kicked Off Its Season By Commiting Suicide By Opening With The Black National Anthem.  The NFL started off their season by playing the Black National Anthem before playing the Star Spangled Banner at the Baltimore Ravens vs.  Kansas City Chiefs Game.  [Video clip]

Larry Elder blasts hurdler who said 'this is for everybody that looks like me' after she made US Olympic team.  Conservative commentator Larry Elder blasted hurdler Alaysha Johnson for saying "this is for everybody that looks like me" after she took second place in the 100-meter hurdles final at the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday, which earned her a spot on the team heading to the Paris Games later this month.  A clip Elder posted on X showed Johnson after the race saying, "It was all God. ... everybody all the time said that I wasn't good enough, said that I didn't deserve.  And so I did this my way, my team's way, and just the way that it was meant to be.  This is for the hood babies.  This is for the people who are poor and come from nothing. [...]"

Texas Rangers Still Won't Join The MLB's Rainbow Antics, And Corporate Media Can't Stand It.  The Texas Rangers are once again the target of leftist media attacks because of the team's refusal to comply with the LGBT agenda that has infiltrated the MLB.  The Texas team has for years chosen not to participate in the league's "pride night" campaign, so left-wing media outlets have targeted it every June since 2021.  But the Rangers continue to side with their fans' values despite the mounting pressure.  This year, corporate media have again reached a fever pitch about the Rangers' refusal to celebrate "pride night."  "The Texas Rangers are frustrating LGBTQ+ advocates as the only MLB team without a Pride Night," reads an Associated Press headline from June 24.

Soccer player from Monaco faces discipline after he covers LGBTQ message on jersey.  Mohamed Camara, a midfielder for the soccer club AS Monaco, is facing potential disciplinary action after covering an anti-homophobia badge on his jersey and refusing to participate in a pre-game photo promoting LGBTQ inclusion.  French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has called for sanctions against both Camara and the club.  During Monaco's last game on Sunday, French Ligue 1 teams were required to wear badges featuring the word "homophobia" crossed out as part of a pro-LGBTQ campaign.  Camara instead taped over the badge.  He also decided not to join the other players in a pre-game group photo holding a banner with the same message, according to the Associated Press.

Fifa to hold urgent meeting to decide if Israel should be thrown out of football.  Fifa will hold an urgent meeting to decide if Israel should be thrown out of world football over its response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, Gianni Infantino has announced.  Infantino confirmed the governing body would carry out a "legal assessment" of the matter following a proposal submitted by the Palestine Football Association (PFA) for inclusion on the agenda for its annual congress in Bangkok this week.  The proposal, which was backed by the FAs of Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Yemen, was not put to a vote of Fifa member associations on Friday, with Infantino revealing the issue would decided upon at an emergency meeting of the organisation's council in late July.

Time for the Bud Light Treatment:  NFL Denounces Player for Advocating Traditional Values.  Harrison Butker, a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, is in a heap of trouble these days.  The NFL has issued a statement distancing itself from him, there is a petition at Change.org calling for him to be released, and outraged commentators across our fair land have lined up to condemn him and declare him unworthy to be in the company of decent people.  What Butker did to get all this abuse is a sad indication of what life is like in this Age of Absurdity.  If this were a sane society, you might get the impression that Butker did something like take a knee for the National Anthem in protest against an imaginary "systemic racism." [...] Yet Harrison Butker did not do those things; Colin Kaepernick did.  Butker's outrageous crime was that he gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College, and took aim at some of the most cherished idols of our age.  He encouraged the graduates to take pride in themselves and their accomplishments: "Not the deadly sins sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it, but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the holy ghost to glorify him."

It Would Have Been Super to Have One National Anthem at the Super Bowl!  Did you watch the game?  If you said yes and you're a MAGA Patriot, the question is WHY?  Why did you support the National Football League (NFL)?  The NFL has included the black national anthem since 2021, following the "mostly peaceful" George Floyd 2020 Riots that resulted in 500 million "mostly peaceful" dollars lost to looting and burning.  Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, who is every MAGA's favorite in Congress, explained on X/Twitter why he did not plan to watch the Super Bowl:  ["]They're desecrating America's National Anthem by playing something called the 'Black National Anthem.'["]

'Shame on the NFL': Performance of 'Black National Anthem' Sparks Backlash.  As they have done for the past several Super Bowl broadcasts, the NFL opened the Super Bowl with a performance of the song Lift Every Voice and Sing, the so-called "black national anthem."  But not every voice appreciated the left-wing gesture.  The song was performed by R&B singer, Grammy Award winner, and actress Andra Day:  [Tweet]  The reaction was immediate and many were not enthused.  [Tweet]

The Editor says...
The last big football game is supposed to be a distraction from politics and nation-wide problems.  Dragging race-based politics into it at the outset of the game is not what the fans paid big money to see.

The Things We Love Are the Things They Claim.  We have just had the US Superbowl.  As a Brit, even one long interested in the US, its never been of much interest to me.  But this year British mainstream TV has acted as if every single Brit cares.  It's been plastered over our TV screens and reported in our news in a way that previous Superbowls never were. [...] Look what has been done to what was once a shared and unifying piece of fundamental Americana.  Look at what they did to the thing you loved.  They, meaning progressive-globalists, took it away from ordinary Americans.  They purchased it and they soiled it.  They made the national sport into a place where national self-hatred was raised up and worshiped.  They ditched the National Anthem for the Black Anthem.  They asked white working class sports fans to take a giant [...] dose of anti American, anti white, anti male propaganda with their favorite leisure activity, with what had been their most American and most male and most patriotic cultural experience.

NFL fans show the proper disdain for the so-called 'Black National Anthem'.  The Star-Spangled Banner is America's national anthem.  This isn't a traditional position.  This is per American law, passed in 1931 and codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301(a).  There is one United States of America and one legal national anthem, which applies to all people regardless of race, creed, sex, etc.. Long ago, America's sports teams began the tradition of playing the anthem before games began. [...] But then there's that hymn.  As I said, it's a very nice hymn celebrating God and liberty, and the melody is lovely.  It is an essentially American song.  The problem is how the left is using it.  By focusing on its title as "the Black National Anthem," leftists are essentially saying that Black Americans are a nation within a nation.  There is, of course, no such thing.  Even playing it at the Super Bowl right before the National Anthem itself isn't going to make it an actual national anthem.  Instead, it just takes a beautiful piece of music and makes it divisive.

'Hey NFL, the United States only has one National Anthem'.  Outrage is brewing over the NFL's decision to play what many refer to as "the black national anthem" at the start of this year's Super Bowl game.  Called "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the song was originally written as a poem in 1899 by James Weldon Johnson, then the NAACP's executive for 10 years, according to Today.  "The poem became a song when Johnson's brother John Rosamond Johnson composed an instrumental arrangement for it.  The song was first performed in 1900 during a celebration of former president Abraham Lincoln.  It was sung by a choir of 500 children at their segregated school in Florida," Today notes.  In times past, the song "became a rallying cry against the realities of lynching, segregation and discrimination," but these days, it's mostly viewed as divisive and unnecessary given that lynching, segregation and discrimination are mostly gone, save for on the "woke" left.  [Tweet]

The NBA Sells Out To Middle East.  The NBA has announced what some view as a questionable partnership with Emirates Airlines that would change the name of the league's in-season tournament and also add sponsored jersey patches on referee's uniforms.  In a statement released today, the NBA boasted that it would be renaming its newly announced in-season tournament the "Emirates NBA Cup," with all NBA, WNBA and G League referees donning the Emirates patch on their outfits.  "Emirates NBA Cup," rings right off the tip of your tongue, no?  If the NBA thought that people didn't care about its pointless in-season tournament before, naming it something that sounds like some sort of soccer event sure as hell isn't going to solve the problem.

NFL keeps pushing the LGBT agenda, announcing another 'Night of Pride with GLAAD'.  The NFL is continuing to promote the LGBT agenda, announcing that it will host "A Night of Pride with GLAAD" just days ahead of the Super Bowl next month.  GLAAD is a pro-LGBT advocacy group.  "The NFL family and partners will gather to spotlight advances in the future of LGBTQ inclusion in professional sports as well the NFL's commitment to LGBTQ former and current players," the NFL announced.  "Sponsored by Smirnoff, A Night of Pride with GLAAD also includes a panel discussion on how inclusion in sports advances acceptance for LGBTQ people, featuring NFL Legend Carl Nassib.  Additional partners for the evening include Starter and Google."  This is not the first time the NFL has held such an event.

NFL Plans an Incredibly Ridiculous 'Night Of Pride' Super Bowl Event.  This year's Super Bowl is being held in Las Vegas, and though the Super Bowl is always glorious, it's a little bit more special in 2024 with it being held in Sin City.  So why is the NFL ruining it with a "Night of Pride?"  That's right, the league is hosting their third "Night of Pride" event during Super Bowl week, and though I guess LGBTQ+ (or whatever they're named today) and a city of sin mixes well, I don't want them to have this one.  NOT VEGAS.  This event is more for a boring city like Minneapolis, where the first "Night of Pride" was held in 2018.  In the official press release from the NFL, they say they're hosting this event with GLAAD (Gay, Lesbian, Alliance Against Defamation) and that Smirnoff is sponsoring the social justice shindig — it's being held Feb. 7.

Utah Jazz Order Rabbis to Remove Pro-Jewish Signs.  The Utah Jazz is facing national backlash after they ordered four rabbis to remove signs that read, "I'm a Jew and I'm Proud."  Rabbi Avremi Zippel was at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday night to see the team face the Dallas Mavericks.  "He and three other rabbis took the signs to protest the involvement of Kyrie Irving, now a Mavericks player, who was suspended from the Brooklyn Nets in 2022 for tweeting a link to a movie widely considered to be antisemitic and for initially failing to disavow it," NBC News reported.  The Jazz said in a statement that the signs were in breach of the team's audience code of conduct, which maintains games must be played "without distraction or disturbance."

Georgia hasn't changed.  MLB is in business to make money.
Good News:  MLB Says Georgia Is No Longer Racist!  Throughout the Peach State, people are breathing a huge sigh of relief.  On Thursday, Major League Baseball (MLB) finally decreed that Georgia is no longer racist when the league awarded the 2025 All-Star Game to Atlanta. [...] The announcement came three years after MLB removed the 2021 game from the city over Georgia's voter integrity law, which Stacey Abrams tricked MLB and certain corporations into believing disenfranchised black voters.

Fans Note That Only MLB Team Not to Celebrate 'Pride' Just Won World Series.  The Texas Rangers, who won their first World Series in 63 seasons Wednesday night, is also the only team in Major League Baseball not to hold a "Pride Night"-style event celebrating LGBTQ individuals.  The Rangers bested the Arizona Diamondbacks in four out of five games to take the series.  Baseball fans who don't think professional sports teams should devote money and resources to "Pride" events were among those noting the Rangers' lonely stand on X, formerly Twitter, and other social media.  [Tweet]

NHL bans Pride stick tape months after getting rid of Pride jerseys.  So apparently some genius thought it'd be a good idea for NHL players to "show their solidarity" with the LGBTQIA2+ community by throwing rainbow tape on their sticks.  Unfortunately for the flamboyant person who thought this up, the NHL is not going to do it, and they've in fact banned the tape altogether.  [Tweet]

Foreign NBA Player Complains About Americans Owning Guns, Wants Them Banned.  Phoenix Suns player Jusuf Nurkic isn't a fan of Americans owning guns.  Owning firearms is enshrined in the Bill of Rights with the Second Amendment, and the United States of America has a very proud gun culture.  At the same time, the issue is incredibly divisive.  Some people love the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, and some people absolutely despise the fact regular citizens have access to firearms.  The Suns center from Bosnia and Herzegovina definitely falls in the latter category, judging from some comments made Monday.

Kansas City Chiefs Fans Rain Down Boos After the NFL Plays the "Black National Anthem" BEFORE the Real National Anthem.  The Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl title defense got off to an inauspicious start Thursday night after falling to the Detroit Lions 21-20.  But an arguably bigger story before the contest has Americans across the country up in arms.  The National Football League (NFL) made the decision to play "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which is considered the "Black National Anthem."  To add insult to injury, they decided to do so before the "Star Spangled Banner" as Fox News reported.  In the NFL's eyes, pandering to woke radicals is more important than promoting simple racial harmony

Megan Rapinoe and Necessary Schadenfreude.  Megan Rapinoe is a hard person to like. [...] Rapinoe felt like she deserved more because she was the best women's soccer player in the world and she wasn't making as much as men were.  So what?  Women's sports don't bring in nearly as much as men do, so the pay should be less.  Draw a crowd, sell some merch and the cash follows.  She didn't want to earn it, and it turns out she didn't have to.  The US Soccer governing body caved to the demands and now offer the equivalent of socialism in pay to both teams.  Of course, Megan was already raking in the cash — probably the highest paid player with all her endorsements, bringing in an estimated $7 million.  Can you imagine a world where she is worth $7 million?  Megan Rapinoe might have been worth that much when she was good, but she's not good and hasn't been for a long time.  She had no business being on this team this year, let alone on the field when they finally lost.

Here's the Real Game Colin Kaepernick Is Playing.  It's Not Football.  It's NFL training camp season again, and that means it's time for us to hear yet again about how far-left race hustler and former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, despite having derided the NFL for years as a racist enterprise that treats its employees like slaves, is trying to get back into the league yet again.  If you're tired of Kaepernick's cynical act, you're not nearly as tired of it as is Terence Garvin, a former NFL linebacker who had a few choice words for the attention-seeking apparatchik this time around.

NASCAR Driver Noah Gragson Suspended for 'Liking' a Meme About George Floyd.  Legacy Motor Club and NASCAR have suspended driver Noah Gragson.  This comes after the driver allegedly "liked" a meme about George Floyd, the man who died in police custody in May 2020.  The death of Floyd resulted in mass riots around the country then went on for several months despite Covid and well into election season.  Gragson apologized but it didn't keep him his place to drive. [...] Josh Berry will drive the #42 car on Sunday's race in Michigan instead.  No one knows if the suspension will be permanent or not.  While everyone is aware of the delicate nature of the George Floyd subject, it seems like "liking" a meme is something that many would not expect to have such a ripple effect, especially since it's easy to accidentally like the wrong thing sometimes or perhaps like something you haven't fully looked at.

You don't have to play if you don't like the anthem.  Once again, we have athletes making fools of themselves.  The latest episode from the ingrates comes from the Women's World Cup soccer match.  For the record, I am not a big soccer fan but it's always nice to cheer for the home team.  In my case, it's the nice country that adopted my family years ago.  In the case of these young women, it's the country that gave them this opportunity.

Fans blast USWNT over silence during national anthem at World Cup.  The US Women's National Soccer team was victorious in its opening match of the 2023 FIFA World Cup — but they're not winners to fans left fuming after the most of the athletes stayed silent during the national anthem.  Before the reigning women's World Cup champion team went on to crush newcomer Vietnam 3-0, many of the players stood quietly as the "Star Spangled Banner" blared through New Zealand's Eden Park arena.

USWNT players largely silent during national anthem in 2023 World Cup opener against Vietnam.  Most members of the US women's soccer team stayed silent during the national anthem before its World Cup opener Friday against newcomers Vietnam — who passionately belted their nation's tune.  The majority of the reigning women's World Cup champion team stared stoically ahead as the "Star Spangled Banner" blasted across New Zealand's Eden Park arena.  Only five of the 11 players who stood on the field for the anthem — with young, aspiring players standing before them — placed their hands over their hearts, while their six teammates kept their digits clasped behind their backs, video shows.

Megan Rapinoe Announces Retirement — Good, and Good Riddance.  No one loves Megan Rapinoe like Megan Rapinoe loves Megan Rapinoe.  She's been in the spotlight for years now — with ESPN's social justice warriors clambering over themselves to pat her on the back and forward her agenda.  She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden, because why not?  That award has no meaning any longer.  Barack Obama gave one to Joe Biden at the end of his presidency.  It was supposed to be his "go-away" gold watch.  Like Obama's Nobel and Biden Medal, Rapinoe was given one of the nation's highest citizen awards because of her big mouth.  And because of what side she is on:  the obnoxious left.

Is the NBA Going the Way of Bud Light?  Over the past several months, we've seen corporations take big financial hits for embracing wokeness.  Disney took a massive blow to the bottom line after going woke, while Target and Ben & Jerry's have seen their market values tumble following far-left stands.  But the, umm, gold standard for the "go woke go broke" model is Bud Light, whose fortunes continue to tumble after it partnered with Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing stunt.  The sports world is notorious for embracing wokeness in recent years as well.  Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have recently been under fire for pride month antics, and let's not forget how MLB moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta based on lies about Georgia's voter integrity law.  But the godfather of wokeness in both sports and business is the National Basketball Association (NBA).  The NBA embraced wokeness when embracing wokeness wasn't cool, and Outkick's Clay Travis asserts that the NBA's downward slide over the past few years is a slow-burn version of what's happening with corporations like Bud Light.

Corporate America Doesn't Hear Anybody.  [Scroll down]  But the people are listening and are fed up.  Bud Light still shows no signs of recovering, nor does Target.  Threats against Target which the media tried to blame on conservatives actually came from LGBTQ+ groups, claiming betrayal of that community.  Major League Baseball, while not eliminating "Pride" events, has scaled back on them.  There was a huge protest at the LA Dodgers "Pride Night" event where the Dodgers were honoring a hate group that denigrated and mocked Catholicism.  The silent majority appears to be finding its voice.  We are learning that we can impact the bottom line of corporate America.  And that may be the only way to make them listen, that they should concentrate on business and not politics.

NHL Teams Will No Longer Wear LGBTQ Pride-Themed Jerseys.  National Hockey League (NHL) teams will no longer wear rainbow-colored LGBTQ-themed jerseys during pregame warmups for Pride nights.  NHL Pride Nights became a hot topic of conversation earlier this year when Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov refused to participate in his team's Pride Night due to his orthodox Christian faith, sparking outrage from leftists who proceeded to accuse him of bigotry and homophobia.  However, the Philadelphia Flyers kept him in the lineup, and the team even went on to win the game against the Anaheim Ducks.

Dodgers Swept, Suffer Worst Home Loss in 125 Years After Honoring Anti-Catholic Drag Queens.  Not that this had anything to do with anything, but the Los Angeles Dodgers were humiliated by their archrival this weekend after deciding to host and honor a group of anti-Catholic drag queens at their Pride Night event on Friday.  The weekend began as awfully as it ended for the Dodgers.  On Friday, the team bestowed the "Community Heroes" award on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of drag queens who routinely mock the Catholic faith by performing grotesque sexual acts while using religious imagery, garb, and symbolism.

Kaepernick Hooks up With 'Prominent Black Marxists,' Says 'White Supremacy Persists' Because of Capitalism.  Colin Kaepernick.  The former San Francisco quarterback turned out to be a disappointing enigma to an untold number of NFL fans.  Despite earning nearly $40 million while playing football and $20 million from Nike, "Kap" not only intentionally threw away his career; he hypocritically now blasts capitalism.  More precisely, Kaepernick believes "black liberation" isn't "possible under capitalism."  And whose fault is that, according to the quarterback-turned-racial-activist?  Two words:  "White supremacists," who else?

Empty Stadium as LA Dodgers Honor Anti-Catholic Group 'Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence' Amid Protests.  Opposition is in full swing to the Los Angeles Dodgers' on-field ceremony honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an organization of "drag nuns" that the Catholic League calls an anti-Catholic hate group.  Thousands of Catholics, other Christians, and even some people of the Jewish faith gathered in a parking lot near the Dodgers' stadium on Friday afternoon to pray ahead of the game.  Later, the religious groups marched to Dodger Stadium, shutting down one entryway on Vin Scully Avenue.  Weeks of momentous opposition led to the drag nuns being announced on-field to a mostly empty stadium, while receiving some boos from baseball fans in attendance.

The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team is facing a Bud Light-style boycott.  The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team is facing a Bud Light-style boycott after inviting a controversial LGBTQ group of drag queen 'nuns' to a Pride Night ceremony — enraging the Catholic community and sparking protests on Friday.  The group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was invited to appear before the Dodgers' game against the San Francisco Giants, and receive an award for their community work.  The ceremony to award the Community Hero Award to the 'nuns' was held before an almost-empty stadium, ahead of the game — but outside, protesters gathered.

What if the Dodgers honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and nobody came?  Well, they did it.  The Dodgers went ahead with their plan to honor the Catholic- and Christian-mocking bigot group known the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as community "heroes" last night ... and just about nobody showed up.  The bleachers were almost empty — and among the few who did come, there was nothing but booing — loud enough to be reported.  The photos are astonishing.

MLB quietly tells teams to drop use of Pride uniforms.  Major League Baseball has quietly ordered its teams not to wear any Pride uniforms throughout their Pride events.  The decision comes amid several companies and organizations facing consumer pushback for promoting LGBT acceptance.  News of the MLB directive gained recognition last week when the Tampa Bay Rays reportedly announced its Pride festivities would have a different look, with players not sporting jerseys and hats featuring Pride rainbow patches and logos.  The league reportedly announced its decision at an owners meeting in February.

Major League Baseball panics, tells teams to kill Pride logos.  Anheuser-Busch teamed with a female-identifying man to promote its Bud Light beer to cowboys, truck drivers, suburbanites, NASCAR fans and more.  It lost some $27 billion in corporate value, and analysts predict the brand never will regain its customer base.  Target plunged head-first into promotions of transgender clothing and other LGBT ideology even for children, and lost some $15 billion in value.  One analyst called the losses, triggered by pushback from American consumers against the "woke" ideology, "staggering."  Now, it appears, Major League Baseball is trying to avoid any such collapse.

Red Sox Pitcher Cut Loose After Offending the Thought Police.  Many people are warning these days that the jaw-droppingly corrupt weapon of partisan vengeance known as the "Justice" Department, with its indictment of Donald Trump after steadfastly ignoring the crimes of Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden, is taking the nation down the road to dictatorship.  And while that is a very real concern, some of the hysteria is overblown, not because the Biden regime actually respects loyal opposition and free discourse, but because the freedom of speech is already so severely eroded.  The Boston Red Sox just showed that anew in their treatment of a pitcher who dared to utter unapproved ideas.  Yeah, in America we have the First Amendment that supposedly protects the freedom of speech, but just try saying something publicly that goes against what the Leftist elites want you to believe.

The Devouring of a Christian Baseball Player.  [Scroll down]  [Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony] Bass threw them all a curve.  When asked by the media on Thursday [6/8/2023] if the video he shared was "hateful," he refused to oblige them.  "I do not.  That's why I posted it originally," he said.  "When I look back at it, I can see how people would view it that way, and that's why I was apologetic."  This failure to capitulate only infuriated the Canadian Maoists.  They had expected Bass to reject his Christian beliefs or at least renounce them out of expedience, but Bass's faithfulness rescued him from any further degradation.  As Nick Ashbourne of Yahoo News reported, "GM Ross Atkins ... might've been surprised by the degree to which Bass stuck to his guns."  Ashbourne adds without even a hint of self-awareness, "The team appeared to be attempting to rehabilitate the pitcher's image."  "Rehabilitate," right.  Next stop, re-education camp!  On Friday, Atkins, the Pontius Pilate of the story, chose to wash his hands of the affair by designating the 35-year-old Bass for assignment, a euphemism for cutting him from the roster.  "Performance was a large part of this decision," he lied.  "Distraction was a small part, but it factored in."

Conservatives Need to Support Boycotts.  Recently the LA Dodgers scheduled an event for one of their "Pride Month" celebrations featuring a group called the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" (SPI).  This vile and blatantly anti-Catholic (and anti-Christian) group should be classified as a hate group, but instead the Dodgers wanted to celebrate them.  Normal people were up in arms and protested, resulting in the Dodgers cancelling the Sisters.  Then the LGBTQ+ community whined loudly and the event is on again.  A number of Dodger players have made statements objecting to their endorsement by the Dodgers organization including future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.  So far, the Dodger management have not changed their minds to honor this hate group.  I gave up professional sports years ago, thanks to the has-been Colin Kaepernick, a former pro quarterback who decided to kneel during the playing of the national anthem.  My advice for all of the Christian players in Major League Baseball (MLB) would be to refuse to play in any game involving the Dodgers.  As for fans, I would refuse to watch any Dodgers game.  Those numbers are important as they determine ad revenue among other things.

Our Descent into Clown World.  I once naïvely thought that men's professional sports would remain a small redoubt from the insipid idiocy of "political correctness."  Stadiums where rowdy fans cheer on strong men engaging in physical acts of confrontation — and sometimes bloody violence — seemed like sturdy cultural ramparts capable of keeping leftist indoctrination at bay.  Alas, owner-imposed ideology across leagues and organized intimidation campaigns against individual players have combined with enough force to crash through the gates.  Now grown men who have spent their lives training for battle meekly embrace ever-changing Marxist planks before millions of spectators, who likewise are allowed to watch only if they implicitly accept the State's woke dogma.  Will players and fans be forced to kneel during the National Anthem this week?  To reject their religious faith as an expression of "hate"?  To applaud child-grooming and predation?  To cheer the World Health Organization's dictatorial control over their lives?  Stay tuned.  The sports leagues will let you know what to believe just as soon as the Marxist brigades lay down new marching orders.

One by one, the ball players are coming out against that Dodgers plan to lionize the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.  One by one, major league ball players are coming out to express their opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers' management's decision to honor anti-Catholic bigot group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, with its "Community Hero Award." [...] That the first three players have stepped forward and thus far have not backed down is a very good sign, though.  It also indicates to fans that ball players and their corporate bosses are not the same thing, which is good for baseball itself.  The fact that the ball players are on the public's side suggests that their fans will stay loyal to them.  That's doing the Dodgers a favor.

To Beat The Dodgers' Anti-Christian Hate, MLB Stars Must Refuse To Play Ball.  The Los Angeles Dodgers' appalling decision to honor an anti-Christian hate group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during their "Pride Night" on June 16 has been met mostly with a deafening silence from the vast majority of Major League Baseball players.  Even Catholics, whose faith is particularly singled out for mockery by this LGBT hate group, have been largely mute.  As of this writing, only four players in the entire league have said anything about it, and one of those four has already caved to the rainbow mob.  The only Catholic player to come forward has been Trevor Williams, a starting pitcher for the Washington Nationals.  Williams denounced the Dodgers and called on his fellow Catholics "to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this type of mockery of its fans to occur."

Toronto Blue Jays Player Looks Like He Just Got Out Of A Reeducation Camp After Being Forced To Appologize For Supporting Target And Bud Light Boycotts.  Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass apologized on Tuesday for sharing a social media post that explained why Christians should participate in boycotting companies like Target and Bud Light, who have been at the height of national scrutiny over their failed marketing campaigns chalked full of LGBTQ propaganda.  Bass briefly shared the faith-based video to his Instagram stories on Monday evening, which called on Christians to stop patronizing US companies that go against biblical teachings, but quickly deleted it following backlash.  [Video clip]

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher apologizes for offending alphabet crowd.  There is only one approved line of thinking in the West, and you know exactly what it is.  Blue Jay pitcher Anthony Bass, who apparently is a conservative Christian, made the serious mistake of siding against the alphabet people in the brand wars.  He cut a video siding with the people who are boycotting Target and Bud Light, and apostasy on this issue is apparently not allowed.

Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw disagreed with the organization's decision to honor Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.  The Los Angeles Dodgers have faced immense backlash for the decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence before the team's Pride Night game on June 16.  Their star pitcher is not on board with the decision.  Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, announced last Friday that the team will relaunch its Christian Faith and Family Day.  The veteran pitcher said it was in response to the organization's decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

No Dodging the Democrats' Degradation, or, "We're All San Francisco Democrats Now".  You would think a team named "Dodgers" would know how to dodge a culture war battle they can't win (see: Target, Bud Light), but no, the Los Angeles Dodgers managed to get picked off in the most embarrassing fashion in a pickle-style rundown entirely of their own ineptitude.  Surely the conservative (and Catholic) O'Malley family that used to own the Dodgers — before the onerous estate tax forced the family to sell the team back in the 1990s after Walter O'Malley died — are rolling in their graves.  But there's a larger lesson here. [...] I predict that next year's Democratic Party platform (if they have one at all) will see a similar fight over two issues: an embrace of unlimited transgenderism and "gender-affirming health care" for children, and reparations for slavery.  I doubt Democrats can dodge these self-generated impulses of their most vocal base any better than the LA Dodgers have.

CatholicVote calls Dodgers 'faith and family' night a 'band-aid' amid anti-Catholic group fallout.  On Friday, nine-time MLB All-Star Clayton Kershaw announced a "relaunch" of another themed day at Dodger Stadium — Christian Faith and Family Day.  "Excited to announce the relaunch of Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium on July 30th," Kershaw wrote in a tweet.  The Dodgers later confirmed the event and said more details will be released at a later time.  "Join us at Dodger Stadium on 7/30 for Christian Faith and Family Day.  Stay after the game to celebrate and be part of a day of worship." the Dodgers official Twitter account wrote.  "Stay tuned for more details."  The announcement comes after the Dodgers invited, then uninvited, and then re-invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

CatholicVote launches $1M campaign calling for LA Dodgers boycott over anti-Catholic drag queens.  One of the nation's largest Catholic advocacy organizations has issued a letter to the Los Angeles Dodgers announcing an upcoming ad campaign calling for a boycott of the baseball club.  CatholicVote President Brian Burch addressed the letter to Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter and CEO Stan Kasten.  "I represent the nation's largest lay Catholic advocacy organization," Burch wrote.  "We are supported by millions of devoted Catholics across America who believe that the time-honored values of life, family, and freedom — which the Dodgers used to celebrate — are demonstrably good for America, and worthy of respect, not ridicule."  "We wrote to you last week with a reasonable ask:  Please do not honor this anti-Catholic hate group," Burch told the Dodgers' administrators.  "There is no place for anti-Catholic bigotry, mocking of religious sisters, or celebrating a perverse activist group whose identity is marked by blasphemy and mockery of Catholics."

The Editor says...
"Ask" is not a noun.

It's About Time Christians Educated Themselves!  The Los Angeles Dodgers' apology letter re-inviting the anti-Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Pride Night reads like the unwinding of a grueling struggle session.  And it ends in a predictably pitiful way, with the reactionaries promising "to better educate" themselves in the future.  In contemporary parlance, to "educate" oneself means allowing intellectually and morally stunted clowns — literally, in this case — to bully you.  Because LGBT activists, like BLM activists, never need to be "educated" about anything.  They have achieved enlightenment.  No, it's the slack-jawed yokels who cling to thousands of years of intellectual and theological tradition who need lessons from the geniuses who spend Easter Sunday dressed in Virgin Mary drag, passing out condoms on a 13-stop bar crawl mocking the Stations of the Cross.  The Dodgers are merely celebrating diversity by sponsoring a group that simulates sex scenes on crucifixes.  Why are you fanatics starting another culture war?

I'm Boycotting Major League Baseball.  I truly love baseball.  But more than baseball, I love God.  Given the decision between being a fan of any sports team and supporting my religious beliefs, I know that God is my real captain and I will always choose my faith.  And I believe that when push comes to shove, most people feel the same.  I also recognize that it is my religious obligation to support other people of faith in their journey.  Which is why I am so sad that I will not be attending baseball games thanks to the irresponsible management of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball, following the team's blatant attack on Catholics by deciding to honor one of the most public anti-Catholic fringe groups in the country, "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence."

The Anti-Christian Los Angeles Dodgers Deserve The Bud Light Treatment.  In a predictable act of cowardice, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced on Monday they are reinviting a radical, anti-Catholic LGBT group to the organization's "Pride Night" next month.  Originally, the Dodgers invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a radical LBGT organization whose drag members mock Catholicism by dressing up as so-called "queer and trans nuns" — to its June 16 "Pride Night" game.  The MLB team was slated to present the group with a "Community Hero Award."  After receiving much-deserved backlash from fans, Catholic groups, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the Dodgers announced last week the Sisters would no longer be honored at this year's "pride" celebration "[g]iven the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters' inclusion."  As it turns out, the Dodgers were just throwing faithful Christians a curveball.  Capitulating to a bunch of mean tweets from Twitter bots and unhinged leftists, the team reversed course on Monday, reinviting the organization to take part in the June 16 event.

Dodgers Re-Invite Anti-Catholic Drag Group To Pride Night, Issue Apology to LGBTQ+ Community.  After "much thoughtful feedback from Los Angeles' diverse communities" the Dodgers have decided to re-invite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to its 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night.  They also issued an apology to the drag group, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their friends and families.  The decision to reincorporate the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence comes less than seven days after the team chose to remove the group from the event.  Los Angeles was initially set to give the group an award as part of its Pride Night celebration.  The "Sisters" of Perpetual Indulgence use "go and sin some more" as their motto, and frequently dress as Jesus, Mary and other religious figures.

LA Dodgers condemned for honoring anti-Catholic transgender drag nuns: 'Blasphemous'.  The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team is facing accusations of anti-Catholic bigotry after the team announced it would honor a gay and transgender group that uses Catholic imagery in sexualized contexts.  The Dodgers and LA Pride announced earlier this month that the team would be marking "Pride Night" on June 16, 2023, and that the celebrations would include the presentation of the Community Hero Award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a self-described "leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns."  In a letter to Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) noted that the group has "mocked and degraded Christians, and especially Catholics, since its founding on Easter Sunday in 1979."  He also noted that the group's motto is "go and sin some more," which perverts the words of Jesus Christ, who said "go and sin no more."

Muslim Player Fined For Refusing to Wear Rainbow Flag, Still Won't Submit.  Mostafa Mohammed, an Egyptian footballer (soccer player) for the French side Nantes, was fined by his club for refusing to wear a gay pride rainbow flag on his arm during a game against Toulouse on Sunday [5/14/2023].  Nantes announced on Monday, May 15, that Mohamed was fined an undisclosed amount, with the money going to a French LGBT charity called SOS Homophobia.  On Sunday, "[t]he numbers on shirts of all players in France's top two divisions, as well as armbands worn by captains and officials, were rainbow-coloured as the French league staged a campaign against homophobia," reports Insider Paper.  Mohamed made a statement regarding the matter on Twitter, "I respect all differences.  I respect all beliefs and all convictions.  This respect extends to others but my personal beliefs must be respected as well."

We've won the culture war, but that's not enough.  The NFL and NBA have discovered that their brands soured horribly as they insulted their audience by kneeling and wearing rainbow colors.  Only after the NFL gave up virtue signaling for football has their audience returned.  They'd probably hire a woman to play if that woman could do the job better than a man.  But somehow, genetics has proven its superiority over gender.  The NBA hasn't learned its lesson yet.

Legendary Coach Phil Jackson Blasts the Woke NBA, Says He Doesn't Watch Games Anymore.  Eleven-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson has lost interest in the basketball league because it's simply gotten too political.  The former coach of the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers appeared on the "Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin" podcast earlier this month and said he didn't stop watching the game immediately after stepping away from coaching — it was the league's woke messaging during the 2020 COVID lockdowns that turned him off.

Goalie declines to wear jersey celebrating LGBTQ community on Pride Night, takes heat.  The San Jose Sharks recently hosted a Pride Night celebration, as nearly all professional sports teams have done.  Moreover, they tweeted pride-themed information throughout the game.  Yet this was not enough to please the ungrateful mob that constitutes the hard-core activists in the LGBTQ community.  You see, one player, Sharks goalie James Reimer, declined to don a rainbow-colored jersey, citing his "religious beliefs." [...] Why should a professional athlete be mandated to wear a jersey celebrating any group other than the team for which he or she plays?  Yet, Reimer — and a handful of other NHL players who have chosen not to wear pride-themed jerseys this season — have been the victims of vitriolic attacks from many of those who otherwise routinely plead for "acceptance," "tolerance," and "inclusion."  Transgender activists, in particular, can be brutal to those who have the audacity to believe in the existence or primacy of just two sexes or genders.

The Sweater.  A couple of National Hockey League players have refused to be bullied into wearing pride jerseys during pregame warmups and much of the response has been madness — and worse.  It's another sign that Western culture is in a steep decline. [...] But even in 2023, when so many among us are either part of the social bullying culture or so fearful of it that we've surrendered to it, there are still men of strength and principle.  On Jan. 17, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov declined to wear a pride jersey in warmups, citing his Christian (Russian Orthodox) beliefs.  So he sat in the locker room, banished, while his teammates took their pre-game skate.

San Jose Sharks goalie boycotts pregame warmups over NHL pride jerseys.  A Christian goalie for the San Jose Sharks boycotted pregame warmups over the weekend, saying the team's decision to wear NHL pride-themed jerseys went against the teachings of the Bible and his "personal convictions."  Canadian James Reimer, 35, did not play in Saturday's game against the New York Islanders after the team released a statement on his behalf in which he said that while he has "no hate in my heart for anyone," he would not "endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions which are based on the Bible, the highest authority in my life."

Dallas Mavericks Donates $25,000 to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz.  Woke celebrities, businesses, and now professional sports teams are lining up to support the largest abortion business in the United States, Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas posted on Twitter Tuesday photos of the Dallas Mavericks honoring the abortion giant with a $25,000 check.  [Tweet]  Since the reversal of Roe v.  Wade, Planned Parenthood cannot commit elective abortions in Texas but has kept its Texas clinics open, functioning as abortion "travel agencies" to send pregnant women out of state so abortionists can kill their preborn children.

The "national divorce" comes to Vermont women's sports.  Not too long ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene raised a lot of eyebrows when she began teasing the possibility of a "national divorce."  While nobody wants to see another disastrous civil war (with much better weapons), she posited that the nation is splitting in two along social lines with the two sides embracing ideas and morals that are so far apart that there may not be any compromise left to be found.  I'm still not entirely sold on that concept, but one example that might support the phenomenon has popped up in Vermont and it brings us back to the ongoing debate over males who "identify" as females competing in girls' and women's sports.

Raptors delete video recognizing Women's History Month as it goes horribly wrong.  Why is it so hard to state the definition of a woman?  March is Women's History Month.  The Toronto Raptors quickly found out that pandering to women by using a lame video tribute doesn't always work out so well.  The Canadian basketball team released a 13-second video on Twitter this week that features three of the team's players answering a question — "Beyonce said girls run the world.  Why do you think that's true?"  The result is so lame it is cringe-worthy.  [Tweet]

Woke NBA Enters New Strategic Partnership — With a Chinese Company, Naturally.  The NBA has been insufferably woke for a few years now.  They love to virtue signal for Black Lives Matter and everything else the left embraces.  And now they're entering into a new partnership with a company in China, a country that uses slave labor, poisons the environment and even has what are effectively concentration camps.  It's all about money.  The NBA wants those dollars that come from selling jerseys and sneakers in China.

NBA Boycotted North Carolina Over Transgender Bathroom Bill, but Ignores Utah.  The NBA may be quietly acknowledging that their commitment to woke ideology may be slipping.  That's the implication of their actions on transgender legislation, anyway.  Due to legislation on transgender bathroom use, the league decided to move their All-Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  At the time, the league issued a statement saying they did not believe they could "successfully host' the game there because of the "climate" created by the bill.  "While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2," the statement read.  With profound hypocrisy, just a few years later, the league hosted preseason games in the United Arab Emirates.  The UAE criminalizes homosexuality, and has previously detained transgender individuals attempting to enter the country.

'Black National Anthem' at Super Bowl Divides NFL Fans.  NFL fans on social media were divided over the performance of the so-called Black National Anthem for the first time on-field during Sunday's championship game.  While it's the third time "Lift Every Voice and Sing" made an appearance in some capacity during the Super Bowl, actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph's performance was the first time it was on the Super Bowl field, according to The Hill.  [Numerous tweets]

NFL to Play 'Black National Anthem' at Super Bowl LVII.  This year's Super Bowl will feature the singing of Lift Every Voice and Sing, otherwise known as the black national anthem, before the start of this year's game.  The song will be sung before the U.S. national anthem.

Super Bowl Protests on Chiefs' Name Continue Politicization of Society.  "People think they're honoring us with these mascots and logos, but they're mocking us," complained Michael Spears, an actor from a South Dakota tribe, as leftists take the opportunity of the upcoming Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs to continue their practice of using sports — as they use everything else that they can — to advance their narrative that our society is full of oppressors and the oppressed.  The name "Chiefs" was chosen by Kansas City's team owner, Lamar Hunt, after the team moved there from Dallas — where they were the Texans in the old American Football League.  The name was picked after it proved quite popular in a pick-the-name contest.  In fact the Kansas City Chiefs played in the very first Super Bowl in January 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers, and it was Hunt who first used the term "Super Bowl" to refer to the pro football championship game.

You Will Be Forced to Care — Gay Hockey Edition.  The Pride Police are on the prowl again, this time in the National Hockey League.  One of the more tedious aspects of the woke crusade for "inclusivity" is that we now have to be bombarded with radical messaging in what used to be escapist activities, like sports fandom.  Hardcore sports fans like me watch games to get away from the regular world for a while.  We don't want to be preached to.  About anything.  I don't even care if it's something I support, I don't want it polluting my gametime.  But the pollution is happening, much to the chagrin of those of us who find it difficult to break our sports addictions.  The latest heavy hand of wokeness has fallen upon the NHL, and it perfectly illustrates all that is wrong with the overwrought efforts to make us care.

Media Loses It Over New York Rangers Not Wearing Special Jerseys on Pride Night.  Here at the sports desk [it's] time to look at the newest sports non-controversy.  Namely, the New York Rangers not plastering rainbows on their practice jerseys prior to their home game against the Vegas Golden Knights on January 27th. [...] Let's turn this on its side.  If an NHL team held a Faith and Family Night, as part of the event placing an ichthus on the team's warm-up jerseys, and a player said I'm not wearing that, how would the sports media world respond?  The columns would write themselves.  "How DARE a team push religion!"  Plus a plethora of laudatory prose on behalf of the player's heroic stance, never mind that the brave atheist cliché grew stale sometime around 1967.

The Editor says...
Why is "pride night" necessary if there is a "pride month" later in the year?  Why is it necessary to acknowledge either one?  Why do sports teams have to promote passing fads that most of their audiences probably abhor?

Flyers' Ivan Provorov skips warmups over refusal to wear Pride Night jersey.  Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov did not participate in warmups before the team's home game against the Ducks on Tuesday night because he refused to wear a Pride Night jersey and use sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape.  Provorov, who said he is Russian Orthodox, cited his religious beliefs as why he chose not to partake in the warm-ups.  [Tweet]  "I respect everybody.  I respect everybody's choices," Provorov told reporters after the game, declining to get into any further detail.  "My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion."  The Flyers released a statement on the matter but did not mention Provorov by name.  "The Philadelphia Flyers organization is committed to inclusivity and is proud to support the local LGBTQ+ community," the statement said.

NHL Backs Down After Gov. Ron DeSantis's Office Calls Out 'Discriminatory' Job Fair.  The National Hockey League (NHL) has backtracked on the participation requirements of a job fair it is hosting in Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis's office slammed the event as "discriminatory."  The league is set to host the "Pathway to Hockey Summit" job fair event on February 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the NHL All-Star Game will take place two days later in nearby Sunrise, Florida.  However, one week ago, the league shared a now-deleted LinkedIn post promoting the event but specified participation was only open to certain groups of people.

DeSantis Admin Demands NHL Remove 'Discriminatory Prohibitions' from Minority-Only Hockey Summit.  The National Hockey League is hosting an upcoming conference for "diverse" job-seekers looking to pursue careers in the sport that is open only to racial and gender minorities.  On February 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the NHL — a professional association composed of 32 teams in the United States and Canada — will hold a new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative called the Pathway to Hockey Summit.  The event is exclusive to female, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled registrants.  In a separate line on the advertisement, the NFL writes, "Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend."

Judge Approves Lawsuit by Ex-Virginia Tech Soccer Player Allegedly Benched for Refusing to Kneel During National Anthem.  A former Virginia Tech soccer player who says she was benched for refusing to take a knee during the national anthem has been given to go-ahead to sue the school for violations of her freedom of speech.  U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen gave former Hokies midfielder Kiersten Hening the OK to sue coach Charles Aidair on First Amendment grounds after Hening says the coach benched her for refusing to join in with the team's kneeling in 2020 as a "unity statement."

'I feel gay', FIFA chief attempts to empathise with marginalised.  FIFA President Gianni Infantino raised eyebrows on Saturday when he attempted to show empathy with marginalised groups by telling reporters in Qatar 'I feel gay ... I feel like a migrant worker'.  Infantino opened the traditional pre-World Cup news conference on Saturday with a lengthy monologue lambasting the critics of Qatar hosting the tournament because of the country's human rights record.

USA make a statement at the World Cup in Qatar.  The United States' men's national team have made a huge statement at the World Cup in Qatar by redesigning their crest to incorporate the rainbow flag, in a bid to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.  The tournament, which starts on Sunday and sees the US play their opener against Wales on Monday, has been hugely controversial in its build-up, given Qatar's human rights record and attitude to homosexuality.  As recently as this month, a Qatar World Cup ambassador told a German TV broadcaster that homosexuality was 'damage to the mind', and it remains illegal to be gay in the conservative Muslim country.

Woke Sports — Why Do We Still Watch?  The slippery slope wins again — the Disease of Wokeness is consuming sports top to bottom. [...] Canadian broadcasts are unwatchable, though admittedly I still tune in occasionally.  It's always with a measure of penance.  First, I'm treated to the Indigenous Land Acknowledgement, where I'm told I'm a horrible person and I live on stolen land.  It used to be one sentence.  Lately it's part of an extended ceremony.  Finally — blessedly — the game starts, but the lecturing is by no means over.  White Man Bad incidents are a regular feature.

So Long as Fans Acquiesce, Very Little Will Change.  The National Hockey League (NHL) recently joined the "woke train" after an internal review found that the league was "too white."  By "going woke," the NHL joined the NFL and the NBA, both of which continue to unapologetically promote woke, anti-American policies, as described here, here, and here.  Unfortunately, these professional leagues, and others like them, will continue to engage in such conduct because fans are enabling them to do so. [...] It goes without saying that, without punishment (primarily in the form of lost revenues), there is nothing compelling these leagues to slow down, stop, or reverse course.  If people continue to watch/attend games, purchase league merchandise, and/or otherwise support the various leagues, the leagues will continue to push forward, and other businesses/companies will follow their lead.  It is not enough for Americans to voice their discontent with the various policies and practices.  Rather, they should stop watching the games, buying merchandise, and supporting the players.  Only then will the various leagues learn that decisions have consequences.

Why the left went after sports.  The Cleveland Indians are the most exciting team in baseball.  They have 10 rookies on their 26-man roster.  Six others were rookies last year.  They play small ball and win.  They are managed by Tito Francona Jr., a grandpa who led the Boston Red Sox in 2004 to their first World Series championship in 86 years.  Fans in Cleveland shun the Cleveland Indians this year.  That's because the team is not the Cleveland Indians.  Management caved in to Woke Know Nothings and changed the name to Guardians this year.  Attendance was 25th among the 30 major league teams. [...] Clevelanders shun the team because it is not the Indians.  It is the Guardians, named for four stone carvings on a bridge near the ballpark.  The name change came because the left deigned naming a team the Indians to be an insult to Indians. [...] Why do left propagandists screw around with team names?  For the same reason they get players to kneel.  They want to undermine the social fabric that draws people together rich and poor, young and old, black and white, East Side-West Side.

NBA Will Not Schedule Games on Election Day.  The NBA will not be scheduling any games on the midterm election day, but all 30 teams will play the night before on November 7, the Associated Press stated.  The league looks to use this as an opportunity to encourage its fans to get out and vote to "amplify the need for civic engagement."

The Editor says...
It doesn't take all day to vote.  The polls are open for twelve hours on Election Day.  Anybody who really wants to vote can do so.

Christian female soccer player chooses to sit out match rather than wear LGBT jersey.  A professional female soccer player chose to boycott a recent game instead of wearing an LGBT pride jersey.  Jaelene Daniels, a defender for the North Carolina Courage team, chose to sit out during a July 29 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) game rather than don the "Pride" jersey her team was scheduled to wear.

Jaelene Daniels is forced out of North Carolina Courage's game against Washington Spirit after refusing to wear a Pride jersey.  Jaelene Daniels refused to play for North Carolina Courage in the NWSL game against Washington Spirit on Friday because her team were wearing a Pride jersey.  The Courage held its first ever Pride Night on Friday around the game but a spokesperson for the team told WRAL-TV in North Carolina that the 29-year-old Daniels, a devout Christian, had chosen not to participate.  'Jaelene will not be rostered tonight as she has made the decision to not wear our Pride jersey,' the spokesperson said.  'While we're disappointed with her choice, we respect her right to make that decision for herself.

Australian Rugby Players Revolt After Being Told to Wear Gay Pride Jersey.  Up to seven players from the Manly rugby league club in Sydney, Australia, are threatening to boycott their match Thursday after a decision was made without consultation for them to wear a gay pride jersey in the fixture.  Management of the Sea Eagles, as they are known, announced on Sunday night [7/24/2022] players would wear an LGBTQIA+ jersey for the match, with a rainbow design replacing the strip's traditional white hoops.  That decision has caused unrest among some players unhappy they were not consulted by club management, ABC News Australia reports.

Conservatives need to stop supporting people who hate them.  In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the corporate and entertainment world have joined the pro-abortion chorus in denouncing the decision, the Court, and the pro-life movement.  Their reaction has been swift and predictable. [...] Not to be outdone, the NBA and WNBA released a statement saying in part:  "We stand in solidarity with those who fear for the repercussions of the Supreme Court decision."  NBA star LeBron James, who plays nice with the Chinese Communist Party, says the Dobbs decision is about "power and control."  Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. national soccer team described the decision as "cruelty."  Former Tennis star Billie Jean King said, "It is a sad day in the United States."

Sports Illustrated says SCOTUS ruling for praying coach 'erodes democracy'.  Sports Illustrated is taking heavy fire over a tweet suggesting that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a former high school football coach who was fired for kneeling in silent prayer after games would be a blow against democracy, the latest example of the sad decay of a magazine that was once an American institution before it became a propaganda vehicle for radical leftist ideology.  The nation's highest court will decide the case of Joe Kennedy, a retired USMC gunnery sergeant and combat veteran who in 2015 was fired by the Bremerton School District in Washington State for honoring God at the 50-yard-line at the completion of games.  He was unceremoniously dumped from his job after refusing to obey orders to cease and desist resulting in a long legal battle that has made its way to the SCOTUS.  SI, which has celebrated cop-hating, anti-American heel Colin Kaepernick as its sportsperson of the year and specializes in evangelizing for the "woke" left, has a serious problem with the bedrock principle of religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution and decried a ruling in Kennedy's favor as a danger to "democracy" — a term that has been hijacked by power-drunk Democrats and the cultural revolutionary left.

Washington Commanders coach fined $100,000 after calling Jan. 6 a 'dust-up'.  Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was hit with a $100,000 fine Friday for calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a "dust-up."  Commanders head coach Ron Rivera made the announcement in a statement posted to social media.  "This morning I met with Coach Del Rio to express how disappointed I am in his comments on Wednesday," the statement said.  "His comments do not reflect the organization's views and are extremely hurtful to our great community here in the DMV.  As we saw last night in the hearings, what happened on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an act of domestic terrorism.  A group of citizens attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, and as a result, lives were lost and the Capitol building was damaged."

The Editor says...
Almost every aspect of Mr. Rivera's statement is either untrue or misleading.  There was no "free and fair election."  The 2020 presidential election was stolen, and the proceeds given to Joe Biden, who is just venal enough to accept the position to which he knows he was not genuinely elected.  There was no "domestic terrorism," except on the part of the FBI agitators placed in the otherwise harmless crowd.  The televised circus last night proved no such thing.  Why do football teams have political positions, anyway?

Coach's comments deal another blow to Commanders reputation.  The NFL's Washington Commanders once again find themselves at the center of an off-the-field issue that has nothing to do with football, dealing another blow to their rapidly sagging reputation as one of the most dysfunctional franchises in professional sports.  The fallout from the latest misstep requiring an explanation or apology — assistant coach Jack Del Rio comparing the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — could have far-reaching consequences beyond the locker room.  It immediately scuttled the team's best opportunity to reach a deal to build a new stadium, which was the most important long-term project facing owner Dan Snyder amid a lengthy drought without a playoff victory and a dearth of fan enthusiasm.

The NFL fines a Redskins coach for failing to take January 6 seriously.  Jack Del Rio, the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins (and yes, I'm deadnaming a football team originally named to honor the Native American fighting spirit), very politely suggested that, if the Democrats are going to get hysterical about January 6, they also need to take seriously the summer of BLM riots.  For his temerity in failing to respect Saint George Floyd, the drug-addicted ex-con, and not taking sufficiently seriously the worst day in American history since Southerners fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, the Redskin's head coach fined him $100,000.  It all started when Del Rio tweeted out that he cannot understand why so much attention is being paid to January 6, a day of minimal destruction and only one death (at the hands of a Capitol police office), and so little to the BLM riots, which caused dozens of death and billions of dollars of damage across America:  [Tweet]  In a subsequent press conference, Del Rio doubled down on his query, stating it calmly and respectfully, while reminding assembled reporters that free speech is an American right.

Commanders NFL Coach Fines Assistant $100K Over 'Dust up' Remarks, Comparison of BLM Riots and Jan. 6.  [Scroll down]  Unfortunately, as we have seen happen time and again in these high-profile situations, Jack Del Rio decided he had better bend the knee, take his lumps — and keep his high-paying job.  Later on in the day, he made his mea culpa through an obviously forced press release, via social media:  [Tweet]  On Friday, the coach of the Commanders, Ron Rivera released his own statement — not only highlighting his employee's apparent failure as a good enough soldier for the left's narrative du jour about what happened on January 6 in D.C. — but fining Del Rio $100,000, to boot.  When this is the obvious result of apologizing to the mob, I can't feel much sympathy for Del Rio.  He made his own bed.

Baseball players attacked for not wearing 'Pride Night' special uniforms.  [The Tampa Bay Rays] recently decided to engage in a little shameless virtue signaling by literally wearing their support for the LGBTQIIA+ Community on their sleeves. [...] Rays' president Matt Silverman stated, "Our Pride Nights continue to grow both in terms of visibility and participation.  By doing this, we extend an invitation not just for this game but for all of our games that the LGBTQ+ community is invited, welcomed, and celebrated." Apparently, heterosexual Christians need not apply, so to speak.  However, not every Rays player was eager to be used in this manner.  The Times reported that at least five members of the squad removed the rainbow burst logos from their jersey sleeves and donned the team's standard cap instead of the Pride cap sporting a rainbow-colored "TB" on the front.

At least five Tampa Bay Rays players refuse to wear uniforms with LGBTQ rainbow logos for Pride month.  A number of Tampa Bay Rays players decided not to wear rainbow-colored logos on their uniforms as part of the team's annual 'Pride Night' on Saturday [6/4/2022].  In the buildup to Saturday's MLB game against the Chicago White Sox, which also marked the franchise's annual 16th Pride Night celebration, the Rays added rainbow-colored logos to their uniforms, caps and on the right sleeve of their shirts.  'Our Pride Nights continue to grow both in terms of visibility and participation,' Rays president Matt Silverman told the Tampa Bay Times.  'By doing this, we extend an invitation not just for this game but for all of our games that the LGBTQ+ community is invited, welcomed and celebrated.'

The Editor says...
Homosexuality is nothing to celebrate.  Neither is pride.

Milwaukee Brewers to Host Drag Queen Night.  It's Pride Month again, and that means corporations all over are busy virtue-signaling.  In Milwaukee, the Brewers baseball team is getting into the spirit of the season by hosting Pride Night next Wednesday at their ballpark, a place whose name has taken on a new irony:  American Family Field.  The family fun Wednesday will include at least four drag queens, and hey, if they already strut their stuff on a routine basis in public libraries and elementary schools (and even Taco Bell), featuring them at baseball games at this late date just shows how hidebound and conservative the Grand Old Game is.  The first thing that Pride Night (no word yet on when the Brewers are hosting Anger Night, or Lust Night, or Sloth Night) at American Travesty of the Family Field is about, of course, is making money.  Drag queens have never, to my knowledge, been big baseball fans, but now that we're all woke and love the LGBTQ alphabet soup, the Brewers are clearly hoping to attract a new fan base that, if it doesn't care anything about the game, can at least ogle the players.

NASCAR continues to abandon its customer base.  Last Sunday NASCAR held its All-Star Race at the Texas Motor Speedway.  There's a big NASCAR fan base in Texas.  If you go to the list of NASCAR tracks, you'll notice that the seating at the tracks is, on average, bigger in conservative states than in progressive states.  Thus, the Texas Motor Speedway seats 137,000 fans while the Watkins Glen International in New York seats 33,000 fans.  The biggest track, in Indiana, seats 257,325 fans, while the track in Portland, Oregon, holds only 30,000 fans.  It's not a perfect political alignment but it's plenty close.  NASCAR fans are male, older (over 45), White, and live in the rural South or Midwest.  Oh, and they're much more likely to be Republicans.  These are, on average, people like me who neither want to punish nor celebrate the LGBTQ+++ crowd and who support Texas's willingness to define as child abuse surgical and chemical "gender" treatments performed on children.  NASCAR, though, has been having a bit of a problem keeping fans.

'Woke' NASCAR Apologizes to LGBTQ Community After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Waves Green Flag at Event.  NASCAR issued an apology Wednesday for "recent actions" that are "not aligned" with its mission after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) waved the green flag ahead of last week's All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway.  The world-famous auto racing and operating company, headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, marked the first day of LGBTQ+ "Pride Month" with a unique version of the pride flag along with a message apologizing for actions it deemed uncharacteristic of its mission.  "As we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, we acknowledge that recent actions have not aligned with NASCAR's mission to be a welcoming sport for all," the company wrote.

The Editor says...
This is a huge marketing mistake on the part of NASCAR.  What percentage of NASCAR fans are homosexuals — particularly in Texas?  If I were to pick the nearest whole number, I'd select ZERO.

MLB's Detroit Tigers to funnel ticket sales to 'gender-affirming' procedures for kids.  The Detroit Tigers will send money to organizations that pay for so-called "gender-affirming surgeries" for minors and adults as part of its "Pride Night" game on Wednesday.  Fans who buy tickets for Wednesday's game can donate a portion of the proceeds to a number of LGBT organizations, including the Ruth Ellis Center, as first reported by National Review.

San Francisco Giants Manager Boycotting National Anthem Until He Feels Better About Direction Of America.  San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters prior to his team's Friday night game against the Cincinnati Reds that he will not be taking the field for the national anthem and will not be doing so until he feels better about the direction of the country in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting that occurred earlier this week.  Journalist Andrew Baggerly tweeted, "Gabe Kapler told reporters in Cincinnati that he doesn't plan on coming out for the national anthem and that will be his plan going forward 'until I feel better about the direction of our country.'"

Miami Heat blatantly politicize Texas tragedy.  Decent people — and organizations — do not politicize a tragedy.  They do not use a tragedy to further their own aims or agenda.  Nor do they take advantage of a calamity in a blatant, public attempt at virtue-signaling.  There is no virtue in that.  Prior to Wednesday night's NBA playoff game between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, the stadium announcer stated:  "The Heat organization, the Boston Celtics and the NBA family also mourn those who lost their lives in the senseless shooting that took place yesterday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas." [...] A moment of silence was then observed for the 19 children and two teachers who were slaughtered by an apparently mentally ill 18-year-old named Salvador Ramos.  And then the Heat broadcast the following announcement:  "The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave a message demanding their support for commonsense gun laws.  You can also make change at the ballot box.  Visit Heat.com/vote to register and let your voice be heard this fall."  This is unprecedented and deeply disturbing.  So now major league professional sports teams are going to urge fans attending games to contact their representatives to lobby for or against specific causes, policies and bills in a manner that fits their political agenda?

MLB teams go political over gun control on social media accounts.  Two Major League Baseball teams announced a collaboration on Thursday to use their social media accounts to post facts about gun violence instead of posting updates from their game.  The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays cited recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. [...] The Tampa Bay Rays donated $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety, billionaire Michael Bloomberg's pet project promoting gun control. [...] The teams shared gun violence statistics on their Twitter and Instagram accounts.  Sorry, legit baseball fans looking to catch the score.  You're being lectured by baseball teams on the evils of gun ownership.

Activist Who Renounced US Citizenship Knocked Out of French Open in First Round.  Naomi Osaka, the leftwing activist and former tennis champion who renounced her American citizenship to represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics, suffered an embarrassing loss in the first round of the French Open on Monday.  New Jersey native Amanda Anisimova, 20, defeated the four-time Grand Slam winner 7-5, 6-4 at Roland Garros.  Osaka, 23, said following the match that she didn't know if she would be "motivated" enough to take part in next month's Wimbledon tournament.  "I'm not 100 percent sure if I'm going to go [to Wimbledon]," Osaka said.

Muslim soccer player refuses to wear rainbow jersey backing LBGTQ, sits out game — now leftists smell blood: 'Homophobia is not an opinion but a crime'.  Idrissa Gueye — a Muslim soccer player for French team Paris Saint-Germain — refused to wear a jersey adorned with rainbow-colored numbers in support of an LBGTQ agenda and sat out his team's 4-0 Saturday win against Montpellier, the Daily Mail reported.  Now, one activist group wants an investigation, and others want Gueye punished.  The Daily Mail said players across France wore the special jerseys over the weekend in solidarity with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, which takes place Tuesday [5/17/2022].  Gueye's manager Mauricio Pochettino said the player's absence from the match was for "personal reasons, but he is not injured," the outlet added.

America-Hating WNBA Player Brittney Griner's Russian Nightmare Goes From Bad To Worse.  Brittney Griner had been one of the premier players in the WNBA.  She is undeniably a blessed athlete, standing at 6'9" tall with remarkable coordination and agility for such a large athlete.  She's an Olympic gold medalist, a league champion, and has received scores of individual awards honoring her athletic achievements.  And along with those physical blessings have come financial rewards as well, with Griner reportedly worth in excess of $3 million.  One might assume that someone like Brittney Griner would have been grateful for her gifts.  For her natural size and abilities.  For her good fortune in being able to stay healthy despite a rigorous athletic schedule.  And considering that Griner is both gay and a racial minority, we certainly might expect Griner to have been thankful for being an American and living in a country that provides unequaled opportunity and tolerance.  But that wasn't the case.

Megan Rapinoe Hardest Hit as Finger-Pointing Begins After 'Subway' Releases Dismal 2021 Numbers.  Women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe is in the news again, and this time around the story doesn't involve any goals she's hit or missed (though the NWSL's 2022 regular season started Friday) or any complaints from her about alleged gender pay gap issues but rather the finger-pointing that has begun in her direction after public filings from the Subway fast-food franchise revealed some pretty dismal 2021 numbers.  Per the New York Post, Subway had to close "1,043 more outlets across the US than it opened in 2021," which diminished "Subway's total footprint by nearly five percent."  It lost more in 2020 (1,609), presumably in part due to the coronavirus pandemic.  But as for what's at the root of the 2021 closures, there are a number of issues potentially to blame, including "tougher" efforts from the company's CEO to get locations stay open more days during the week and work more hours to cover all meal shifts, and also how some customers turned their backs on Subway after they ran several ads in 2021 featuring Rapinoe, a prominent woketivist known for kneeling during the national anthem and being a lousy spokesperson for "women's equality."

Woke Company Still Suffering After Featuring Angry, Far-Left Megan Rapinoe In Ads.  I don't really know anyone that eats at Subway anymore — it offers stale bread, tasteless lunch meats, and soggy vegetables.  At least back in the day you could get full for $5, but even now a basic sub runs almost double that.  The sinister Covid lockdowns didn't do much for Subway's business, either.  Of course, no analysis of Subway's futile decline would be complete without accounting for their hair-brained hiring of pink-haired ingrate Megan Rapinoe. [...] Megan Rapinoe is tanking the Subway brand, but her embarrassments don't stop there.  Just a few months ago, she was snubbed by her coach and program, being left off the next internationally-competing squad.  The thirty-eight-year-old self-centered brat is closing in on the tail end of her career, and not a moment too soon.

ESPN Host Goes On EPIC Rant, Torches Colin Kaepernick For Four Whole Minutes.  Stephen A. Smith is someone with whom sane people rarely agree.  He is loud, obnoxious, and intentionally controversial.  Rational dialogue doesn't get clicks, and credit to him for carving out a niche where people love to hate him.  I mean, I don't know who can stand watching him and he's absolutely part of the corporate media problem, but he gets paid by ESPN for doing his schtick, so there's that.  The free market works.  On the subject of the enslaved millionaire Colin Kaepernick, ingratitude personified, Smith has had some of the worst takes. [...] Somehow, though, this raving leftist lunatic saw the light.  It was dimmed, because he still threw in hackneyed lines about Kaepernick getting screwed over and the system being rigged, but overall, his rant is on point.  Credit where credit is due, this guy nailed what we've been saying for years.

Colin Kaepernick reveals he's desperate to return to NFL.  Colin Kaepernick has claimed his decision to take the knee during the national anthem was good for the NFL's bottom line.  Speaking in a newly-released interview, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback also took issue with claims made by league executives that re-hiring him would be 'bad for business'.

NY Hockey Fans Show Their Gov Hochul What They Think Of Her By Booing Her Mercilessly.  Gov. Kathy Hochul was met with loud jeers as she donned a New York Rangers jersey for the ceremonial puck drop before the team's Tuesday night home game against the Anaheim Ducks.  The chorus of jeers rang down from the rafters as Hochul walked to center ice to kick off the game and she was introduced over the PA.  The state's first female governor was honored as part of "Women's Empowerment Night" at the Garden, announcers told fans over the loudspeaker, according to footage shared to social media.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
[#1] Is it no longer possible to attend a hockey game without having to listen to a political speech delivered by the PA announcer?  [#2] Politicians attend events like this for their benefit, not yours.  There are very few cases where this is not necessarily true, and the only one that comes to mind is the long-standing tradition of the President of the United States throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the beginning of the baseball season.

MLB players who refused COVID shot won't get paid for missed games in Canada: report.  Major League Baseball (MLB) players who have chosen not to take one of the abortion-tainted COVID shots will likely not get paid for missed games due to Canada's vaccine passport system.  The latest collective bargaining agreement reportedly does not protect players who cannot travel to play the Toronto Blue Jays due to Canada's restriction on visitors who have declined to get jabbed.  The MLB season starts April 7.

Brittney Griner Hates America and Deserves to Languish in a Russian Prison.  Despite allegedly happening a few weeks ago, news is now circulating that WNBA standout Brittney Griner is being detained in Russia for the reported crime of traveling with hashish oil.  The charge comes with a possible sentence of up to ten years in prison. [...] In the summer of 2020, following the drug overdose by George Floyd, Griner explained that she would be protesting the playing of the national anthem before games by remaining in the locker room.  She went on to say that:  "I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season.  I think we should take that much of a stand."  Before that, Griner felt called to social activism when Republican-led states sought to restrict male pedophiles from entering women's restrooms.  Desite her young age and limited impact anywhere, one article even promoted her to one of the "most influential social activists" in sports history because of it.

Toyota Ad Says Kaepernick Anthem Protest Was 'Sign of Respect to the Military'.  A new Toyota commercial featuring Colin Kaepernick claims the former NFL quarterback's controversial national anthem protest was a "sign of respect to the military."  The ad, which aired Friday morning on Howard University's radio station, says Kaepernick's decision to go "on one knee" during the national anthem "came as a sign of respect to the military" and "changed the world."  The commercial also calls Kaepernick a "two-time Super Bowl quarterback," which is false.  Kaepernick appeared in one Super Bowl, a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Woke Soccer Player Megan Rapinoe Left Off U.S. Women's Team Roster.  The wokest of all U.S. national sports teams just got a little less woke.  U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) head coach Vlatko Andonovski has called up a roster that features youth and players the team will rely on in the future.  It does not, however, feature noted USWNT anthem-protester Megan Rapinoe.

As the Racing Season Opens, NASCAR Finds Itself With Some Political Engine Trouble.  [Scroll down]  There is a difference, however, between the political actions with NASCAR, and those seen in recent years in other sports, as the energy behind the issues seems to be flowing in the opposite direction.  Unlike, say, in the NFL with national anthem protests, or the NBA going all-in with Black Lives Matter activism, NASCAR has repeatedly been in the position of having to act against the intents of its fan base, rather than attempting to foist a message onto those watching the sport.  The governors have repeatedly taken action seemingly in an effort to appease those outside the sport — and in opposition to those who support racing.  It began years ago, when the sport's offices put out a message imploring fans to refrain from flying the Confederate flag at NASCAR events.

Brandon Brown signs '8-figure' LGBcoin sponsorship despite NASCAR ban.  [Brandon Brown, the] NASCAR Xfinity series driver has inked a two-year sponsorship deal worth with the cryptocurrency worth a reported "eight figures," even though he has been banned from advertising it on his race car.  The exact dollar amount of the deal was not announced, but LGBcoin said Brown is now a "holder" of the currency and his spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business that he is being paid in "both cash and coin."

NASCAR driver reverses stance on 'Let's go, Brandon'.  NASCAR driver Brandon Brown has turned a corner and decided to completely and outwardly embrace the political slogan inadvertently inspired by his namesake, "Let's go, Brandon" after previously trying to distance himself from the phrase.  The 28-year-old racecar driver unveiled a new racecar that uses the popular acronym for the phrase, "LBG," [sic] as part of a cryptocurrency promotion for LBGCoin [sic] which promotes itself on Twitter as a "meme coin inspiring patriotism."

The Editor says...
It's LGBcoin, not LBGcoin.  I suppose LGBTcoin is something else altogether.

Xfinity Driver Brandon Brown Unveils Anti-Biden-Themed Cryptocurrency As 2022 Partner.  NASCAR Xfinity driver Brandon Brown tweeted that he has a primary partner for the 2022 season — LGBCoin, a "cryptocurrency meme coin" whose first three letters stand for "Let's Go Brandon."  However, NASCAR has not approved it nor has the approval process begun as of Thursday evening despite Brandonbilt Motorsports' announcement.  "We are thrilled to partner with Brandonbilt Motorsports and Brandon Brown for the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season," said James Koutoulas, LGBcoin HODLer and founder of Typhoon Capital Management, in a news release.  "Brandon is not only an incredibly talented driver, but also a thoughtful individual wise beyond his years.  His commitment and singular focus on his profession is inspiring and his personal story is one that we can all be proud of — an American story of success and perseverance.  Brandon is truly America's Driver."

NASCAR Caves! 'Let's Go Brandon' Race Car Put on Hold.  As Joe Biden's popularity and approval rating continue to fall, the popularity of the "Let's Go Brandon" slogan continues to rise.  However, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown was told by NASCAR authorities that his "Let's Go Brandon"-sponsored car will have to be re-evaluated.  Is NASCAR caving to the left?  [Video clip]

NASCAR is throwing away one of the best marketing opportunities in its history.
NASCAR rejects Brandon Brown's 'Let's go, Brandon'-themed car.  NASCAR has officially rejected Brandon Brown's "Let's Go Brandon" sponsorship deal.  According to multiple news reports, the auto-racing giant told Mr. Brown's team that cryptocurrency firm LGBCoin cannot sponsor his car.  The company's first three letters are an allusion to "Let's Go, Brandon," the coded form of a vulgar insult of President Biden.

Does NASCAR have a death wish?  A pair of reports yesterday lead me to question the sanity of the management of NASCAR, the privately held giant of the sport of stock car racing.  While I am far from an expert on auto racing, and have never been to a NASCAR race, I have a rough idea of who attends their races and what the political preferences of the fans are. [...] The entire "Let's go Brandon" craze began at a NASCAR track when an NBC reporter pretended the crowd chanting "F--- Joe Biden" were instead chanting "Let's go Brandon," in celebration of the victory of Brandon Brown, whom she was interviewing live on-air.  So, we have pretty good idea that NASCAR fans tend to be political conservatives.  If the sport's Southern origins and male, blue collar atmosphere were not clues enough.

Background information:
Linguistic Weaponry and the Rhetorical Mechanics of "Let's Go Brandon!"  For those who are unfamiliar with the phrase, "Let's Go, Brandon!" has become a rallying cry for those opposed to Biden and his agenda.  Only a few months after the inauguration, as the nation sat in stunned awe of the new administration's remarkable ineptitude, crowds across the nation began impromptu chants of "[...] Joe Biden" at public events.  Personally, I use very little profanity and I still hold to the old idea that even if you can't respect a particular President, some respect is owed to the office.  But over the course of decades, the left has worked aggressively to normalize the practice of telling the President to [get lost] (when he isn't a Democrat).  Their victory was consolidated when Trump's ascendancy brought with it a 4-year tsunami of vulgarity from leftists of all stripes, bravely "speaking truth to power" by inexplicably telling others to do to Trump what Stormy Daniels did.  But only months after Trump's exit, leftists lamented the new norm they created:  they were aghast at Americans' lack of decorum in speaking of the President.  Wherever calls of "[...] Joe Biden" arose, there were efforts undertaken to distract from them, avoid broadcasting them, or otherwise silence them.  Then, in the aftermath of an October auto race, as the victor Brandon Brown was interviewed on a television broadcast, the crowd began the familiar chorus of "[...] Joe Biden."  In a predictable effort to redirect attention from Biden's failure to the matter at hand, the interviewer said "And you can hear the chants from the crowd: 'Let's Go, Brandon!"  In that moment, a meme was born.

The NFL is funding 'defund the police' groups.  The NFL funds groups that openly advocate for defunding the police.  Through the Inspire Change program, funded by the League, the NFL backs the Vera Institute of Justice, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, and the Community Justice Exchange.  Each of these support defunding or even abolishing police.  Fox Business uncovered that the NFL gave $300,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center, which has called for police defunding as well as other social justice measures. [...] The Vera Institute of Justice advocates for the abolishment of prisons, and for language changes to be put into effect in order to not "dehumanize" criminals.

NFL funding 'defund the police' groups through 'Inspire Change' program.  The National Football League's "Inspire Change" partners, which receive financial backing from the multibillion-dollar league, include multiple groups that have openly advocated for defunding the police, a Fox News Digital review of the program found.  Groups who have received funds as part of "Inspire Change," the NFL's social justice initiative, include the Vera Institute of Justice, the Oregon Justice Resource Center and the Community Justice Exchange.  All three of those groups support defunding or abolishing the police, a review of their public statements shows.  While the NFL's general support of social justice causes is widely known, the fact that the league is propping up groups trying to defund police departments has not been previously reported.

A Brief Guide to Leftist Destruction.  Until last year, sports was a great American unifier.  It was one place Americans could go and, leaving politics behind, Left and Right, Democrat and Republican could root for the same team.  No longer.  The Left has ruined it by radically politicizing baseball, football and basketball.

Perception is Not Reality.  Television ratings for sports, cable news, entertainment and children's programming are all nose-diving in direct proportion to the amount of agenda-driven ideology being pumped into the content.  No amount of denial, self-deception or spin among the left can change the fact that the public wholly rejects their nightmarish fever-visions for humanity.  What was once a subtle and nuanced bias in the media has become a sledgehammer of over-the-top propaganda, and the viewers are voting with their wallets and TV remotes to reject such indoctrination tactics.

NBA coach compares Christopher Columbus to Hitler.  The coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich, actually compared Christopher Columbus to Hitler today in a manner of speaking as he was trashing schools in San Antonio for not getting rid of the holiday altogether:  As Popovich expressed dismay that any school in his city would honor Christopher Columbus at all, he also dismissed his anti-Columbus hate as an attack on Italian Americans:  "It's no knock on Italian Americans.  That's a silly argument.  It's like saying, 'We should be proud of Hitler because we are German.'  It makes no sense.  It's about Columbus.  It's not about Italian Americans."  Popovich calls Columbus a genocidal monster, when that's the furthest thing from the truth.

College Football and the NFL: Two Different Americas.  Football is back — and so are the fans.  America no longer sees empty stadiums on TV, as people return to watching the games in person.  But Americans will notice sharp differences between college and professional football, and it's not just the skill of their players.  The pros seem to embrace Biden's New America, while college ball still evokes the old America.  The pros embrace social justice messages, while college ball steers clear.  Unlike other pro leagues, the NFL decided to carry on wokeness for the 2021 season.  The NBA famously painted Black Lives Matter on its courts and encouraged players to turn their jerseys into social justice billboards.  The basketball league suffered a ratings decline and consequently decided it would be unwise to continue this practice.  The NFL also saw its ratings drop, but league officials wouldn't let that get in the way of their BLM advocacy.

The Editor says...
If you watch a football game on TV, and the game is about to start, and some BLM ceremony breaks out, the so-called Black National Anthem is played, or some other repugnant insult is hurled your way, don't just turn the sound off.  Switch to another TV channel for a few minutes.  If your "smart" TV is connected to the internet, and it probably is, this will send a clear message to the Nielsen ratings people (and thus to the networks) that you won't put up with that stuff.

NFL will allow social justice phrases on helmets this season.  The NFL will allow players to choose from six different social justice phrases to wear on the back of their helmets for the 2021 season as the league re-ups its efforts in their Inspire Change initiative.  The league also said teams will be allowed to have the phrases "It Takes All of Us" and "End Racism" emblazoned in their end zones.

New Texas Law Requires Pro Teams In The State To Repay Money If They Don't Play The National Anthem.  Pro sports teams in Texas refusing to play the national anthem will be making a very expensive decision.  According to Outkick, a new Texas law took effect September 1 that requires all pro sports teams to play the national anthem or repay any government money received.  [Tweet]  Seeing as how most pro sports arenas are at least publicly funded in part, teams that refuse to play the national anthem could be on the hook for an outrageous amount of money.  For those of you who might not remember, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tried to stop his team from playing the national anthem and his choice caused massive backlash.

Biden Takes a Knee During Photo-Op With WNBA Champions.  The WNBA champions apparently do have time for losers.  Even as thousands of Americans have been left stranded in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the Seattle Storm came to the White House for a photo-op with Joe Biden to celebrate their victory.  The Storm are the first NBA or WNBA team to visit the White House since the Cleveland Cavaliers came in 2016.  But their return to the White House came with an awkward, cringeworthy moment, when Biden, during a photo-op, bizarrely kneeled in front of the team as he showed off a jersey that read "Biden 46"

Time to Convert to Soccer?  A lifelong baseball fan, I abandoned the game this year after MLB sided with the Democratic Party in its campaign against ballot integrity in Georgia.  It wasn't just that: my home town team has put a "Black Lives Matter" sign and a memorial to George Floyd in right field.  If I can't escape politics at a baseball game, I'd rather go somewhere else.  For the first time in decades, I haven't seen a major league baseball game this year.  Not only that, I haven't watched or listened to a single pitch on radio or television.

Losers, in more ways than one.
U.S. Women's Soccer Team Takes Stunning Loss After Kneeling For BLM At Olympic Opener.  The U.S. women's soccer team took a devastating 3-0 loss to Sweden early Wednesday morning in their Tokyo Olympic opener, breaking their 44-game winning streak.  All 22 players on Team USA took a knee in solidarity with the radical leftist group Black Lives Matter before the game, a major point of contention with U.S. fans.

Joe Biden's Misery Index Rises.  [Scroll down]  Other highlights in this week of continuing political disappointment include [...] the news that the National Football League will play what is generally regarded as the African-American anthem "Lift Every Voice" prior to the national anthem at their games this year, and have "social justice messaging" interspersed among other diversions at the games and on the players' outfits.  If one looks hard enough, the social justice of an NFL game is probably not found in the affront to the U.S. flag and anthem of obscenely overpaid athletes milking their natural gifts through 20-hour week/seven-month work years.  Instead of rolling over like poodles, the NFL owners should have contracted the league, expelled the most demonstrative malcontents, and chucked the invertebrate commissioner, Roger Goodell.  If they had done that and asked the fans for support they would have received it, and the anti-American players would have straggled back eventually.  At least, unlike the National Basketball Association, they haven't yet been suborned by the Communist Party of China.

NFL launches new ad proclaiming 'football is gay, football is lesbian...'  The National Football League (NFL) recently joined virtually every other American institution in lauding — and marketing to — the LGBTQ Community during Pride Month in June.  It did so by releasing a new 30-second commercial proudly proclaiming that "football is gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, bisexual and exciting."  The ad begins by stating "football is gay" to the sound of drums rolling and people cheering. [...] "Football" is pandering.  Football is pathetic.  Football will say or do anything to chase down the very last potential viewer/customer.  I'm surprised the ad didn't also state, "Football is Chinese."

NFL 'will play the black national anthem 'Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing' before the Star Spangled Banner at its 2021 season games'.  The NFL plans to play the 'black national anthem' before every game in the first week of the 2021 season, according to a new report.  Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing, will be performed before The Star-Spangled Banner to kick off each game in Week 1, beginning with the September 10 season opener when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans.  A source familiar with the league's discussions confirmed the controversial change to ESPN's The Undefeated on Thursday.

Report: The NFL Will Have More Social Justice Messaging During The 2021 Season.  The NFL reportedly plans on ramping up social justice messaging during the upcoming season.  According to Front Office Sports, the league "will introduce more social justice messaging on fields and player helmets during the upcoming 2021 season, following up on initial efforts from 2020."

MLB All-Star Game Limps to Second Lowest Ratings in History.  Any Guesses Why?  Go woke, go broke.  Major League Baseball is learning the hard way that catering to the far left isn't remotely helping their desperate attempts to resurrect what once was America's proud pastime.  MLB's All-Star Game, played Tuesday night [7/13/2021], predictably tanked in the Nielsen ratings, delivering the second-lowest official total in the sport's history.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the game narrowly avoided "a third straight all-time audience low" with 8.24 million viewers, "about 100,000 more than the 2019 game's 8.14 million."  Except, it's quite possible that this could indeed be the game's lowest ever viewership.  Why?  According to THP, "It's also worth noting that the Nielsen figures for Tuesday include out of home viewing and 2019's do not."  Ouch!

Get Ready for the Wokest Olympics Ever!  [Scroll down]  Those earlier athletes never took a knee during the National Anthem.  They were Americans first and always.  Finally, when those athletes took to the field, they understood that fans came to watch a sporting event, not a protest.  When it came time to play, they let their talent do the talking.  That concept is lost on the modern day woke activist-athlete and the enablers in social and sports media.  Today, you don't even have to be that good to get noticed, so long as you openly align yourself with a cause supported by the political left.  It's often difficult to understand even what the cause is, as many of woke can only speak in platitudes.

Most Black People Oppose Olympic Protests Like Gwen Berry's:  I&I/TIPP Poll.  When hammer thrower Gwen Berry decided to protest the national anthem at an Olympic trials event last month, she raised the prospect that athletes will try to use the Tokyo Olympics to disparage their own nation.  If they do so, they will get precious little support at home.  The latest I&I/TIPP poll finds that the public overwhelmingly rejects athletes showing disrespect for the American flag at international games.  The poll found that 79% of the public say it's important "for professional athletes to publicly respect the American flag on the international level," with 60% saying it is "very important."  Just 16% of the adults surveyed think it's not important.

How Barack Obama Begot Gwen Berry.  "I never said that I hated the country," said Gwen Berry, the world's most famous hammer thrower — male, female or non-binary.  "All I said was I respect my people enough to not stand or acknowledge something that disrespects them.  I love my people point blank, period."  Berry, who finished third in the female hammer throw at the U.S. track and field Olympic Trials, was attempting to explain why she turned her back on the National Anthem.  If her subversive pout appalled half of America, it surprised no one.  In the year 2021, sports fans have come to expect athletes, black and white, to disrespect symbols of national pride.  It didn't use to be this way.  When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, race relations were better than they had ever been.  As to athletic protests, it had been forty years since any Olympian grabbed the kind of attention Berry got.

I Shouldn't Be Forced Into Politics To Play College Sports.  "Black Lives Matter is not political, it's basic human rights," my coaching staff and teammates heading our new "Call to Action Committee" told me and the other team members after practice.  They were responding to some of the concerns I had expressed prior to the team meeting.  By the next game, while running out of the tunnel 10 of my 13 Davidson College teammates and all four of my coaches were wearing T-shirts with "Black Lives Matter" bannered across the front.  When the national anthem played and with our U.S. Army veteran team doctor behind us, most of my team dropped to one knee in protest of America's "institutional racism."  The virtue signaling was clear: those wearing the T-shirt and those on their knees supported basic human rights, and the rest of us simply did not.  Political messaging in sports isn't new, but the grip and scale this possesses over sports is.

Biden BACKS anthem tantrum athlete.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended hammer thrower Gwen Berry's right to 'peacefully protest,' after the Tokyo-bound athlete turned her back on the US flag during Olympic trials.  Psaki told Fox News' Peter Doocy at Monday's press briefing that while she and President Joe Biden hadn't spoken specifically about the incident, Biden is 'incredibly proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem and all that it respresents, especially for our men and women serving in uniform all around the world.'  'He would also say, of course, that part of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we are, as a country, haven't lived up to our highest ideals, and that means respecting the rights of people, granted to them in the Constitution, to peacefully protest,' Psaki added.

Psaki defends Gwen Berry's anti-America Olympic tantrum as right to peaceful protest.  As if the Biden administration couldn't sink any lower than it already has, in comes White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki to dig the hole deeper. [...] Is there any other leader on the face of the planet who endorses a position like that?  It almost suggests [Biden]'s not in the White House legitimately, given the contempt he holds for the flag of the nation he supposedly represents.  It's really incredible.  This is the man who sends men into battle and expects them to die for that flag.  Now he's defending an athlete who lived a cosseted existence yet who was able to develop her talents only courtesy of the United States of America, in self-centered ingratitude that insults every other American who has fought and died for the flag of her freedom and opportunity?  He doesn't care.  All he cares about is his own power by fair means or foul.  The country is optional to him.  So is the flag.

Gwen Berry, Flag-Snubbing US Track And Field Star, Defended By The White House.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki Monday defended U.S. track and field star Gwen Berry's decision to turn her back on the nation's flag, saying Berry was seeking to "peacefully protest" the moments that Americans "haven't lived up to our highest ideals."  Berry, 31, placed third over the weekend in the hammer throw during the U.S. Olympic trials, earning her a spot on the team.  As the National Anthem was played, she turned from the flag.

NFL says 'Football is gay' in new commercial that makes clear its support of LGBTQ+ community.  As Pride Month comes to a close, the NFL has released a new commercial that makes clear its support and embrace of the LGBTQ+ community.  The 30-second spot begins with the line, "Football is gay" as light cheering plays in the background.  "Football is lesbian.  Football is beautiful.  Football is queer.  Football is life.  Football is exciting.  Football is culture.  Football is transgender.  Football is queer.  Football is heart.  Football is power.  Football is tough.  Football is bisexual.  Football is strong.  Football is freedom.  Football is American.  Football is accepting.  Football is everything.  Football is for everyone."

'Pride' Night at the Old Ballpark.  Major League Baseball teams have been celebrating "Pride Month" via Pride Nights at ballparks across the Majors.  June is Pride Month, in case you've missed the hype.  Outdoing itself, the MLB is partying "all season long."  One wonders why there needs to be a month of any celebration.  Should October be refashioned as "Halloween Month?"  Is there an "Irish Month," which St. Patrick's Day is the capstone?  And why limit Groundhog Day to a day?  Yet gay pride is now LGBTQ+ (the plus is currently optional) pride because being homosexual isn't enough.  Every sexual variant not heterosexual and practiced by a tiny minority of people is to be granted a month's worth of recognition and celebration.  The Grand Old Game has no reprieve from being rainbowed.

Hate to break it to you, but Major League Baseball just got even worse.  Coming off the All-Star Game P.R. debacle, where they moved the game out of Atlanta, MLB is upping its radical chic several notches with its latest political advocacy.  On the anniversary of George Floyd's death, MLB highlighted its social justice initiatives, which are a series of suggested readings, video viewings, and social justice activities that it recommends people do.  Nothing like giving your customers a homework assignment.  And they wonder why people find baseball less fun these days.  As you can imagine, the suggestions they give are real humdingers.  For instance, they advise we read Dr. Ibrahim X Kendi.  Kendi is a totalitarian utopist who is popular on the P.C. lecture circuit.  He believes that capitalism is inherently racist and advocates for a Department of Anti-Racism.

Major League Baseball Team Becomes First in the League to Wear 'Pride' Uniforms.  Baseball just got brighter.  This Saturday, fans of the San Francisco Giants will get a multicolored treat to the tune of commemorative uniforms.  As hailed by NBC Chicago, the Giants will "become (the) first MLB team with Pride Month hats (and) jerseys."

Eugene Chung claims NFL team said he's 'not the right minority' in job interview.  NFL assistant coach Eugene Chung says he was told Asians are not the "right minority" when he interviewed for a job this past off-season.  Despite a resume that includes 55 games of experience as an NFL offensive tackle — the first Asian American first-round draft pick in history — and 10 seasons as an assistant coach under Super Bowl winners Andy Reid and Doug Pederson, Chung was turned away.  "It was said to me, 'Well, you're really not a minority,[']" Chung told The Boston Globe.  Chung is Korean, as are both of his parents.

Virginia Little League Coaches Must Attend 'Antiracist' Training.  Little League baseball coaches in Alexandria, Virginia, will be required to take a diversity, equity, and inclusion course this month.  In an email to coaches on Thursday, Alexandria Little League board president Sherry Reilly announced the league's partnership with the Positive Coaching Alliance.  All Little League coaches and board members were asked to cancel practices in order to attend the Sports Can Battle Racism workshop on May 24.  Virginia school districts have mandated similar training for their teachers.  Arlington County schools required teachers to participate in an equity training program in which they were taught how to create an "actively antiracist learning environment."  Loudoun County schools spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on teacher training sessions based on critical race theory — the idea that American institutions are inherently racist.

New Kaepernick book: 'To eradicate anti blackness, we must also abolish the police'.  A new book from controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick calls for the absolute abolishment of all police departments and prisons in the United States, positions that are not popular with the vast majority of Americans, according to polling data.  "In order to eradicate anti-Blackness, we must also abolish the police," is the thesis of the book, which is a collection of 30 essays, one of which is written by the former San Francisco 49ers starter, TMZ reported Wednesday.

Did they do this on Easter Sunday?  I must have missed it.
Miami Dolphins Partner with Radical South Florida Mosque for 'Drive-Thru' Ramadan Meal.  Given all the community food drives the Islamic Center of Greater Miami (ICGM) has conducted, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the testing and vaccinations it has co-sponsored, one could be fooled into thinking that the center is a civic minded institution.  It is easy to understand why the NFL's Miami Dolphins would want to be a part of such "charitable" endeavors.  However, there is a dark side to ICGM — a side linked to terror and bigotry — which overshadows its "charitable" activities, and this makes it incumbent upon the Dolphins or any other group which has chosen to associate with ICGM to sever ties with the Islamic center.

Talladega Superspeedway offering free laps to those who receive COVID-19 vaccine on site.  On Saturday [5/15/2021], the Talladega Superspeedway will be hosting a free drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination and testing site from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.  All participants will be asked to review educational material about COVID-19 vaccine and sign a consent form.  Vaccines will be administered by members of the Alabama National Guard, with a public health nurse present.  After receiving the vaccine, people will wait 15 minutes to be observed for any rare allergic reactions.  Registration is not required, but encouraged.

The Editor says...
If the vaccine is so helpful, and the disease is so terrible, why are incentives necessary?  The answer is obvious:  The disease has been inconsequential to the overwhelming majority of those who have had it, and serious questions are now being asked about what's really in that vaccine and why so many people have had adverse reactions to it.

Woke Takeover:  NFL Hires Katie Hill, Former Obama Comms Director.  The NFL continued its trend of hiring liberal former White House communications and public relations people this week by making former Obama communications director Katie Hill their senior vice president of communications.  "As Senior Vice President, Hill will be responsible for leading the NFL's day-to-day communications operation, aligning the League's communications strategy with its priorities," the NFL wrote in a press release.

Nike, NBA Silent After LeBron James Tweets 'YOU'RE NEXT' at Columbus Cop.  Lakers star LeBron James' sponsors and the league he plays for have remained silent in the wake of his tweet targeting an Ohio police officer.  On Wednesday [4/21/2021], James tweeted a photo of a white Columbus police officer with the caption, "You're next, #Accountability."  But after suffering a major backlash, the player deleted the tweet and attempted to claim that he deleted it to stop people from "creating more hate" over his message.  The explanation for his removal of the tweet did not satisfy many.  But regardless of whether the fans have accepted James' reasoning, his sponsors seem unconcerned by his tweet targeting a police officer.  Thus far, sponsors and partners including Nike, 2K Sports, AT&T, Beats Electronics, Blake Pizza, Coca-Cola, GMC, KIA Motors, Nike, RIMOWA, Upper Deck, State Farm, and Walmart have remained silent over James' threatening tweet.

Ex-Virginia Tech soccer star sues coach, claims he forced her off team because she wouldn't kneel.  Kiersten Hening, a former Virginia Tech women's soccer player, is suing her former coach after she was allegedly benched and forced off the team because she didn't want to kneel during a pregame demonstration last September.  Hening, 21, was a midfielder/defender for the Hokies from 2018 to 2020.  In a federal lawsuit filed last month, Hening said that her former coach, Charles Adair, wasn't a fan of her political views.  According to the documents obtained by TMZ Sports, Hening said during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, she often had a difference of opinion from her teammates on social justice topics.

Trump Savages LeBron James For Threatening a Police Officer's Life.  On Wednesday [4/21/2021], NBA Lakers star LeBron James tweeted something that looked very much like an incitement to murder a police officer.  James rushed to conclusions about the shooting of 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant, a black girl who appears to have been lunging at someone with a deadly knife when the cop shot her.  James later took down the tweet, but he claimed that this shooting represents yet more evidence of systemic racism.  President Donald Trump took him to task on Thursday night.  "LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League," Trump said in a statement.  Recent ratings are indeed at an all-time low after the NBA painted the politically-charged slogan "Black Lives Matter" on its courts.

LeBron James Incited Millions to Murder a Police Officer.  Will It Cost Him Anything?  As America learned that a Columbus, Ohio, police officer shot and killed a teenage girl while she was in the act of wielding a knife at two other girls, NBA star LeBron James took to Twitter and incited his followers against the police officer.  James has 49.6 million Twitter followers and is a hero to millions for winning basketball championships.  He is very influential.

American Businesses can be Woke, or they can be the Best, but they can't be Both.  The fallacious ideas driving the corporate push for diversity, equity, and inclusion are not even the most problematic thing about it.  The push for DE&I is a cancer that results in organizational atrophy for corporate America, not strength or progress.  Consider what it would do to the NBA as a simple example.  Black men account for more than 80-percent of the league's talent.  That's problematic, of course, because only 27-percent of the NBA's fans share those players' skin color.  Shouldn't the product on the court look more like the fans buying the tickets and watching at home, as many corporations now insist should be their basis for hiring talent?  To ostensibly make the product better for fans, imagine that the league decided that only 50-percent of the players entering the league over the coming decade would be Black men.  The other 50-percent would, in an effort to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion, be comprised of other identities that are underrepresented in the NBA, such as whites, Hispanics, and women, the latter of whom currently represent a shocking zero percent among the NBA's players.

Former MLB Star David Wells:  Major League Baseball Losing a Lot of Fans over Political Stance — 'They Don't Want to See That'.  Monday [4/19/2021] on FNC's "Fox & Friends," former Major League Baseball pitcher David Wells sounded off on polling, showing a drop in MLB popularity among Republicans after the league decided to move its All-Star Game out of Georgia.  The move came in response to new election integrity laws.  The two-time World Series champion said changes brought on by "knucklehead" Commissioner Rob Manfred have already turned him off of watching MLB but said the All-Star Game change "put the icing on the cake."

How corporations conspire with Democrats to hoard power at the public's expense.  Georgians adopted voter-integrity measures supported by a large majority of Americans, that are in the mainstream of state regulation and in fact are less stringent than the rules in Delaware, President Joe Biden's home state, and New York.  By more than a 2-1 margin, Americans think such rules are not unfair or discriminatory.  Nonetheless, these measures have produced an unprecedented effort by large corporations to interfere in the workings of a democratic government.  Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game out of (majority-black) Atlanta to (majority-white) Denver in protest.  Coca-Cola's president weighed in against the changes.  And in a statement organized by Kenneth Chenault, former chief executive of American Express, and Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, hundreds of CEOs voiced opposition.

It Sure Looks Like the MLB Made a Big Mistake by Getting Political.  One of the dumbest things a company can do in the corporate world is alienate a large portion of their consumer base.  Appealing to the widest swath of people is just good business because it maximizes the pool from which you can draw profit.  That fact is also true for sports teams, which are still businesses at the end of the day.  You especially don't spit in the face of one of your strongest demographics.  That's exactly what Major League Baseball did, though, and they are learning that lesson the hard way as new data shows just how dumb their decision to get political was.

MLB's favorability rating plummets.  Major League Baseball has suffered a massive loss in popularity among Republicans due to its intervention on the side of Democrats in the political dispute over Georgia's voting law.  According to a poll by Morning Consult, MLB's net favorability rating (the difference between the percentage of those who view the sport positively and those who view it negatively) among Republicans has dropped from 47 points to 12 points in the past month.  Until commissioner Rob Manfred moved the all-star game, MLB was the big-time sports league viewed most favorably by Republicans.  Now, it is viewed less favorably than the NFL and the NHL.  It's still viewed more favorably than the NBA, though.

MLB Is Latest US Pro Sports League to Upset Republicans.  Following Major League Baseball's decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta due to Georgia's new voting law, Republicans are now out on MLB.  MLB's net favorability rating among Republicans was 47% in the middle of March, the highest rating amongst the four major U.S. sports leagues.  Since then, it has crashed to 12%, dropping the league below the NFL (15%) and NHL (26%), according to new data from Morning Consult.  (The NBA has a favorability rating, which is calculated by taking the difference between the share of respondents with a positive opinion of the league and the share with a negative opinion, of -5 among Republicans.)  In general, Republicans have been becoming increasingly dissatisfied with pro sports in the U.S. due to players kneeling during the national anthem, messaging about social justice issues and the relatively recent embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement.  "As a result, Republicans now have a less favorable view than Democrats of all four major U.S. sports leagues," according to Morning Consult's Alex Silverman.

Brett Favre Wants Sports, Politics To Be Separated: 'I want to watch the game'.  Brett Favre thinks politics are hurting sports and would like to see both things go back to being separate.  Favre made comments earlier this week, saying sports are better off being something to unify the country rather than used as a tool to further divide people.  "I think both sides, for the most part, want to see it just remain about the sport, not about politics," the Hall of Famer said.  "At least, that's my interpretation.  I know when I turn on a game, I want to watch the game.  I want to watch players play and teams win, lose, come from behind.  I want to watch all the, you know, important parts of the game, not what's going on outside of the game.  And I think the general fan feels the same way."  Favre's comments came days after Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta to Denver over Georgia's new voting laws.  He said he's heard fans tell him they don't watch sports anymore because it has gotten too political.

Timberwolves honor Daunte Wright in pregame ceremony.  The Minnesota Timberwolves honored Daunte Wright before the NBA team's game on Tuesday night [4/13/2021].  Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a police officer Sunday in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park.  Body camera footage of the incident has sparked racial justice protests across the city and renewed calls by activists for police reform measures.  The Timberwolves wore special T-shirts during pre-game warmups before their game against the Brooklyn Nets and held a moment of silence on the court prior to the playing of the national anthem.

Fixing Racism by Being Racist?  If diversity is such a good thing at Princeton [University] or United [Airlines], how about professional sports?  59 percent of NFL players are Black, compared to only 13 percent of the US population.  And no women play in the NFL.  If professional sports leagues are to be sufficiently woke, reflecting the diversity of America, then half of all players should be women, and only 13 percent black, 18 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, and so on.  Why are woke news networks, Ivy League universities, and professional sports leagues not practicing the diversity that they preach?  Major League Baseball thinks the new Georgia voting laws are racist.  They should look in the mirror at their owners, managers, and players and see how they compare to American diversity and admit their own racism and sexism.

Fans Are Tuning Out on Woke Sports.  Last Friday, after President Biden, left-wing activists, and the national media spent weeks peddling lies about Georgia's new voting law disproportionately impacting people of color, Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Rob Manfred caved to the radical mob and decided to move this year's All-Star Game out of Atlanta.  In the name of equality, Manfred's decision will cost Atlanta, a city with a 50 percent black population, an estimated $100 million in economic losses.  The game will now be held in Denver, Colorado, a city that is only 10 percent black.  As nonsensical as Manfred's decision was, no one should be surprised by it.  Over the past few years, it has been fairly obvious to any impartial observer that the higher echelons at MLB, along with those in charge at the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), have made a conscious decision to alienate a large percentage of their fanbase by conceding more control of their sports to the demands of social justice warriors and the tyrannical Left.

Baseball strikes out.  [Scroll down]  Hopefully I've established my baseball bona fides, so now I'll get to the point:  I condemn Major League Baseball, especially its spineless Commissioner Rob Manfred, for pulling the annual All-Star game from Atlanta.  Like so many other useful idiots, Manfred bent over for the left-wing mob and its lies, this time regarding Georgia's new voter ID law.  Sporting events are a diversion and should never be used as a political prop.  My response?  I'm unequivocally boycotting Major League Baseball.  If I can do it, so can you!  Yeah, I'm a lifelong baseball guy, but first and foremost I'm a patriot.  I love our Republic, for what it was before the communist cancer metastasized, and for what it can be again!  But we have to take a stand against the Marxist bullies.  Baseball is just one example of a major corporation that went "woke."

In Defense of Major League Baseball — An Explanation That Makes Sense and Seems Rational.  The MLB All-Star game over the past 20 years has become an event where some of baseball's biggest stars decline to play in order to have a 4-day break in the middle of the grind of 162 game schedule.  But the prospect of having a large number of the sport's best players publicly decline to participate because of where the game was being played was a potential PR nightmare that would last for weeks, and continue right up to the start of the game — if there was a game.  As more and more players would likely announce their intention to boycott the game under pressure from media and players in other sports — like LeBron James — a cascading effect would have like developed where the outcome might have ultimately have been that no players agreed to play.  If some players did agree to play — say some white players — the potential for conflict inside the locker rooms of MLB clubs between boycotting players and non-boycotting players would escalate.  The fallout for the sport in the aftermath of such a development would be disastrous.

Fire Manfred and return the All-Star Game to Atlanta.  If Major League Baseball team-owners don't act fast, the MLB will experience a hemorrhaging of fans that might damage the pro game for years.  The way to repair the damage is to fire Commissioner Rob Manfred and return the All-Star Game to Atlanta this summer.  An April 7 report from Fox News (via Becker News) says Manfred decided to pull the game from Atlanta after consulting with Stacey Abrams and a voting rights group associated with LeBron James and the always sketchy Al Sharpton.  The timing of Manfred's decision caught owners off-guard, reports Fox.  Manfred's decision should not only incense team-owners, but serve as grounds to dump the commissioner.

Thanks, Captain Obvious!  NBC Realizes MLB Move Hurts Black-Owned Atlanta Businesses.  After a campaign of disinformation over the Georgia voter bill that helped pressure Major League Baseball (MLB) to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver, Colorado, Wednesday's [4/7/2021] NBC Nightly News stumbled onto the truth once they poisoned the well, which was the decision will have a negative economic impact on Atlanta businesses and especially Black-owned establishments.  Anchor Lester Holt stated the obvious in an opening tease that there was "unintended fallout from the MLB moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta on local businesses."

Jake Tapper strikes out over MLB moving All Star game when reminded CNN has its HQ in Atlanta.  CNN anchor Jake Tapper's so-called inside information about the "simple facts" behind Major League Baseball's decision to pull the All-Star Game from the Atlanta area is turning out to hardly be a home run.  That's because those Twitter users — those who apparently are able to evaluate the Georgia voting law on its substance and free of the one-sided narrative pushed in Tapper's industry — are reminding him of an additional simple fact:  CNN's headquarters just happens to be located in Atlanta.  Shouldn't CNN also boycott Atlanta, too, they wonder?

Major League Baseball stupidly falls for Democrats' partisan game.  There's no defense for MLB's action pulling the All-Star Game out of Georgia.  A corporation based in New York, which has more restrictive voting laws than Georgia's, has moved the Midsummer Classic to Colorado, which, like Georgia, has the supposedly objectionable voter ID requirement.  It did so at the request of President Joe Biden, who is from Delaware, which also has more restrictive voting laws than Georgia.  Why?  Because Georgia passed a bill that generally expanded access to voting.  As Gov. Brian Kemp pointed out, when MLB issued its anti-Georgia announcement, the league didn't bother to cite a single provision of the law it was supposedly objecting to.  That's easy to explain:  MLB doesn't actually care that much about voting laws — otherwise, it wouldn't have its headquarters in New York.

Ex-MLB commissioner Fay Vincent slams successor Rob Manfred's decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver.  Former Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent has slammed successor Rob Manfred over the 'mistake' of moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in response to the new voting law in Georgia that many believe to be racist.  'Major League Baseball can't become a weapon in the culture wars, a hostage for one political party or ideology,' the 82-year-old Vincent wrote in The Wall Street Journal's opinion section.  Georgia's new law limits mail-in voting and allows for more legislative control over the election process following former President Donald Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.  Critics of the law, including Delta and Coca-Cola, say it unfairly targets minority voters in metropolitan areas.

Report: MLB Commish Pulled All-Star Game from Atlanta After Talking to Stacey Abrams.  According to a report from Fox Business Network's Charles Gasparino, sources inside Major League Baseball claim that Commissioner Rob Manfred "blindsided" MLB owners with "at least" the "timing" of his decision to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta.  Moreover, Gasparino's report claims that Manfred spoke with defeated 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams before he decided to move the game.

MLB commissioner decided to move All-Star Game after pressure from Stacey Abrams on voting issues: sources.  Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Robert Manfred decided to move the All-Star Game on his own after holding extensive discussions with voting rights groups associated with Lebron James, Stacey Abrams and Rev. Al Sharpton, sources familiar with the move tell Fox News.  Abrams and Sharpton told the commissioner players would boycott the game if not.  Sources say that Abrams' current stance, that she is disappointed about the Georgia boycott, is suspect as she was a key player in the decision.  James has publicly supported the Georgia boycott.  Abrams' group and Sharpton also urged the commissioner to support other issues, including voter drives and H.R. 1, the For the People Act — sweeping election reform that recently passed the House.  Manfred decided the easiest way to deal with the matter was to leave Georgia, according to a source.

Things We Can Live Without.  The NFL was an early casualty.  The sight of players, coaches, even owners kneeling to protest demonstrably nonexistent "systemic police racism" sent me to the sidelines.  Colin Kaepernick's socks, featuring pigs wearing police hats, revealed his true feelings as the leader of that movement.  A lot of fans like me make other plans on Sundays now.  For decades I suffered with the fickle fortunes of the Boston Red Sox. [...] The Sox lost me when they plastered "BLACK LIVES MATTER" on the marquee at Fenway, in the iconic typeface used on their uniforms.  BLM organizers are Marxists who support the dismantling of the nuclear family.  Marxists perpetrated the greatest evils ever visited on mankind.  It's so hard to cheer for those who pander to them.  I stopped.  Major League Baseball has yanked its All-Star Game from Georgia because that state made a modest effort to prevent fraud in future elections.  Joe Biden expressed support. [...] Can liberals alone fill baseball stadiums?

MLB strikes out with proposed All-Star Game relocation.  Major League Baseball officials are mulling relocating the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Coors Field in Denver, though Colorado has the same voter ID requirement and fewer early voting days than Georgia.  Several outlets reported the development Monday, noting that the Colorado Rockies would be hosting the annual game on July 13 instead of the Atlanta Braves.  The league moved the game out of Georgia following an outcry by Democrats, corporations headquartered in Atlanta, and left-wing pundits that a new voter reform law unfairly targeted minorities.

MLB's new All-Star Game location — Denver's Coors Field — is steeped in its own history of discrimination.  By moving the All-Star Game from suburban Atlanta to a stadium in Denver, Major League Baseball may have gone from the frying pan into the fire in the controversial case of cancel culture.  MLB ignited a firestorm last Friday — with the support of President Joe Biden — when it announced it was moving America's pastime's biggest game next to the World Series because it disagreed with a new Georgia voting law that liberal critics say helps Republicans and hurts minorities.  But the new venue, Coors Field, in Denver, comes with its own dark cloud of controversy, and may ignite even more problems.

The Woke Left Ruined Baseball.  Is Golf Next?  On Friday, Major League Baseball announced they will move the 2021 All-Star Game and 2021 MLB draft out of Atlanta in response to Georgia's Election Integrity bill. [...] Corporations are now rushing to cave to the woke Left, with Major League Baseball joining the ever-growing list of organizations who decided that folding was easier than making a stand.  There was a time when sporting events were a wonderful way to get away from it all.  It gave us a short reprieve from days filled with doom and gloom headlines and nasty political disagreements with neighbors.  Those days are long gone.  Sports, athletes and politics are now tied together at the hip.  From athletes kneeling during the national anthem to Black Lives Matter commercials at every turn, political statements during sporting events have become our "new normal."

Biden Encourages Masters to Move Out Georgia by Continuing to Lie About State's New Election Laws.  First baseball, now golf.  Joe Biden delivered remarks from the White House on Tuesday [4/6/2021] and encouraged Americans to continue to cower in fear over a virus with a 99.98% survival rate.  Joe Biden was asked by a reporter if he supports moving the Masters Tournament out of Georgia after the MLB decided to move its All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver.  "That's up to the Masters," said Biden before he nudged corporations to bludgeon American citizens based on debunked claims about Georgia's election laws.

Stacey Abrams [is] to blame for costing Georgia $100 million in lost All-Star Game revenue:  Rand Paul.  Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has urged people not to boycott Georgia, but Sen. Rand Paul says she and other Democrats are squarely to blame for Major League Baseball's decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.  The founder of Fair Fight, Ms. Abrams led the charge against Senate Bill 202, the Georgia election law that requires identification for absentee ballots, expands early voting and bans electioneering within 150 feet of polling entrances, calling it "Jim Crow 2.0."  "There's all these people who are woke, but now even the woke like Stacey Abrams, are starting to see, oh, no what have I unleashed?  I just lost my state $100 million in revenue," said Mr. Paul on Fox's "The Story."  "Stacey Abrams and the Democrats cost Georgia $100 million in revenue because they complained about something they didn't read and they said something about it that wasn't true."

Strike Out Major League Baseball.  Woke pro baseball, strike one.  A cowardly MLB commissioner, strike two.  Corporate sanctimony, strike three.  Major League Baseball pulling the 2021 All-Star game and this year's amateur draft from Atlanta is batter out, game over.  As a lifelong baseball fan, I take no pleasure in declaring that I won't spend another penny on the Grand Old Game this season.  And that might turn into many seasons.  The MLB is against Georgia's sensible election reforms.  Election reforms that better ensure honest, fairer contests are critically more important than my pleasure.  They should be more important than yours.  Over the weekend, President Trump called for boycotts.  As usual, Trump hit the nail on the head.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Throws Fastball at MLB's Virtue Signaling.  The Texas Rangers baseball team had asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to throw out the first pitch at their home opener.  Major League Baseball then took a stand against sensible voting reforms in Georgia, reforms that include extending early voting days making it easier to Georgians to cast votes.  After Joe Biden shamelessly and repeatedly lied about that law, MLB moved the All-Star game from Atlanta.  MLB's leadership evidently did not read the law before launching an economic war against the state of Georgia.  Texas is considering similar reforms, and American Airlines is among corporate America's partisans taking shots at the law without bothering to read it first.  Gov. Abbott has decided enough is enough.  He released a letter Monday telling the Rangers that he will not support the politicization of baseball and therefore will not throw out the first pitch.

White House Spins Biden's All-Star Game Remarks:  He Didn't Definitively Say He Supported Moving All-Star Game From Georgia.  On Monday [4/5/2021], White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to mitigate the effect of comments President Biden made last week in which he stated that he supported major league baseball players who wanted to relocate the All-Star game from Atlanta because Georgia GOP Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a bill that dealt with voting law.  Biden stated, "I would strongly support them doing that."  At the White House press briefing on Monday, a reporter asked, "I just wanted to ask you a question about Major League Baseball.  The league decided to move its All-Star Game out of Atlanta.  That's something that the President said he supported before.  Does he then agree with their decision to move that game out of Atlanta because of the voting law?  Psaki framed Biden's answer as being supportive of the players' capacity to make a decision rather than the decision itself.

MLB All-Star Game to be played at Coors Field after league strips event from Braves: reports.  The Colorado Rockies will host the 2021 MLB All-Star Game after the decision to move the event from Atlanta over Georgia's restrictive voting law, according to multiple reports.  ESPN and Altitude TV reported the game was going to be moved to Coors Field in Denver on July 13. [...] MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement to strip the Braves of the event on Friday in response to the mounting pressure to change the location of the July game in response to Republican-backed election reform legislation recently signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.

MLB relocates All-Star game to state with voter-ID laws, and fewer early-voting days.  That'll show 'em! After caving to a boycott of Georgia over its new election law, Major League Baseball has relocated its All-Star Game event from Atlanta to Denver. [...] However, let's not overlook the blow that MLB has struck for solidarity with the black community.  They moved the All-Star Game from a state where 31.2% of the population is black, and moved the $100 million business opportunity to a state where 4.1% of the population is black.  This is what's known as "redistribution of wealth," at least to progressives and the MLB.

Why did baseball capitulate?  Jim Geraghty wonders why Major League Baseball pulled its all-star game from Georgia, but major sporting events are still scheduled to take place in that state.  He cites the Masters Golf Tournament, as well as all home games for professional Atlanta teams and Georgia's collegiate athletic programs.  In addition, the following events are still a go, as of now:
      The 2021 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games in Atlanta
      The 2021 SEC Championship Game
      The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
      The PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in September
      The USTA Atlanta Open
Why, Geraghty asks rhetorically, if there is a moral imperative to move the baseball all-star game, is there no obligation to move other sporting events to a different state?  The answer, of course, is that there is no such obligation.  That, I take it, is Geraghty's point.  But why has baseball moved the all-star game, while comparable events will still take place in Georgia?

Oops: Chuck Schumer Invites MLB All-Star Game to NY, but Then Facts About the State Get Dropped.  As we've previously reported, President Biden, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and other Biden officials are outright lying about Georgia's new voting law, so much so that even Democrat-friendly fact-checkers are not letting them get away with it.  The Biden administration's falsehoods and those of failed 2018 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams have now cost the state the Major League Baseball All-Star game, which was yanked Friday just two days after Biden said he would "strongly support" them doing so.

Georgia County That Voted For Biden To Lose $100+ Million Over MLB Relocating Game After Biden Remarks:  Report.  The Georgia county that was set to host the 2020 Major League Baseball All-Star Game said over the weekend that it will lose more than $100 million after the league pulled the game and draft out of the state — a decision that comes after Democrats Madeline number of false claims about the state's new election law and signaled they would support the league boycotting the state.  Holly Quinlan, president and CEO of Cobb Travel and Tourism, said that the "estimated lost economic impact" for the county was more than $100 million.

(Censored) Major League Baseball.  [Scroll down]  I am also, like most conservatives, not a big believer in boycotts.  I even wrote a newspaper column several years ago arguing against them.  But once again, there is a time for everything.  And once again, this is that time: time for every conservative in America, along with anyone else who cares about the future of our republic — who cares that it has a future that doesn't include full-on totalitarianism — to utterly abandon Major League Baseball.  Don't go to a game.  Don't watch games on TV or listen to them on the radio.  Don't buy any official gear.  Just pretend like MLB no longer exists.

A Biden Advisor Is Asked About the MLB Boycott of Georgia, Her Response Is Mind-Boggling.  With the MLB pulling the all-star game out of Georgia, the questions for Democrats are piling up.  Specifically, what exactly did they accomplish by lying about the election reform bill except costing Georgia business owners over $100 million in revenue?  Stacey Abrams has been the least self-aware in the aftermath, claiming that she's not to blame despite clearly being to blame.  Others like Raphael Warnock haven't even tried to pretend they don't the result.  Of course, it wasn't just Georgia-centric figures in the mix here.  Joe Biden also voiced his support for the boycott, and one of his advisors was asked about it this morning [4/4/2021]. [...] This is what being out of touch looks like.

Boycott boomerang:  Genius Dems start to realize Georgia boycott will cost them votes in the Peach State.  Democrats thought they had a brilliant plan to force Georgia to permit widespread voting fraud by getting their woke pals in corporate America to bully the state into repealing its brand-new voting integrity law that mandates voter ID and other commonsense measures.  Two Atlanta-based corporate giants, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, denounced Georgia's new voting integrity bill, and Major League Baseball announced it was moving the All-Star Game away from Atlanta.  Oops!  Guess who gets hurt in the estimated $100 million impact from the loss of the MLB showcase.  That would be the little guys who work at hotels and restaurants, who are vendors at the game, and who work in other service industries.  The local Dem pols realized this quickly.

The Democrats' rash behavior is due to a lack of foresight.
Boycott boomerang:  Genius Dems start to realize Georgia boycott will cost them votes in the Peach State.  Democrats thought they had a brilliant plan to force Georgia to permit widespread voting fraud by getting their woke pals in corporate America to bully the state into repealing its brand-new voting integrity law that mandates voter ID and other common-sense measures.  Two Atlanta-based corporate giants, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, denounced Georgia's new voting integrity bill, and Major League Baseball announced it was moving the All-Star Game away from Atlanta.  Oops!  Guess who gets hurt in the estimated $100 million impact from the loss of the MLB showcase.  That would be the little guys who work at hotels and restaurants, who are vendors at the game, and who work in other service industries.  The local Dem pols realized this quickly.

MLB requires photo ID to pick up tickets from Will Call, but boycotts Georgia for voter ID law.  Major League Baseball responded to calls to boycott the state of Georgia over a controversial new voter-ID law by moving the All-Star game out of the Peach State.  But teams still requires fans to show photo ID to pick up their tickets from the Will Call booth.  South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace called the league out on Twitter.

What's More American than Coke and Baseball?  [Scroll down]  The immediate target of these corporate actions was efforts by Georgia and Texas to revise their election laws, laws which in many states have resulted in widespread disbelief that the 2020 elections were conducted on the up and up.  When people believe election procedures are untrustworthy, it shatters voluntary acceptance of the election results.  Under pressure from racist propagandists of the left and using COVID as an excuse, jurisdictions in several states so loosened the election rules that widespread fraud was made easier.  One state in particular was Georgia, where asleep at the switch (or corrupt — your choice) officials permitted the sloppy, untrustworthy, opaque, and disputed election procedures.  In an effort to prevent a repeat, Georgia enacted a new election law.  (In pdf form it's 104 pages, and that makes it unlikely to me that any of the corporate bleating about it was made with knowledge of its contents.)

Baseball is the last straw.  Time to start boycotting.  Under the influence of racist organizations such as BLM, and in response to ignorant denunciations of Georgia's new election integrity bill by an ignorant president, it [major league baseball] has thrown in with the woke mob that would judge the worth of individuals on the basis of the color of their skin rather than on the content of their character.  In the process it has begun to unravel the progress made in the preceding half-century.  Now, not even baseball, the all-American game, is a haven from the culture wars unleashed by the ruthless left.  It would not have been hard for Rob Manfred and the big businessmen who run MLB to resist the demands of the radical left to take sides in a political dispute.  All they needed to say was that the business of MLB is baseball.  Not politics.  But that would have taken courage — courage that they do not have.

Major League Baseball and the Voting-Rights Con.  It has been years since I've watched the All-Star Game, the can't-miss event of my youth.  When I learned that the woke Left had gotten the woke commissioner to accede to the woke White House's instruction that the game be moved out of Atlanta — part of the campaign to slander Georgia's voting law as racist — it was the first time I'd even heard that the game was scheduled to be in Atlanta.  They could play it on Mars for all I care, or, better yet, not play it at all.

Major League Baseball's Cowardly 'Stand'.  Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Rob Manfred announced that it would not be holding its 2021 All-Star Game or draft in Georgia as originally planned because of the state's much — and unfairly — maligned new elections law. [...] What a humiliating spectacle for the league and the country.  Manfred doesn't state what the MLB's problems with the bill are because he either can't or is embarrassed to have to articulate them out loud.  The move comes after President Biden — who called the law "Jim Crow on steroids" — said he agreed with the suggestion that the MLB move the All-Star Game, and as he continues to deceive the public about the legislation's contents.

Georgia Democrats stare down a mob of their own making.  Leftist activists are busy whipping up a national boycott of Georgia-based businesses over the state's new election integrity law.  The boycott has the support of Hollywood and the White House, with President Joe Biden saying this week that he would support moving the MLB's All-Star Game out of the state as a sign of protest.  Georgia Democrats are now left trying to talk the mob down.  "I absolutely oppose and reject any notion of boycotting Georgia," Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said in a statement on Thursday [4/1/2021].  "Georgia welcomes business, investment, jobs, opportunity, and events.  In fact, economic growth is driving much of the political progress we have seen here."  Stacey Abrams, who, having lost Georgia's governorship in 2018, rebranded herself as a voting rights activist, agreed and reminded Democrats that economic boycotts would hurt the very communities they claim to represent.

LeBron James, Liberal Elites Celebrate After MLB Takes All-Star Game from Georgia.  On Friday [4/2/2021], Major League Baseball decided to take its All-Star Game away from Atlanta's Truist Park in response to the state's new voter integrity law.  Liberal supporters exploded with delight after the MLB announcement. [...] Unsurprisingly, the baseball player's union supported the move.  After all, they had already been pushing for it.  [Numerous tweets]

MLB is fine with ball games in Cuba and training in China, but Georgia is the human-rights problem.  You could tell that the Major League Baseball (MLB) decision to pull its All-Star game out of Atlanta was a deeply unpopular one, based on the ambivalent reaction of far-left failed gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams. [...] After all, isn't she the one who pushed through most of the fraud-enabling laws on the books in Georgia which triggered the recent legislative action?  The blacks-are-too-dumb-to-have-voter-ID idiotic notion, so by extension, nobody should have to show voter ID to vote, even though everyone needs to show ID to buy a beer at a MLB ball game, or buy a ticket to one?  She needs to make up her mind.  So which is it?  Not wanting to see families hurt, or being all-in for the boycott of Atlanta, which certainly should affect the city tax base?  She wants to have it both ways, boycott but nobody hurt.  That's because unlike MLB, she wants to win public office, and knows that screwing over black businesses, which will get it in the teeth with this MLB maneuver, is going to make her unpopular.

This is How To Do It — President Trump Calls for Boycott of Major League Baseball.  This is exactly how to fight back against the insufferable leftist politics that is infecting everything.  Today President Trump has called for a boycott of Major League Baseball.  If these corporations realize their actions will cause 80 to 100 million people to stop using their products, they will feel the scale of their financial position being crushed.  Keep in mind MAGA supporters are the people who economically represent the largest audience with a greater percentage of their income available for recreational purchasing decisions.

GOP Senators Propose Revoking MLB's Antitrust Status.  Republican lawmakers, including Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah) have called for an end to Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption after the league announced it would pull the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta.  The league's decision came in response to a Georgia voting law that critics claim makes it more difficult for individuals, particularly black voters, to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Joe Biden might just have killed Major League Baseball.  One of the highlights of the baseball season is the All-Star Game, which was set to be played on July 13 in Atlanta.  Since 1933, midway through the MLB season, fans pick their favorites from the American League and the National League and then the chosen stars compete.  I'm not a baseball fan but I'm willing to bet that, in terms of ad revenue and merchandise sales, it's an important part of the business end of pro-baseball.  And it certainly brings revenue to the city hosting it.  On Thursday [4/1/2021], Biden made one of his little scripted appearances, this time on ESPN. It's worth noting that ESPN, which Disney owns, long ago transferred its allegiance from sports to leftism with a serving of sports on the side. [...] Remember, there are only 30 baseball teams but there are around 80 million Trump voters.  We can make the franchise hurt for its decision to weaponize America's game against the integrity of America's elections.

The Editor says...
The quickest and easiest thing you can do about this issue is to turn off ESPN.  Step two:  Don't watch another baseball game this year.  (Do you have nothing else to do?)  The Democrat fans may be able to keep the politicized sport afloat, but I doubt it.

Woke to Broke:  Moving All-Star Game Costs Atlanta Tens of Millions in Revenue.  Major League Baseball announced this year's All-Star Game would be relocated out of Atlanta, Georgia, costing the city as much as $190 million in revenue, according to official estimates.  Bill Volckmann, Finance Director for Cobb County, appraised the All-Star Game's economic impact to fall somewhere between $37 million and $190 million in his 213-page agenda packet.  While some dispute the high-end of those projections, it's safe to say the city — especially lower-wage workers who would have worked the event — would have benefited greatly.

Atlanta Braves Fire Back After MLB Moves All Star Game.  Major League Baseball has been under intense pressure from Democrats to move the annual All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia's election integrity law and on Friday [4/2/2021], the league caved.  On the second day of the 2021 season, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent a clear message to all MLB fans that his league takes its marching orders from activists and politicians.

The Editor says...
Throw the ball.  Hit the ball.  Catch the ball.  Big deal.  Play your big game somewhere else.  Or don't play at all.  Who cares?

Trump Calls For Boycotting Major League Baseball After They Cave To 'Radical Left Democrats'.  Former President Donald Trump called for people to boycott Major League Baseball (MLB) on Friday night after the league caved to pressure from leftists to cancel the All Star Game, which was scheduled to take place in Atlanta, after Georgia passed a law to tighten up voting security around the state.  Trump's statement comes after MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. announced earlier in the day that the league was moving both All-Star Game and MLB Draft to a new host city following a misleading pressure campaign from leftists about the state's new laws.  "Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans, and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections," Trump said in a statement.  "Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections.  Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!"

Et tu, baseball?  I can easily overlook the flamboyance and over-the-top showmanship of many of today's players in the interest of letting them have a bit of fun while they play.  But I can't go along with this calculated, political move on the part of the owners.  The commissioner works for the owners, and the possibility that a move like today's could have been made without a majority of owners going along with it is more than unlikely.  It is impossible.  So baseball has joined the NBA and NFL in their wokeness.  Politics has contaminated every form of entertainment in our country.  I am beyond sad and beyond furious for this latest insult.  I have never before been so upset with "my" game that I have been tempted never to watch another inning.  I may get over it, but then again, I may not.

Remember when baseball brought us together?  My guess is that there is going to be a huge backlash against this decision.  I trust that the commissioner understands that.  It would have been wiser for the commissioner to have responded to the wokes by saying we play baseball, not get involved in partisan politics.  Twenty years ago, baseball brought us together.  Now it will add to the growing polarization in the land.  Sad but true.

MLB yanks All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia's new voting law.  MLB is taking its ball and leaving Georgia.  The league announced on Friday that it is moving the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta as backlash grows over a new Georgia law that is seen as an attack on voter access.  "I have determined the best way to demonstrate our value as a sport is relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft," commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.  "MLB fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."  The Braves, in a statement, opposed the move.

Biden 'strongly supports' moving MLB All-Star game over new Georgia voting law.  President Joe Biden said he would "strongly support" moving the Major League Baseball All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of Georgia's new voting law that critics say may suppress turnout at the ballot box.  Biden spoke to ESPN's Sage Steele in an 11-minute interview Wednesday night, saying he would back the MLB if the league decided to move the July 13 game out of Georgia in response to the GOP-backed election reform signed last month by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

After promoting this behavior for decades, now they say it's forbidden.
Cleveland Indians prohibiting fans with redface, Native American headdresses into Progressive Field.  In a long list of what fans can expect at Progressive Field for the 2021 season, the Cleveland Indians announced it will not allow fans into Progressive Field with "headdresses and face paint styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions."  Anyone wearing inappropriate or offensive images, words, dress or face paint must be covered or removed, and failure to do so will constitute grounds for ejection or refusal of admission, the organization stated.

The Editor says...
The professional baseball teams derive their income by selling tickets to baseball games; and to a certain extent, by selling the television rights to those games.  (I suspect that every major league game is attended by a TV crew, whether the entire game is televised or not, just in case something extraordinary happens.)  The fans come to the game in person, expecting to have an enjoyable experience.  In Cleveland, for the last several decades, part of that experience has been the opportunity to root for the Indians while dressing and acting like stereotypical cartoon Indians.  Until very recently, nobody thought for a moment that such behavior was offensive to Indians in general.  But the fans don't like to have their traditions uprooted, and they don't like to see leftist politics injected into their favorite sports, after paying to attend the game (and park the car).  If specific teams or the MLB organization put a wet blanket on the fans' enthusiasm, they can expect to make less money.

Because the game is more important to them than their country:
U.S. soccer will now allow players to kneel for national anthem.  The U.S. Soccer Federation will no longer require players to stand for the national anthem, voting to repeal a 2017 policy that called on national team players to "stand respectfully" during the Star Spangled Banner before national team games.  During a virtual conference of the group's annual general meeting on Saturday, 71.34 percent of National Council members voted to repeal the policy which had already been nixed by the USSF board of directors last summer.  Hundreds of voters make up the National Council, including representatives for youth, adult amateur and professional populations, in addition to the athletes' council.

If College Basketball Players Don't Want to Stand for the National Anthem, Yank Their Scholarships.  The men's basketball team at East Tennessee State University disrespected the national anthem by dropping to a knee on Feb. 16th.  That act of defiance led state lawmakers to fire off a letter to every public university in the state.  "We expect all those who walk onto the field of play representing our universities to also walk onto the field of play to show respect for our National Anthem," read a letter written and signed by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally along with 26 Republican state senators. [...] Unfortunately, many student athletes cannot be persuaded to do the right thing because of patriotism or human decency.  It's all about dollars and cents.  So lawmakers should present the basketball players an offer they cannot refuse.

No Kneeling:  Scotland And Wales Players All Remain Standing Before Rugby Game.  Players for Scotland and Wales all remained standing ahead of their Six Nations rugby match on Saturday, defying uproar over many players not kneeling to Black Lives Matter at the earlier Scotland vs England fixture.  While players for England — with some notable exceptions — decided to "take a knee" for Black Lives Matter before facing off against the Scots team in their home stadium, only a handful of Scottish players followed suit.

Virginia College Forfeits Basketball Game After Suspending Players For Kneeling During Anthem.  Bluefield College, a small Baptist liberal arts school nestled in the Appalachian mountains in Bluefield, Virginia doesn't seem to be a likely place to make national news.  But when players on the men's basketball team took a knee during the playing of the national anthem — after being warned several times it was against school policy — the school president promptly suspended the players and forfeited a game.  The players had knelt several times before games in January and February, at both home and away contests.  After being warned about the practice, the players decided to stay in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem before an away game.

College suspends basketball players for kneeling during anthem because of how 'it's perceived by some'.  The dean of a small Baptist liberal arts college in western Virginia suspended basketball players after they repeatedly knelt before games during the playing of the National Anthem in violation of the institution's rules.  The suspension of several Bluefield College players by President David Olive led to a forfeit against NAIA rival Reinhardt on Thursday [2/11/2021], the New York Post reported.  Olive, who is white, said in a statement he made the decision to suspend all the team's players after discovering that they had knelt prior to several games this season.

The Editor says...
If Mr. Olive were a man of some ethnicity other than white, would that have been mentioned in this article?  Of course not!

Minnesota colleges adapt as 'Star Spangled Banner' stirs dissimilar emotions.  When it comes to the national anthem and sports, Americans remain divided.  Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reignited the issue last week when he said he had stopped playing the anthem at games.  The mention of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who last played in the league three years ago, still angers people upset by his choice to kneel during the anthem.  But some schools, including St.  Thomas and the University of Minnesota, are incorporating social justice messages into their pregame anthem presentations.  The Tommies' statement is one of several new anthem introductions developed by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for use by its teams.  The Gophers are playing "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often called the Black national anthem, before "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Mark Cuban Insists The Dallas Mavericks Won't Play National Anthem Anymore.  Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Tuesday [2/9/2021] that his franchise would no longer play the national anthem prior to his team's NBA home games.  It's a long-standing tradition to play the anthem before home games in all major professional sports, and even all the way down to high school athletics.  Cuban said that will come to an end with the Mavericks.  The national anthem hasn't been played at any Mavericks games so far at the American Airlines Center this season — preseason or regular-season games.  Cuban told ESPN that he consulted with NBA commissioner Adam Silver before letting the rest of the world know about his decision, ESPN reported.  A team source told ESPN that no players, coaches or referees have mentioned the anthem's absence so far.

The Editor says...
If you hate America, don't play the National Anthem before the game.  Your customers will let you know if they concur.

Jen Psaki:  Mark Cuban's attempt to ditch national anthem educates people on U.S. failures.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki says Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's attempt to ditch the national anthem was an acknowledgment of U.S. shortcomings.  The White House spokeswoman was asked about the billionaire's move, which was quickly torpedoed by the league as the news went viral.  "I haven't spoken with the president about the decision by Mark Cuban or the Dallas Mavericks," Ms. Psaki said of the plan to omit the national anthem from the Mavericks' first 13 home games.  "I know he's incredibly proud to be an American, and has great respect for the anthem, and all that represents, especially for our men and women serving in uniform around the world."

The Editor says...
Now you know where Psaki stands — as an official representative of the President.

White House Supports Mavericks Scrapping The National Anthem Because America Fails 'Often'.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed support for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's decision to remove the national anthem from the team's home games because they "feel [the anthem] doesn't represent them."  During the Wednesday [2/10/2021] press briefing, Fox News's Peter Doocy asked Psaki about the Biden administration's stance on Cuban's decision.  While the press secretary acknowledged that President Joe Biden is "proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem," she also said he would support the Mavericks for calling out the frequent times when "we as a country haven't lived up to our highest ideals."

The Editor says...
Cuban, Psaki, and Biden have made it clear:  They are annoyed by the National Anthem, apparently because they hate America.

Update:
NBA Responds after Mark Cuban Skips National Anthem for Home Games.  The National Basketball Association announced on Wednesday [2/10/2021] that all teams would play the national anthem before games.  The announcement marks an apparent rebuke of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who decided he would not mandate the playing of the anthem before the team's home games.  The Mavericks have already played their first home games without the anthem, including their first home game with fans in the audience.

But at least now you know where Mark Cuban stands.
Dallas Mavericks PLAY national anthem before home game against the Hawks - just hours after owner Mark Cuban relented.  The Dallas Mavericks have played the national anthem before a home game against the Atlanta Hawks, just hours after billionaire team owner Mark Cuban relented to the NBA's demand that the song be played at all games.  A recorded version of the Star-Spangled Banner was played before Wednesday night's game at American Airlines Center, while Mavericks and Hawks players and staff stood lined up on the court.  As the anthem concluded, the smattering of fans in attendance broke out in applause and cheers.  The Mavericks are currently allowing 1,500 fans at home games, with tickets available to vaccinated healthcare and essential workers.

Did Biden Get Booed?  Bidens Make Creepy Video Appearance at Super Bowl, Tell Americans to Wear Masks and Get Vaccinated.  Super Bowl LV: Kansas City Chiefs v. Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicked off Sunday [2/7/2021] at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.  According to reports, 22,000 fans attended the Super Bowl on Sunday.  The Bidens barged in and made a creepy video appearance before kickoff to lecture Americans about "social distancing."  Americans just can't get on with their lives because the Democrats have to drone on and on about Covid every second of every day.  Joe Biden and his  handler  wife Jill made a video message from their Delaware basement bunker that played on the jumbotron — as if people watching football and drinking beer want to hear from Dementia Joe.

The Editor says...
The attendance at the big game might have been 24,835, which is less than 40 percent of the previous year's attendance.

Super Bowl LV Kicks Off with' Black National Anthem'.  Super Bowl 55 kicked off Sunday with recording artist Alicia Keys singing the so-called black national anthem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," along with a poem.  Hitmaker Alicia Keys was tasked with a virtual performance of the 121-year-old spiritual song that has come to be known alternately as the "black national anthem" after being introduced in 1899 for Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  The poem read in 1899 was set to music in 1900.

Roger Goodell Praises Colin Kaepernick — Says He Deserves 'Our Recognition And Admiration'.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell praised former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick during his annual state of the league address.  Fox News reported that Goodell said that Kaepernick deserves "our recognition ... and our appreciation" for talking about systemic racism in 2016, when he began taking a knee during the national anthem before his games in protest.  "I said very clearly back in June that we wish we had listened to our players earlier, and we had a lot of players that were coming and bringing these issues to us," Goodell told reporters.  "It didn't start last summer; it started over two years ago and we've been working with the Players Coalition over that period of time."

The Thirty Tyrants.  A decade ago, no one would've put NBA superstar LeBron James and Apple CEO Tim Cook in the same family album, but here they are now, linked by their fantastic wealth owing to cheap Chinese manufacturing (Nike sneakers, iPhones, etc.) and a growing Chinese consumer market.  The NBA's $1.5 billion contract with digital service provider Tencent made the Chinese firm the league's biggest partner outside America.  In gratitude, these two-way ambassadors shared the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party with their ignorant countrymen.  After an an NBA executive tweeted in defense of Hong Kong dissidents, social justice activist King LeBron told Americans to watch their tongues.  "Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech," said James, "it can be a lot of negative that comes with it."

Megan Rapinoe rips woman wearing USWNT hoodie and Trump mask: 'That is not the kind of fan we will welcome'.  Megan Rapinoe had a clear message for any so-called fans of the U.S. women's national soccer team who support the Trump administration:  "Don't bring that [...] here."  Rapinoe, 35, the national team's outspoken leader and social justice activist, watched in horror from the team's January training camp in Orlando as white supremacist and domestic terrorists wreaked havoc on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.  Their purpose?  Trying to undermine democracy and overthrow a government at the behest of President Trump, who was unhappy he lost re-election to Joe Biden.  A photo was snapped and shared of someone trying to return home after the insurrection wearing a USWNT sweatshirt while also dawning a TRUMP 2020 face mask, which of course caught the attention of the team and Rapinoe, who stand against the man who has continued to lie and spew hatred about non-white, BIPOC.

The Editor says...
[#1] I really doubt if there were any "white supremacist(s)" in the DC crowd last week, and the only "domestic terrorists" were from the political left.  [#2] At least 9,999 out of every 10,000 people in the crowd were assembling peacefully, which the Constitution guarantees their right to do.  [#3] Nobody was "trying to undermine democracy [or] overthrow a government at the behest of President Trump."  That is a vicious canard.  Trump never asked encouraged anyone to engage in violence.  [#4] President Trump is not just "unhappy he lost re-election to Joe Biden."  He is justifiably indignant because his re-election was stolen, and the counterfeit victory given to Biden, by means of wholesale voter fraud.  Joe Biden is one of the few people who is corrupt and venal enough to accept such a gift.  [#5] One can easily imagine that the rest of the article above — and the entire web site — is replete with further lies and disinformation.

Confessions of a Sports Dropout.  [Scroll down]  Common sense still mostly prevails at the amateur level.  I've not seen a Black Lives Matter banner at a Little League game yet.  But it's early days, and we all know what rolls downhill.  The NFL, MLB, and NBA are now adjuncts of Black Lives Matter, complete with banners, sweatshirts, and sappy and misleading television commercials.  League executives have given no indication whether their loyalty is to the sentiment — which is unassailable but irrelevant, as no one ever said black lives don't matter — or to the Marxist organization, which has a much more toxic agenda than racial peace and equity.  In fact, racial peace is the last thing BLM wants.  It would put them out of business.  The price of attending or viewing one of these now-political leagues' games, in addition to the usurious ticket or cable package tariff, is to see America insulted by kneeling athletes, indulged young prats whom America has made rich and privileged beyond their wildest dreams.

NBA coach Stan Van Gundy calls white people 'racist,' says he's a 'poster boy for white privilege'.  New Orleans Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy said white people are "racist" and need to change to help African Americans.  "We're the ones that are racist," Van Gundy told ESPN's The Undefeated in an interview.  "It's a white person's problem that affects people of color, and so we're the ones who have to change. ... Certainly you want to promote Black voices, right?  But if they're the only ones speaking out, a lot of people just push it aside.  There needs to be people saying, 'No, wait a minute.  This is wrong, and we need to correct these things.'"  Van Gundy said that he is part of the problem, calling himself a "poster boy for white privilege."

Soccer Team Bans Fans From Booing Team Members Taking A Knee.  Cambridge United have handed a stadium ban to fans who booed players taking a knee before their home game against Colchester.  Other fans have been asked to undertake education around discrimination and equality before they are allowed back into the Abbey Stadium.  A handful of fans could be heard booing ahead of kick-off in the League Two fixture on December 15, even though it was quickly drowned out by applause.  [Video clip]

BLM Leader Who The Red Sox Honored On The Field Is Arrested For Punching An 80 Year Old Woman On Video.  A 32-year-old Black Lives Matter leader who was honored by the Boston Red Sox during an August "Hats off to Heroes" ceremony, normally used to honor members of the military, was arrested Saturday in Swampscott, Massachusetts for punching an 80-year-old female Trump supporter in the chest.  Jacques Jr., who was released on $550 bail, can be seen in a video posted by Trump supporter Dianna Ploss unloading a right to the 80-year-old woman.  According to his Facebook page, Jacques Jr. was approached by the Red Sox back in August.  The team planned to honor the BLM leader on a night normally reserved to honor members of the military.  [Video clip]

NFL Honors Gunman Killed While Trying To Murder Cops.  The National Football League (NFL) has chosen to honor a gunman who was killed while shooting at police by allowing players to wear his name on their helmets.  Protesters have demanded that Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) Officer Dejoure Mercer be sent to prison for murder for returning fire after 21-year-old Dreasjon Reed shot at him on May 6, The Indianapolis Star reported at the time.  Special Prosecutor Rosemary Khoury announced in November that a grand jury determined the shooting was justified, according to The Indianapolis Star.  The Indiana State Police (ISP) said evidence in Reed's phone indicated he was involved in two drive-by shootings prior to livestreaming the police chase and gun battle with Officer Mercer, The Indianapolis Star reported.

Thanks for representing our country so well.
U.S. Olympic Committee Will Allow Athletes To Kneel In Protest, Raise Fists.  The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) announced Thursday that it won't sanction athletes who raise a fist or take a knee on the medal stand at the Tokyo Games in 2021.  USOPC said on Dec. 10 that it agreed with the calls from American athletes that asked the committee to change the rule prohibiting inside-the-lines protests at the Olympic Games, according to ESPN.  The provision known as Rule 50 in the Olympic Charter has been under scrutiny and International Olympic Committee (IOC) has told its athlete commission to explore other options, according to The Washington Post.

Social Justice Bowl?: Ad Agency Predicts 'Black Lives Matter' Theme for Super Bowl LV.  TV advertisers may be preparing to turn the NFL's biggest game into the "Social Justice Bowl" with hours of woke commercials and messaging.  If reports on the ads coming for Super Bowl LV are to be believed, the funny and heartwarming ads, the cute kids and heroic animals will be running alongside Black Lives Matter themes.  Along with social justice activism, advertisers may be preparing commercials filled with coronavirus messaging as well, according to Front Office Sports.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Wears Black Lives Matter Jackets to International Match.  The U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) wore Black Lives Matter Jackets to their international friendly match against the Netherlands on Friday.  In a message posted before the game, USWNT star Alex Morgan said the team chose to wear the jackets as a way to "affirm human decency," and as a stand against "racial injustice and police brutality."

The Colin Kaepernick spectacle needs to end now.  Last week, the man who has made millions stirring racial anxieties and allying himself with massive corporations that profit mightily from slave labor, decided to use his voice not to promote harmony and unity, but to once again stoke discord.  One would think that a man who has profited so handsomely by turning a blind eye towards the human rights abuses that fund his underwriters would experience at least a modicum of shame before attempting to lecture humanity on matters of "justice."  But Colin Kaepernick has proven he is nothing if not shameless.  So at a virtual conference last Monday [11/23/2020], the Nike millionaire zoomed in to lend his voice to the cause of freeing Wesley Cook, the former Black Panther who, after shooting white police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 for daring to pull his brother over for a routine traffic stop, changed his name to Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Detroit Lions and Houston Texans Quarterbacks Kneel During Anthem to Show Their Disgust for America on Thanksgiving Day.  Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the blessings of the past year.  But not everyone is grateful to be from the United States of America.  Professional athletes in the US are now cheerleaders in anti-American hate.

Colin Kaepernick goes full radical with call to free cop killer.  It had to happen.  This day had to come.  For an attention-seeking activist, the worst scenario is to lose the limelight.  It means the death of influence.  So [Colin] Kaepernick — who's already run the course on calling for police reform, who's already spent his media capital on aligning with Black Lives Matter and crying racism when NFL teams, surprise, surprise, failed to rush to extend lucrative offers — Kaepernick had to ratchet the cries.  He had to find a new rally call.  He had to grab a hold of a new campaign.  From police reform to "let my cop-killing people go" — it's the predictable next step.

Colin Kaepernick calls for release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, former Black Panther convicted of killing police officer.  Activist and free agent NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick called for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who was convicted of killing a White Philadelphia police officer in 1981.  He made the comments during a virtual conference with supporters fighting for his release on Monday [11/16/2020].  "We're in the midst of a movement that says 'Black Lives Matter.'  And if that's truly the case, then it means that Mumia's life and legacy must matter," Kaepernick said in a video statement.

NFL releases National Coming Out Day PSA.  In honor of National Coming Out Day, the National Football League (NFL) released a video celebrating former LGBTQ+ players and encouraging those still in the closet to come out.  The heartwarming clip features former out gay and bisexual athletes Wade Davis, R.K. Russell, Jeff Rohrer, and Ryan O'Callaghan encouraging current athletes to live freely and speak their truth.  They collectively announce:  "To all current players who are thinking of coming out, when you are ready, so are we."

NFL to Air 'National Coming Out Day' PSA During Sunday Night Football.  The NFL is set to celebrate the LGBTQ community's "National Coming Out Day" during its Sunday Night Football broadcast this weekend.  The campaign, labeled "It Takes All Of Us," will feature a 30-second video starring openly gay or bisexual NFL players including Ryan O'Callaghan, Jeff Rohrer, R.K. Russell, and Wade Davis.  The ad encourages gays to come out and be proud of their sexual proclivities, according to CNN.

NBA caves!  No 'Black Lives Matter' on courts and jerseys next year.  NBA commissioner Adam Silver casually let drop the bombshell news that the NBA will remove the name of the Marxist revolutionary organization Black Lives Matter from its basketball courts and player jerseys next season.  This comes following catastrophic ratings declines to all-time lows for the league's playoff games.

The Progressive Medusa.  Sports was once a place to escape work, politics, and family tensions — a unifying experience where grudges, feuds, and vendettas disappeared for a few hours.  Not now.  Franchises became self-acclaimed woke ministries, in which poorly educated athletes — almost exclusively multimillionaires and without much knowledge or appreciation of where their seemingly limitless salaries derive — have become preachers.  And they are poor preachers at that.  The more a LeBron James remonstrates with America, the more NFL athletes refuse to honor the national anthem, the more all professional sports display glitzy politicalized logos, so all the more fans who pay their salaries tune out.  The problem is not just that half the country is at odds with the politics of professional sports, but also that it watches them to see athletic excellence and root for favored teams — not to hear adolescent rants about their own moral shortcomings from supposedly victimized elites, some of whom have less than sterling characters.  Worse still, the monotonous anti-American fantasies of half-educated players are cynically predicated on their own careerist realities — and more than just constructed to appeal to woke 20-something consumers with cash for sneakers and downloads.

Utah Company Gives Up Suite at Jazz Games Over Anthem Kneeling, BLM Promotion.  A Utah company is giving up its suite at Jazz games, citing the players' decision to kneel during the national anthem.  The company, Salt Lake County-based SME Steel Contractors, is asking the NBA franchise to "put a stop to all disrespectful actions during the anthem and remove the Black Lives Matter logo from the arena."  "The recent actions of the NBA — including the owners, coaches and players of the Utah Jazz — have converted a beloved entertainment venue into a forum for dissemination of political propaganda which is divisive and completely out of step with our company and its values," a Sept. 9 letter sent from Salt Lake County-based SME Steel Contractors to Jazz owner Gail Miller states.

Company Gives Up Its NBA Suite, Fires Off Letter to Franchise Owner Over the Ruining of Sports.  If you've paid much attention to NBA games as of late, you know one thing for sure:  Black Lives Matter.  With large letters labeling the court, it's hard to miss the message. [...] Unsurprisingly, not everyone's on board, and you can count SME Steel Contractors among them.  In a September 9th letter to Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller, the Salt Lake County-based company made that clear.  In fact, SME's giving up its suite at the arena.  And it's asking the NBA franchise to "put a stop to all disrespectful actions during the Anthem and remove the Black Lives Matter logo from the arena."

The NFL gets woke and goes broke.  The woke crowd is putting pressure on us to believe we are a racist country.  From 2016 to 2019, a few NFL players took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner to say this country is racist.  The pressure became so intense that the NFL now accommodates them.  This year, the Black National Anthem is played before games.  Most players either kneel or stay in the locker room during the real National Anthem.  These players must believe that this country is racist.  Since we are citizens, they must believe we are racist.  Almost all of them are millionaires.  They worked hard at their profession and rose to the top.  They are a typical American success story.  They now get money and fame.  We enjoy watching them play and contributing to their wealth.  They should be grateful that they live in this country.  Instead of gratitude, the players are using their fame to call attention to their low opinion of the fans, their customers.  The natural fan response is to boycott the games.

Steelers' Star:  I should have done more research before honoring drive-by shooter.  I wrote [elsew]here about how the Pittsburgh Steelers will be honoring Antwon Rose, a drive-by shooting participant and probable shooter, by wearing his name on their helmets this season.  Only one player — Afghan war vet Alejandro Villanueva — refused to go along with this nauseating decision.  He will wear the name of a fallen warrior, Alwyn Cashe, an African-American who was killed in Iraq.  Now, however, another player, star center Maurkice Pouncey, has balked at the Steelers' decision.  Pouncey, who has worked with the police in Pittsburgh and Florida, says he was given "limited information" about the circumstances concerning Rose.  I "should have done more research to fully understand what occurred in its entirety," he admitted.

Why We Stand for the American Flag.  Now that the political left has decided to strain our few remaining bonds of national unity by encouraging disrespect for the American flag and the National Anthem, will there ever be a day in the future when Americans can pause from political division and join together as one nation to remember all we've accomplished?  Can the athletes who have decided to kneel in protest of America imagine that future?  Won't there always be some injustice, somewhere, that forces athletes to their knees?  Won't there always be some kneeler who feels compelled to judge the actions of another American, even if those actions occurred decades or centuries ago?  Do athletes who take a knee plan to stay on the ground for decades to come?  Will they teach the lesson to their children and their children's children that disrespecting the flag is the noble thing to do?  Just how many generations of kneeling will it take before America is properly punished?

How the Underground Press Will Thwart the Media and Re-Elect Donald Trump.  To understand the samizdat's effect, consider a recent Gallup poll on the U.S. sports industry.  A year ago, by a 45-25 margin, most Americans had a favorable view of professional sports.  Today, by a 40-30 margin, most have an unfavorable view.  These numbers had to shock the more woke among NFL and NBA execs.  All summer, these execs have been reading about the largely peaceful protests against the systemic racism responsible for the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks among others and the crippling of Jacob Blake.  How, they wondered, could sports fans not embrace those athletes who stood (or knelt) in support of social justice?  The players all endorsed the BLM movement or appeared to.  So did the sportscasters, the advertisers, the TV networks, Hollywood, Big Tech, the New York Times, the major magazines, and just about everyone with a prominent soapbox except for Fox News — and even Fox waffled.

Racial Justice Agitators Are Killing Sports.  The NFL is starting to kill American football fans' interest in football with their endless politicization of the sport.  This is the first year my husband refused to join fantasy football leagues because he's had enough of the NFL forgetting why they exist.  Ratings are way down.  Football fans in Kansas City didn't boo the players because they were showing "unity" (whatever that means), they did it because they don't want any politics in sports.  None.  It doesn't matter what side it's on, sports fans don't want to hear about real-world problems when they are escaping the real world full of violence, sadness, war, despair, cities on fire, for a few hours of sports when the only battle that matters is the one on the field.

Roger Goodell and Wokeness Have Ensured the Decline of the NFL.  Until Roger Goodell and the NFL recently signified their devotion to the anti-American mythology promoted by Black Lives Matter and prostrated themselves before its pantheon of privileged heroes such as Colin Kaepernick, football had for decades been something that made us all incredibly happy and was a central feature of our lives each fall.  Now it will not be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future, and I seriously doubt that we're unique.  That should strike fear into the hearts of NFL executives.  There is a seismic shift beneath our feet in the world of sports today, and I think most sports fans of a certain age see it clearly, even if the top brass of the NFL cannot.

NFL kneeling, fists in air, hiding in locker except during black national anthem.  The all-black Howard University choir sang the Black national anthem before the Washington — Eagles Football game and it will be played before every game.  The players and coaches, everyone tied to the teams, stood respectfully for this fake and divisive anthem.  Reportedly, for the real national anthem, Washington stood and the Eagles hid in the locker room.  This is blatant racism, divisiveness, and segregation.  They are honoring the Marxist hate group, Black Lives Matter.  Diversity is not our strength, unity is!

Racial injustice themes fill empty NFL stadiums.  Jason Myers kicked off to start the Seahawks' season-opener against the Falcons, and the ball sailed through the end zone for a touchback.  No one moved a step.  Instead, the players all dropped to one knee.  After years of pleading with the NFL to act against systemic racism, they were willing to wait another 10 seconds to make their point.

The Editor says...
Anyone foolish enough to pay the high price of admission to an NFL game is paying to see the players play football, not to engage in some rehearsed and choreographed ritual about what victims the players perceive themselves to be.

Conservatives' Crushing Counterattack In the Culture War.  We're all supposed to applaud the kneeling zillionaires of the NFL — the most spoiled bunch of jerks on planet earth — and yet when they came out and tried to rub their cultural power in our faces, when they tried to make us just sit there and silently be insulted presented by the felons, losers, and accused sex offenders whose names were emblazoned on their helmets, tons of us refused to tune in and those who showed up live booed these pretentious twits.  How dare those peasants refuse to submit to the cultural commandments of their betters!

NFL Releases List of Approved Names for Helmet Padding, Including Jacob Blake.  The NFL has disclosed their list of approved names that they will allow players to wear on their helmet bumpers for social justice messaging.  Among the names are Jacob Blake, who is accused of sexual assault.  The list is apparently fluid, in the sense that new names are being added all the time.  Also among the names is that of slain retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn.  Dorn was killed in early June by rioters while checking on a friend's store in St. Louis.  The listing of Blake's name, given his alleged violent history of sexual assault, stands in stark contrast to the league's recent efforts to improve the game's appeal to women through cracking down on domestic violence and promoting breast cancer awareness.

Political expression at the NFL opener, by players and fans.  I didn't watch the NFL's opening game last night between Kansas City and Houston.  However, I've read several accounts about the players' approach to the National Anthem and related activity.  Apparently, the NFL decided to play both the National Anthem and a song called "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which is sometimes referred to as the black national anthem.  The idea of a black national anthem should be offensive to all but racial separatists.  As long as we're one country, we should have just one anthem, and it should be the only one played at sports events.

The NFL returns with 17,000 socially distanced fans, kneeling players and anthem walkouts.  Kansas City Chiefs fans booed a moment of silence aimed at promoting racial justice, the Houston Texans remained in the locker room during the Star-Spangled Banner, and the reigning Super Bowl champions lined up for a singing of 'the black national anthem' on Thursday night [9/10/2020] as the NFL opened its 2020 campaign under dramatically different circumstances than any other season in league history.  'With everything going on in this country, we wanted to show that we're unified as a league,' Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told NBC after throwing three touchdowns in a 34-20 win.  'We are not going to let football distract us from making a change in the world.'

The Editor says...
The few remaining football fans are only interested in seeing how well you can play football.  They aren't tuning in, or attending in person, to see how much you can "change the world."

On Covid and Race, Sports Suddenly Ignore Analytics.  What has happened with big time sports' fascination with crunching all kinds of numbers and statistics?  Has this fascination with stats vanished in lieu of a political agenda with respect to the Covid and the BLM protests?  Is getting rid of Donald Trump worth obliterating multi-billion-dollar operations?  Do they have any idea what they are doing to themselves?  These are open questions, and the answers carry monstrous cultural, political and economic ramifications.

Why I'm Voting for Trump, Even Though I Don't Want To.  I stopped watching the NFL four years ago, and now I've stopped watching all pro sports because of the disrespect.  The Democrats do not condemn flag-burners.

Primetime Ratings Crash for Woke MLB.  Major League Baseball opened this year by kneeling for the anthem and standing for Black Lives Matter.  Though, despite the apparent belief that our sports-starved nation's hunger for baseball would outweigh the league's social justice activism, the ratings have been in the basement.  According to the numbers, baseball has joined the NBA in struggling to get sports fans to tune in and watch games.

NFL Player:  We Have 'Green Light' to 'Do Something That Makes a Boom' During Protests.  Apparently, simply kneeling and disrespecting the American flag and national anthem during NFL pregames every week doesn't quite deliver the virtue-signaling "social justice" high to players it once did.  So, as is the case with all addictions, players are looking for a new twist to pregame protests.  You, know, something with a few more bells and whistles; just to make sure non-woke fans who have gotten used to the same old kneeling routine are still paying attention to the "social injustice" and "white privilege" that permeates their every pore.  If Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford has anything to say about it, players are going to do just that.  Dallas Cowboys players, at least.  Moreover, Crawford suggested Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has already given players the go-ahead.

NBA viewers flee as the league turns "too political," poll finds.  A recent Harris poll has revealed that 39% of self-identified sports fans have chosen to watch fewer NBA games this season, largely because the league has become overly politicized.

NBA ratings continue to drop as fans abandon the league that's abandoned them.  The NBA is facing continuing drops to their ratings, probably as a result of the polarizing political stances they have been taking recently, according to City Journal.  The latest sharp drop in ratings for the NBA appears to be directly related to their recent round of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which many people see as corrupted by outside influences, and conflated with totalitarian socialist ideals.  Fans have also been voicing discontent over the continued postponing of key playoff games.  They feel they have had to wait a long time for basketball to come back already, and further delays are not acceptable to many of them.The NBA had postponed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday NBA playoff games last week as a sign of protest.

NFL Announces Social Justice Slogans Will Be Inscribed on Every Field.  NFL end zones will be inscribed this season with two slogans:  "It Takes All Of Us" on one end line, "End Racism" on the other.  As part of its social justice awareness initiatives, the NFL also will allow similar visuals on helmets and caps.  Previously announced were decals on the back of helmets, or patches on team caps, displaying names or phrases to honor victims of racism and/or police brutality.

The Editor says...
When major sports team stop glorifying victims, fewer people will see victimhood as a goal.

When NBA, MLB And NHL Players Picked Jacob Blake To Be Their Saint, They Chose Poorly.  The officer who shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been tried and convicted by Democrats, the media, and truth-[averse] activists before the case is resolved.  It's a mirror image of the Michael Brown shooting (the officer was cleared) in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd (the officer has yet to go to trial).  The difference is this time, pro athletes, pampered and well-paid, joined the mob.  They should be ashamed of their behavior. [...] As sports journalist Clay Travis tweeted when the players quit on their fans and employers, "the NBA never said no to the players," when they returned to play after the pandemic shutdown.  "They okayed everything — political messages on jerseys, kneeling for the national anthem, political messages on the court itself — and it still wasn't enough.  And now their business doesn't exist.  Lesson: you can't ever be woke enough."

MLB fans' reaction to Jacob Blake boycotts says it all.  Whatever the issue or cause, it's a lot easier to be righteous when there are no paying customers to send home.  Timing was everything.  This season, with no tickets, tack-on fees, parking, hideously marked-up eats and drinks to sell, Thursday [8/27/2020] there was no one to rip off except cable and satellite TV subscribers, who have been conditioned to bait-and-switch abuses.  For better, worse and all that lies between, here's the problem:  Fans don't care nearly as much as they did.  They've learned to live without sports, especially in their current diminished condition.  They've learned that they're taken for granted.  And more and more they've determined that they won't pay another dime to attend games or to watch them on TV.

NHL players group demands league pay $100 million and change blue line to 'black line' for racial equality.  On top of their formal request for the National Hockey League to suspend all playoff games last night, Rick Westhead, a senior correspondent for TSN, reports the HDA (Hockey Diversity Alliance) has a number of other demands.  Hockey Diversity Alliance, an association made up of seven players whose stated purpose is to eradicate systemic racism and intolerance in hockey, have also revealed these demands:
  •   Team owners offer NHL rinks to be used as polling stations for the upcoming US election
  •   NHL should be fully transparent about "all information related to the policies, targets and commitments" related to the hiring of employees who are visible minorities.
  •   NHL to commit to funding $100 million dollars over 10 years to battle "systemic racism."
  •   NHL make a statement by temporarily changing the blue line to black.
  •   NHL to run PSAs for the HDA during the playoffs this summer.
  •   NHL to have on-ice presence of the HDA logo.

Advice to woke pro sports:  Try doing just sports again.  Here's a tip for you.  Go to YouTube and watch Harry Caray broadcasting an old White Sox game.  At times he was clearly drunk on air, butchered the players' names, talked about their ethnicities as well as good-looking women in the stands.  Everyone loved Harry Caray because he was entertaining and fun to listen to.  There is nothing fun about the new generation of sports broadcasters, who sound like an old Pravda TV announcer telling us the virtues of Leonid Brezhnev.  American sports fans are being pushed around.  If they are pushed any farther, we will have an Atlas Shrugged moment on our hands.

An NBA so woke it cancels itself.  Deciding to go Colin Kaepernick one better, the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks players decided to cancel their playoff game to protest the Kenosha, Wisconsin police shooting of Jacob Blake, a career criminal with a warrant out for 3rd degree sexual assault, who was resisting arrest.  That act triggered racial grievance riots, along with lootings, destruction, and a likely permanent decline for Kenosha, as usually happens in riot-torn cities.  But the NBA didn't want to leave it alone and let justice take its course.  Someone in the locker room of the Bucks suggested a game strike, and then the rest of them, lemmings-like, jumped onboard.  The act was followed with at least five teams calling off their games, too, and two teams — the Clippers and Lakers of Los Angeles pulling out of the season entirely.  Meanwhile, Kenny Smith a longtime TNT sports commentator walked off, and LeBron James, who plays for some other team, jumped in, too, effectively calling the walkout a political protest to Get Trump, declaring:  "Change starts in November."

Mark Cuban says he'd support Dallas Mavericks players boycotting games.  Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he'd support his players if they seek to boycott games.  Cuban's comments to FOX 4 came after three NBA playoff games on Wednesday were postponed following player boycotts in the wake of the shooting of a Black man by police in Wisconsin.

Report: NFL Dropping Military Honor Guards for National Anthem.  The NFL is preparing to end the use of military honor guards to present the American flag ahead of the national anthem, according to reports.  A league source claims that the policy benching military, federal, and police guards is part of its COVID-19 response, according to Front Office Sports.  "They won't be on the field," a source told the site.  "That could change as the season progresses.  But that's the plan at the beginning."

Twenty (Uncomfortable) Questions.  [#3] Why does the NBA have "Black Lives Matter" painted on the court?  If black lives didn't matter, would there be any players on the court?  It reminds me of the old joke:  "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out." Now it's, "I went to a protest and a sporting event broke out."  [#4] How does kneeling during the national anthem help fight "perceived" racism or inequality in any way?  It's incredibly annoying to try to enjoy a game or a television show and have to sit through a lecture or a sermon.

Players Kneeling for Anthem Met with Boos Before MLS Game.  There was a smattering of boos when players from FC Dallas and Nashville SC collectively took a knee during the national anthem before their MLS game on Wednesday night [8/12/2020] in Frisco, Texas.  Dallas defender Reggie Cannon said he was disgusted by the boos at Toyota Stadium when players and officials knelt to call attention to racial injustice.  He said teammate Ryan Hollingshead turned to him afterward and said he was sorry.

Dallas Soccer Star Reggie Cannon Calls Fans "Disgusting" for Booing and Chanting "USA!" as Players Knelt for National Anthem.  Several soccer fans out of a crowd of about 3,000 in attendance booed and chanted "USA!" at an MLS game Wednesday night at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas between FC Dallas and Nashville SC as players and refs knelt in unison for the playing of the national anthem before the game.  In a post-game press conference, Dallas star Reggie Cannon went off on fans for chanting "USA!" and booing the players, calling the fans "disgusting" and whining that his team has been through "absolute hell" the past six months because of the pandemic.  Cannon ranted for over two minutes about the booing of the players for kneeling in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Woke Mobs Demand You Must Now Explain Why You Stand For The Anthem.  Kneeling for the national anthem at sporting events used to be the occasional episode of player activism protesting the United States as an evil racist empire.  Amid the new 21st century woke revolution however, kneeling has become a key signifier for players and teams to declare which side of the culture wars one sits on.  It's those who love America versus those who hate it, the latter of which despises the American flag and all that it represents as a relic of white supremacy that must be condemned.  Those who still stand out of respect for the nation's ideals and the uniformed men and women who protect it are now the outliers forced to defend themselves in a new age of no dissent, because dissent is racist, racism is oppression, oppression is violence, and violence is not to be tolerated, even if it isn't real.

Key Fans [are] Unhappy With Sports Leagues Kowtowing to Black Lives Matter.  If anyone was hoping that the return of the long-awaited Major League season would lift our spirits and bring us together, they had to be disappointed to learn that we are more divided than ever over the National Anthem kneeling debate.  And although President Trump has not chosen to join the burgeoning #BoycottMLB movement on Twitter, the president has joined a growing number of disheartened baseball fans who are unhappy that their favorite teams are taking the knee.  Even before the start of the season, President Trump tweeted that he was "looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!"  This is not a small issue.  Rasmussen released a new poll of 1,000 Americans which indicates that "Americans are sending more negative signals than positive ones over the decision by many professional sports organizations to promote the controversial Black Lives Matter movement."

NFL: Now the No Freedom League.  I grew up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before they had satellite TV. As such, on the Monday after the Super Bowl, everyone on the entire base would try to get through the day without knowing who had won the game.  That night, after a tape of the game had been flown down from the U.S., we'd watch the game and be riveted to our TVs. [...] Today, however, I doubt I'll watch another NFL game, and I most certainly won't spend a penny on NFL merchandise.  Why?  It's simple.  The NFL, helmed by men who are ostensibly some of the smartest businessmen in America, literally helped bring America to the brink of revolution, maybe even led the way.  We're talking about Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter.  The NFL, and to a lesser degree MLB and the NBA, used to be oases from which all Americans could seek refuge from the slings and arrows of daily life. [...] Since Kaepernick started his grandstanding, however, the conversations became more about who was kneeling, what star was lecturing America about this grievance or that, and ceased to be about the excitement or pain or joy of the actual games.

The Sickening Hypocrisy of the NBA.  I am not speaking about individual NBA players or their motivations (although some players, to be sure, could be called out).  I'm speaking of the league as a whole, of the organization.  Its hypocrisy is absolutely sickening.  In October, 2019, I stated that the NBA was a spineless little bully, noting that "this multi-billion dollar organization, which spans the globe, was happy to bully North Carolina in 2016 when the state had the audacity to declare that men's bathrooms were for men and women's bathrooms were for women."  Yet, I wrote, the "NBA has had no problem getting in bed with an oppressive country like China, which imprisons and tortures Christians and Muslims and others who do not toe the party line.  "Tens of millions of people experience severe daily restrictions under the tyrannical policies of President Xi, with countless tens of thousands suffering right now in 'reeducation camps' and jails."

"Woke" Sports Bombing With Fans.  I never understood why pro sports leagues thought that buying into a far-left, anti-American narrative would ingratiate them with their fans.  At the moment, it looks like my skepticism (shared by many, of course) was justified.  Breitbart reports:  "Ratings crash for NBA, MLB after protest-filled debuts." [...] Why would anyone think that America's sports fans yearn for far-left "social justice" messages as part of their sports programming?

Report: Group of Pac-12 Players Threatens to Boycott Season over Virus, Social Justice Concerns.  While professional football, baseball, and basketball players have been opting out of their upcoming seasons by the dozens, less has been heard from the nation's collegiate athletes.  Well, that's beginning to change.  According to a report obtained by ESPN, a group of players from several different Pac-12 schools have threatened to sit out preseason and regular season games unless the Pac-12 makes certain concessions.

Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts.  As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke leagues have to offer.  With both baseball and basketball draped in all sorts of Black Lives Matter and social justice symbolism for their opening games, a substantially smaller number of fans tuned-in to the rest of the week's games.

Every NHL Player Stands For The National Anthem During First Game Back.  Every single player on the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers stood during the national anthem Saturday afternoon [8/1/2020].  In the first game of the NHL's 24-team postseason return during the coronavirus pandemic, not a single player on either team took a knee.  Protesting during the national anthem is front and center again in the world of sports, and virtually the entire NBA has done it.

Strike Three:  Major League Baseball's Sordid Romance with Race-Baiting Politics.  For 65 years, I was a major league fan of major league baseball.  But as of last week, that all changed, and I will never again follow the sport.  MLB's woke owners drove me away.  I don't watch baseball — or any sport — to have moralizing political lectures rammed down my throat.  Yet that is now the order of the day, not only in the NFL and the NBA, but in major league baseball as well, where filthy rich franchise owners are falling all over themselves kowtowing to Black Lives Matter, a Marxist political organization that hijacked the noble cause of racial justice as a fig leaf to disguise its profoundly un-American ideology.  At the 2020 Season Opener between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees, every player and every coach was told to kneel prior to the National Anthem.

Every Player and Coach Takes a Knee During National Anthem Before NBA Restart.  The NBA promised a social justice message when they restarted their season, and they delivered.  On Thursday night, every player and coach for the Jazz and Pelicans took a knee during the national anthem.  In addition, every player wore a Black Lives Matter shirt.

Every Player On The Jazz And Pelicans Kneels During The National Anthem.  Every single member of the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans took a knee during the national anthem Thursday [7/30/2020].  While the anthem played before the first game of the NBA's return, all coaches, players and a ref took a knee.

Our Summer of Cultural Suicide.  Over the last century, professional football, basketball and baseball were racially integrated and adopted a uniform code of patriotic observance.  The three leagues offered fans a pleasant respite from daily barroom politics.  As a result, by the 21st century, the NFL, NBA and MLB had become global multibillion-dollar enterprises.  Then hubris ensued.  The owners, coaches and players weren't always racially diverse.  But that inconvenient truth did not stop the leagues from hectoring their fans about social activism — even as they no longer honored common patriotic rituals.  All three leagues have suffered terribly during the viral lockdown, as American life mysteriously went on without them.  And they have almost ensured that they won't fully recover when the quarantine ends.  Many of their often-pampered multimillionaire players refuse to honor the national anthem.  In the NFL they now will broadcast their politics on their helmets.  They will virtue-signal their moral superiority to increasingly turned-off fans, as if to ensure that their sources of support flee.

Pittsburgh Steelers Player Stephon Tuitt Says He's Not Kneeling During The National Anthem.  Pittsburgh Steelers star Stephon Tuitt won't take a knee during the national anthem.  There are going to be gigantic national anthem protests all over the NFL during the 2020 season, but Tuitt won't be joining.  He tweeted Monday [7/27/2020] that he's not taking a knee and added, "screw anybody who have a problem with that."  He cited his grandmother being an immigrant as a major reason why he won't take a knee.

Spurs' Gregg Popovich:  People who don't understand BLM movement 'just ignorant'.  San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, one of the NBA's most outspoken voices on social justice issues, took to task people who he said still did not understand the Black Lives Matter movement.  In a video conference call with reporters, Popovich, who is preparing for the league's upcoming restarted season, was asked what the social justice movement means to him[.]  "It's no different for me than it is to anybody else who cares about justice and who can be empathetic to the fact that justice has been denied to a group of people for far too long.  And enough is enough," he said, according to the Dallas Morning-News.

Mike Ditka tells kneeling athletes to 'get [...] out of the country'.  Former Chicago Bears coach and noted commercial pitchman Mike Ditka shared his thoughts on the growing wave of anti-racist athlete demonstrations occurring during the pregame national anthems at sporting events.  For anyone who has ever listened to Ditka talk politics before, his beliefs on the matter were unsurprising.

Former Chicago Bears Coach Has a Message for Kneeling Athletes.  During an interview with TMZ, Former Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka shredded National Football League players that decide to kneel during the national them.  According to Ditka, it's disrespectful to "protest" against the flag and the country that has provided opportunities to professional athletes.  "The whole kneeling thing in the NFL, you've got guys saying they're gonna do it.  You know, baseball players, different teams, last night I watched baseball, you got the Red Sox and the As and the Giants, a lot of teams are kneeling, athletes are kneeling.  In your league here, you're the chairman of this league, is that going to be allowed if the women want to take a knee during the anthem?" TMZ asked.  "What's the policy on that from you guys?"

WNBA players WALK OUT during national anthem and wear Black Lives Matter jerseys.  The WNBA's Seattle Storm and New York Liberty teams walked off the court during the playing of the national anthem before the season-opening game on Saturday afternoon [7/25/2020].  The two teams' planned walk-off was part of the league's season-long Justice Movement initiative — designed to fight systemic racism and violence — which the WNBA and Women's National Basketball Players Association announced earlier in July.  On Saturday, players from the Storm and the Liberty headed for their locker rooms while the national anthem played at the WNBA bubble at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

The Week in Pictures:  Play (Protest) Ball!  Edition.  So we have sports back, starting with major league baseball in empty stadiums, but with artificial crowd noise piped into TV broadcasts as if the game is an unfunny sitcom or something.  And in one sense it is an unfunny sitcom, since so many players seem intimidated into the political exhibitionism of kneeling for the national anthem.  Here's a thought:  if we want to get real crowds into stadiums, let's label the games as "BLM protests" instead, since they are exempt from the social distancing rules.  The crowd can sing the Black national anthem during the 7th inning stretch, or perhaps a new tune — "Take Me Out to the Riot" — can be specially composed.  The kneeling players are already doing their part.

Americans Should Tell the NBA 'Not In My House'.  Once upon a time, basketball had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with showcasing American athletic prowess. [...] The NBA bent over backward for China the minute it retaliated in response to Morey's statement.  In stark contrast, the league continues to trample over America and its patriotic citizens, meaning money talks.  So, let's stop watching their games and buying their products — until the NBA cuts all ties with China and players begin standing during the national anthem — in respect for this extraordinary country which turned them into heroes.  Or, let them spend the rest of their careers as pathetic zeroes in the eyes of Americans.

Baseball Returns With Less Games, More Preaching.  After so many months with zero professional sports, the atmosphere should be one of anticipation and excitement.  Yet, this entire moment just feels like we might be watching the swan song of professional sports.  Baseball could have really seized the moment when the pandemic started, and made plans to strategize, to reach out to fans, to make every effort to get back on the field.  Instead, we got a labor dispute with fingers pointed at both sides, some big name players who are declining to play this season for a myriad of reasons, and fans submitting cardboard cutouts of themselves to sit in empty stadium seats.  Nothing feels right, and yet baseball should feel familiar and comforting.  But it doesn't, because first we have to sit through another lecture and demonstration on the social justice cause du jour.

Yankees and Nationals kneel in unison before the first game of season just days after Trump said the game was 'over' for him when players took a knee.  The Yankees and Nationals knelt in unison before the first game of the season just days after Donald Trump said the game was 'over' for him when players took a knee.  Players from both clubs knelt during the opening day ceremony Thursday night, which featured several references to the ongoing civil rights movement that was triggered by the Memorial Day 'murder' of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  The symbol of protest has divided opinion of late, with the president tweeting Tuesday that kneeling during the national anthem is a 'sign of great disrespect' and the game is 'over' for him when players do it.

San Francisco Giants Pitcher Sam Coonrod Refuses To Kneel During The National Anthem, Cites His Christian faith.  San Francisco Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod refused to kneel during the national anthem Thursday night against the Dodgers.  According to NBC Sports, members of the Giants took a knee during the national anthem, and Coonrod didn't join them.  Every member of both teams also kneeled before the anthem.  The pitcher also didn't participate in that action.  The reason why?  His Christian faith.

Red Sox Raise Large Black Lives Matter Sign at Fenway Park.  The Boston Red Sox made a very visible statement of anti-racism Wednesday as they put up a huge Black Lives Matter sign on an exterior wall of Fenway Park.  The sign, which says "Black Lives Matter" in large letters followed by the Sox' logo, faces the Massachusetts Turnpike and directs viewers to the Red Sox Foundation website for more information.  On the website is a statement on "Social Justice, Equity and Inclusion" from team President and CEO Sam Kennedy posted last month in the wake of the major protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others.

MLB Allows Black Lives Matter, Social Justice Jersey Patches.  Major League Baseball players have the option of having a patch with "Black Lives Matter" or "United For Change" on a jersey sleeve on opening day of the pandemic-delayed season, and Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle says his team may is considering whether to take a knee in support Thursday night [7/23/2020].

Anthony Fauci to Throw First Pitch for Washington Nationals' Season Opener.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will throw out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals on opening day on Thursday, the Major League Baseball team announced Monday [7/20/2020].  "The Washington Nationals are thrilled to announce that Nats super-fan, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has accepted our invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day, Thursday, July 23," the team said in a statement.  "Dr. Fauci has been a true champion for our country during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career, so it is only fitting that we honor him as we kick off the 2020 season and defend our World Series Championship title."

Under China's thumb:  So you can buy a KillCops t-shirt from the NBA but not a FreeHongKong one.  When China is your master, nobody cares if you stand or kneel or thumb your nose at the U.S. flag, but you'd better not cross the Chinese one.  Tha't's [sic] the ugly picture regarding the China-coopted National Basketball Association (NBA) and its personalized t-shirt sales operation, where Chicom censorship is alive and well.  Turns out you can personalize your t-shirt to say all kinds of ugly things — but not FreeHongKong.  Someone programmed that if/else exception in, preventing any freedom lover from printing that reminder of China's broken treaty destruction of Hong Kong onto their personalized t-shirt.

NFL Again Fumbles Opportunity to Unite America.  The National Football League once again is fumbling away an opportunity to unite America.  This is the result we could have expected, given the NFL's playbook over the past few years.  The NFL's decision to play what is known as the black national anthem — "Lift Every Voice and Sing" — before every Week 1 game seems poised to divide, not unite, our country.  But a secondary, more certain outcome of this decision is that the NFL will lose its luster at a greater pace than it achieved its dominant allure.

It's Not Trump vs. Biden.  It's Trump vs.  Losing Your Country.  Just Look at the NFL!  [Scroll down]  Look at the NFL.  The NFL is literally afraid of a Marxist, communist organization, literally afraid of it, literally doing anything it can not to make that bunch of people mad at them.  The NFL has made it clear that they are no longer the institution and value set that we always thought they were.  You got Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints who tweets his support and love for the American flag and the fact that he will never do anything to disrespect it, and he's practically drummed out of the league, he's practically destroyed.  He had to apologize four times, his wife had to apologize two times, had to give a bunch of people a bunch of money.  All he did was stand up for the flag.  The Philadelphia Eagles have an abject idiot wide receiver named DeSean Jackson, who just tweeted a bunch of things he thought Hitler said, and he said the Jews are gonna come for the blacks, the Jews are gonna wipe out the blacks, the Jews are gonna do this, he thought Hitler said it.  He tweeted it.  Nobody's upset.  Nobody's insisting DeSean Jackson be sent someplace to get his mind right.

How Philadelphia Eagles' DeSean Jackson's Anti-Semitic Fiasco Just Got Worse.  The Philadelphia Eagles' wide receiver DeSean Jackson is causing problems in the locker room again.  I guess in some odd way, he thought sharing anti-Semitic posts, Louis Farrakhan videos, and fake Hitler quotes wouldn't be an issue, not least of the reasons being that Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, and its executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman, are Jewish.

So, Kaepernick Lied.  [Scroll down]  No one buys Kaepernick's love of country any more.  But that works out fine because he's no longer selling it.  In 2016, you still had to dilute your anti-Americanism with a drop of patriotism to get the really good press.  That's over with.  Today, the American media market rewards the pure stuff, the straight-up hatred of the United States.  Which is why on July 6, Kaepernick announced his new partnership with The Walt Disney Co. to produce scripted and unscripted content about, presumably, the country that has been so terrible to Kaepernick (and Disney).  Of course, all those 2016 Kaepernick defenders really believed and approved of his claims to patriotism.  Just as today, they believe and undoubtedly approve of his undiluted anti-Americanism.  You'd think that they feel duped, but you'd be wrong; they're appreciative.  No one on the left is dropping Kaepernick.  In coming out as a full-throated anti-American, he helped his woke supporters shed their habit of white supremacy.  He once had to play the game of good citizenship, but his liberation from those restraints is their liberation, too.  Where he leads, they'll follow.  What he rejects, they'll reject.  And whatever cognitive dissonance arises will be chalked up to past ignorance.  This holds true not just for Kaepernick but for all social-justice celebrities.  Indeed, it applies to social justice generally.  Whatever is done or said in the name of the cause is good and just.  Fool them once, fool them forever.

NFL Embracing BLM Ideals Highlights Its Leadership Void.  Four years ago, the NFL forbade Jason Witten and the Dallas Cowboys from placing "Arm in Arm" stickers on the back of their helmets that would honor five slain Dallas police officers.  This year, according to a Thursday report by ESPN The Undefeated's Jason Reid, the NFL Players Association and the NFL are collaborating on an idea to list the names of black people killed by police on jerseys.  The absurdity of this pivot could only be topped by the folly of DeMaurice Smith's and Roger Goodell's other proposed pivot.  According to Reid, in Week 1 the NFL will play the "black national anthem," Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, before playing The Star-Spangled Banner.  So the NFL is going to start its season with all of its employees standing for the "black national anthem" and a majority of its on-field employees immediately taking a knee for the American national anthem?  That's the game plan Smith and Goodell cooked up?

NBA releases list of 29 pre-approved social justice messages for players' shirts, unfazed by hilarious irony.  The virtual-signaling, very woke National Basketball Association has reportedly settled on a list of social justice messages that can be displayed on the back of player jerseys for the first four days of the restarted season.  The suspended NBA season is scheduled to restart on July 30 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., at the Walt Disney World Resort.  The NBA has reportedly already agreed to paint the words Black Lives Matter inside the sidelines on all three arenas that will be in use when the games begin.  Given massive guaranteed salaries and other forms of leverage, the players pretty much run the NBA, even though there is no constitutional guarantee of free speech in the private sector workplace.

Roger Goodell's National Anthem Gambit.  It is now being reported that the NFL will be playing "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," a song that has been called the "Black national anthem," before all NFL games in Week 1.  This is a high-risk, low-reward move by the NFL.  There are countless problems with this strategy to appease the woke mobs, and it would be difficult to overstate just how foolish and dangerous it is.  First of all, a "Black national anthem" can only exist if there is a broad acceptance of the notion that black people, as a racial category, share a common identity with other sovereign nations.  Additionally, defining a separate "Black national anthem" to be played alongside the America's National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," presupposes that the latter is insufficient to alone represent black Americans as it represents all others.  These are insane propositions that would, until recently, have been unthinkable at any moment of my life.

Sports Commentator Rips NBA Painting 'Black Lives Matter' On Courts.  This week, former NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley, who attended Columbia University and now co-hosts Fox Sports' "Speak for Yourself," slammed the idea that the NBA will paint "Black Lives Matter" on courts where their games are played, asserting, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  Wiley began, "It's not a good idea.  I do want to give the players credit for their flex to even get this to be more than just an idea, but something that's gonna be, in reality, I give the players that.  But there's a problem with — when you start to go down this road of 'freedom of expression,' 'freedom of speech,' and how much social space is allowed for those who don't support in that same place.  And that's where I wonder where this is going to go in terms of identity politics."

Ted Cruz blasts NFL's reported plans to play 'Black national anthem'.  Calls to boycott the NFL trended Friday on social media following reports that the league plans to play the song known as the Black national anthem before all Week 1 regular season games.  Multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press and the Undefeated, cited sources saying that "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," known as the Black national anthem, would be played or performed before the first week's games, immediately before "The Star-Spangled Banner."  The hashtag #BoycottNFL trended on Friday morning as some Republican lawmakers and others condemned the idea, saying it promoted the concept of a nation divided by race.

Former NFL Player Burgess Owens Rips League Over 'Black National Anthem' Playing Before NFL Games.  On Thursday [7/3/2020], former NFL star Burgess Owens ripped into the football league over reports that the NFL will play "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing," dubbed the "Black national anthem," before all Week 1 games this season.  The retired safety suggested the move was in line with "trying" to "segregate" the nation "again."  "There is no 'black national anthem,'" Owens posted via Twitter.  "Why does it feel like the country is trying to segregate again sometimes?"

NFL all in with toxic identity politics, will play separate 'black national anthem' before Week 1 games.  The NFL will play the "black national anthem" before all Week 1 games of the 2020-2021 season as the National Football League continues caving to race-baiting, leftist mobs.  Most Americans never even knew that a "black national anthem" existed since black and white civil-rights activists fought for decades to end racial segregation.  However, since segregation is a goal of the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement, the "black national anthem" will be played before the Star-Spangled Banner at all Week 1 NFL games.

Source: NFL plans to play Black national anthem before Week 1 games.  "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing," traditionally known as the Black national anthem, is expected to be performed live or played before every Week 1 NFL game, and the league is considering a variety of other measures during the upcoming season to recognize victims of police brutality, a source familiar with the league's discussions told The Undefeated on Thursday [7/2/2020].

Report: NFL Expected to Play Black National Anthem Before Season Opening Games.  The NFL reportedly plans to play a song titled, Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing, also known as the Black National Anthem, prior to every season opening game this year.  The song, according to a source to ESPN, will be played prior to the Star-Spangled-Banner.

NBA Will Let Players Replace Name on Jersey With "Social Justice Statement".  Some may wonder if the NBA now stands for No Brains Anymore or, perhaps, if the NBA has become an NPC.  Whatever the quip, what sounds like a joke but isn't is the latest National Basketball Association news:  When the league launches its abbreviated 2020 season July 30 in Orlando, it will allow players to replace their names on their jerseys with a "social justice statement." [...] ESPN, which itself has become the Entwining Sports with Politics Network, provides more detail, writing that "Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, president of the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN's The Undefeated on Saturday that the players' union and the league are collaborating to allow players to wear jerseys with personalized social justice, social cause or charity messages on the backs instead of their last names during the upcoming restart of the NBA season."  Reacting to this, Red State's Mike Miller wrote, "I'll go out on a limb and predict that there will be exactly zero 'charity messages' on the backs of those Jerseys, come July 30."

The Hour of Heroes Is Nigh.  To be honest, I actually lost some sleep over the Mike Gundy video earlier last week.  Maybe you've seen it — the video where the Oklahoma State University football coach is seen apologizing for the offense of wearing a shirt bearing the logo of the conservative news company OANN.  It was a disturbing scene with the coach robotically parroting the talking points of the delicate running back who originally took issue with the offending piece of apparel.  It's reminiscent of a hostage video of a captured US soldier.  Either that or something out of a cartoon villain's mind control experiment.  You can practically see the spirals in his eyes.  Beyond the bizarre visuals, the most disturbing thing about this was the fact that an ostensible adult and leader could be brought to heel by his subordinate — an early adult many years his junior — by something as meaningless and inconsequential as the running back's tender feelings.

Why Are We Letting Democrats Steal from Us?  [Scroll down]  Frighteningly, the fascists are now stealing patriotism, and the woke leftists are joining forces.  In the sports world, team owners, players, and spectators who used to believe that standing for the National Anthem was the traditionally respectful, patriotic thing to do, now condone and even encourage taking a knee as a symbol of Lord knows what.  Colin Kaepernick was elevated to heroic stature by Nike even as he wore socks portraying police officers as pigs.  Now he is the darling of the American media and the NFL as owners and managers climb over each other to prove who's the most woke. [...] As the Atlanta Braves pivot away from the famous Tomahawk Chop chant, the University of Florida outlawed its "Gator Bait" cheer.  The University of Virginia followed suit by reworking its logo.  The craziness began before the recent riots, with liberals wishing to change the name of the Washington Redskins, something we'll likely see in the near future as a statue of the former owner was removed last week.

Report: Ratings for Woke ESPYs Crash by 81 Percent.  Ratings for last weekend's woke ESPY Awards crashed to the lowest numbers the show has ever recorded.  The ESPYs only earned 482,000 viewers over both ESPN and ESPN2 combined, making it the smallest audience the show has ever reached dating back to its inaugural awards in 1993.  The previous low occurred in 2011 when 1.98 million viewers tuned in, according to Sports Media Watch.  "This year's ESPYs was tape-delayed, lacked its usual live audience, took place a month earlier on the calendar," Sports Media Watch explained, "and occurred more than three months into a historic drought of live sporting events.  With no live sports to focus on, this year's ESPYs was largely devoted to humanitarian and social issues."

Bubba Smollett, Jussie Wallace.  [Scroll down]  Wallace is not a natural prodigy, but instead is a product of the Tiger Woods era of child competitors given every advantage by their parents.  Wallace's father, a wealthy white business owner, paid for his son to compete in youth motorsports from age 9 onward.  Soon he was the star of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program. [...] He now drives the most legendary number in stock cars, Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 43.  Unfortunately, Wallace hasn't yet proven more than mediocre at the highest level, finishing 28th among drivers in each of the past two seasons. [...] It's not just the ensuing safety reforms that have eroded stock car racing's 1990s popularity.  NASCAR is basically an ethnic pride parade for the people who aren't allowed to hold ethnic pride parades, and the 21st century has been a bad one for the white working class.  This year, Wallace jumped on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon, which is, perhaps not coincidentally, much beloved by corporate America's deep-pocketed sponsors, with the support of NASCAR. He had his car painted with the BLM slogan for the Talladega race.

'The Masters' Golf Tournament Should Change 'Racist' Name, Writer Says.  One of golf's four "major" tournaments every year is called "The Masters."  The field of golfers is the smallest of all the majors — only the best allowed — and the winner can be deemed "The Master" (plus, he gets a cool green jacket that every pro golfer covets).  But one writer at Deadspin has decided that the tournament's name is racist and should be changed.

Will Americans choose the USA, or will they choose the NFL?  NFL owners who support their players kneeling during the National Anthem are routinely heard saying they feel that the act of kneeling shows respect for the hardships minorities have endured and that it exhibits inclusivity and brings the country together.  At the risk of sounding overly disdainful regarding such deceptive drivel, those owners, pretending to be "woke," are fully aware that kneeling during the National Anthem has historically been viewed as a sign of protest against the country.  Beyond disrespectful, kneeling is divisive unless, in unison, the entire stadium decides to kneel.  Getting down to brass tacks, those NFL owners who support their players kneeling during the National Anthem do so to protect their investment.  That's right.  It comes down to the almighty dollar, as it always does.  The NFL has taken sides, and it's not with Old Glory.

What Happens When the Madness Ends?  In a few weeks, we are promised that multimillionaire NFL players and coaches in unison will not deign to stand up for the National Anthem.  Promises, promises.  TV play-by-play announcers will praise them — or else likely lose their jobs.  But millions of Americans simply will decouple from the NFL.  Their silent disappearance will make the prior Kaepernick drop-off in attendance and viewership seem like child's play.  The same will be true perhaps of the more canny NBA, if they foolishly emulate the NFL.  Millions will surmise that billionaire basketball players can far better make their billions in China and should — an NBA deity whose dictatorship players and coaches fear and worship while criticizing their own democracy.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:  I Want Colin Kaepernick To 'Help Us, Guide Us' On Social Issues.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during an interview on Tuesday that he wants a team to sign former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and that if Kaepernick does not make it back on the field then he is invited to the "table" to "help" and "guide" the NFL on social issues. [...] Kaepernick has been widely criticized for some of his actions, including kneeling during the national anthem, donating money to a group honoring convicted cop killer and wanted terrorist Assata Shakur, wearing socks portraying police officers as pigs, and wearing shirts of brutal Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Univ. of Texas football players refuse to participate in donor, recruiting events until 'woke' demands met.  Members of the University of Texas football team say they'll refuse to participate in donor and recruiting events on behalf of the school until a list of demands is met to address alleged racial injustices.  The players will, however, continue to practice and play in games.  That said, participation in donor and recruiting events are a very important function for college athletes and the universities they attend and play for.  The list of demands was posted to Twitter by at least two Texas football players, but according to reports, they were submitted on behalf of the entire squad.  However, as The Blaze noted, thus far there is no real indication that all team members are in agreement with the demands or if anyone on the team has dissented.

San Antonio Spurs Coach, Gregg Popovich Calls America A Lie, Racist, Ashamed To Be White.  San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who is a long-time critic of Donald Trump, blasted the history of America as racist and declared his shame in being white after the death of George Floyd.  [Video clip]

Denver Broncos Declare If You Are Not Virtuous Enough To Support Their Antifa Politics Then Get Lost.  The NFL has been moving further and further toward the political left for several years.  Many NFL players and teams openly castigate their fans and denigrate anyone who doesn't conform to their political correctness.  Overall, the NFL has become a toxic stew of identity politics and divisive intollerance.  However, the Denver Broncos are taking division up a notch today by declaring if their fans do not stand with their brand of virtue signaling politics, then you stand against them.

NFL decision to permit kneeling protest by players enrages Donald Trump.  The US National Football League is embroiled in a standoff with President Donald Trump after it said players would be allowed to "take the knee" during the American national anthem in protest against racism.  After the NFL announced its U-turn, Trump tweeted late on Friday night:  "We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart.  There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag — NO KNEELING!"  Support among sports personalities and organisations for the Black Lives Matter movement was also bolstered by an announcement from basketball star Michael Jordan that he was donating $100 [million] to organisations promoting racial equality.  The move was a significant departure from the former Chicago Bulls player's previous reluctance to be drawn into politics.

Denver Broncos Declare If You Are Not Virtuous Enough To Support Their Antifa Politics Then Get Lost.  The NFL has been moving further and further toward the political left for several years.  Many NFL players and teams openly castigate their fans and denigrate anyone who doesn't conform to their political correctness.  Overall, the NFL has become a toxic stew of identity politics and divisive intollerance.  However, the Denver Broncos are taking division up a notch today by declaring if their fans do not stand with their brand of virtue signaling politics, then you stand against them.

NFL commissioner:  We were wrong to silence our players in the past and now encourage them to speak out and protest peacefully.  I can't believe that kneeling during the anthem is going to be in the mix as an issue during the home stretch of the campaign this fall in a year when we're coping with a pandemic, an economic collapse, and widespread looting.  But it will.  First Trump and then the NFL made that clear enough yesterday [6/5/2020].

NFL: 'We were wrong' to oppose players kneeling during national anthem.  National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized for the league's position opposing players kneeling during the national anthem.  The NFL walked back the league's position in a video statement Friday [6/5/2020] after expressing condolences to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, later issuing a strong condemnation of racism.

NFL pledges allegiance to BLM.  Like most of America's broken corporations and institutions, the National Football League has completely bent the knee to the radical Black Lives Matter lobby, thus potentially guaranteeing its own demise as fed-up former fans flee in search of sanity.  After years of pushing back against disgraced former NFL star Colin Kaepernick's widely disliked national anthem protests, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued an apologetic video statement Friday reversing course on everything.  [Video clip]

Obnoxious liberal soccer champ Rapinoe determined to make Olympics about politics.  Megan Rapinoe's roaring again.  The International Olympic Committee published new rules that prohibit "political, religious or racial propaganda" "at medal ceremonies and Olympic venues," and Rapinoe says she "will not be silenced."  She later added that she will kneel anyway, which would force the IOC to enforce its rules or back down.  Not one for fine distinctions, Megan understands the world only in relation to herself and, as usual, completely misses the point.  The IOC said nothing about silence.  They said she couldn't use the Olympic stage to push politics.  You can noisily talk about anything else — your girlfriend, the state of soccer, the game you just played, your house, your car, your dog.  Just don't use the Olympics to push politics.  That would include kneeling.  If you get to do it, then everybody gets to do it, and in short order, WWIII would erupt.  But that's okay, Megan — keep running your face.  It would give many of us satisfaction to see this woman barred from play at Tokyo in 2020 because of her obnoxiousness.

'We will not be silenced' — Megan Rapinoe says of new rules on political protests at Olympics.  U.S. Women's National Team and Seattle Reign FC star Megan Rapinoe responded Friday to the new guidelines from the International Olympic Committee on political protests at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

No anthem kneeling at the Olympics:  IOC announces political protest rules.  The International Olympic Committee announced its rules for political protest for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and some popular forms of athlete protest have been banned, according to The Hill.  While athletes will be allowed to say what they want during interview and news conferences outside the Olympic Village, and on social media, they won't be able to protest in the village, on the field of play, or during medal ceremonies.

Kaepernick's disgraceful, ridiculous 'racial' lens on Soleimani slay.  In the torrent of idiotic commentary unleashed by the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Colin Kaepernick's deserves a place of honor.  The NFL washout and Nike persona who makes sure the company doesn't produce any overly patriotic sneakers tweeted:  "There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against black and brown people for the expansion of American imperialism."  For Kaepernick, Soleimani is just another dark-skinned man brutalized by America.  The Iranian terror master was, in effect, driving while non-white and paid the ultimate price.

Nike, an Anti-American Company.  After the U.S. killed arch-terrorist Qasem Soleimani, ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick took to Twitter to express his opinions:  [Tweets]  This is the kind of ignorant twaddle you expect from a radical teenager.  Kaepernick has never grown up.  What is significant, though, is that Kaepernick is one of the primary spokesmen for Nike, a $34 billion a year international marketing powerhouse.  Nike signed Kaepernick to a multimillion dollar deal after Kaepernick's mediocre athletic career had ended, precisely because Nike wanted its brand to be associated with Kaepernick's anti-American stance.

Nike's new Colin Kaepernick sneakers sell out in one day.  Nike's new sneaker collaboration with NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick sold out on Tuesday [12/24/2019], just one day after its release.  The "Nike Air Force 1 '07 x Colin Kaepernick" was unavailable in both adult and children's sizes as of Tuesday morning, the footwear titan's website shows.

AOC reveals new level of hypocrisy after praising Harvard-Yale climate activists.  The annual Harvard-Yale football game was interrupted by climate change activists shortly after halftime on Saturday [11/23/2019], which is a pretty good idea inasmuch as there's no group more amenable to guerilla activism on the environment than sports fans from two universities where anyone who doesn't believe in the tenets of the climate science movement would quickly find themselves out in intellectual Siberia.  According to The Harvard Crimson, the incident occurred just before halftime at the annual game between the two Ivy League giants.

Environmentalist Killjoys Are Coming for Your Football.  Some of the nation's supposedly best and brightest college students are employing theatrical protest tactics similar to [Greta] Thunberg's, with the message that ordinary life must be disrupted if we are to save the planet.  At the Yale Bowl, the goal was to pressure the two universities to divest themselves of investments in fossil fuels. [...] The students made it clear that their political agenda is more important than allowing people to enjoy an annual entertainment. [...] The Harvard-Yale protest was very much in line with the Thunberg-style politics of angry and intolerant children.  Such demonstrators pay little heed to democratic processes or any counterarguments to their climate catechism.

Climate Change Protesters Storm Field at Halftime of Harvard-Yale Football Game.  The 136th edition of The Game between Harvard and Yale has been delayed at halftime after protesters took over the field.  Students from both schools occupied midfield after the Yale band had finished performing.  Some held banners asking their colleges to act on climate change and Puerto Rican debt relief.

Debunking the Sports Media's Excuses for the Browns' Myles Garrett and the Helmet-Swinging Incident.  Last week, there was quite a bit of confusion and outrage about an incident on Thursday Night Football when Myles Garrett got into an altercation with Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, where the Browns' defensive end ripped the helmet from his opponent's head in the game's meaningless final seconds, and then proceeded to ferociously swing it at Rudolph's exposed skull.  Action from the League was swift, and Garrett was suspended indefinitely, with no established timeframe regarding his potential return.  It wouldn't have been hard to predict, however, that the fans' attention and furor around the incident would be short-lived, despite the act being tantamount to assault with a deadly weapon.

Does the Left Hate America?  Leftists have contempt for the American flag.  I am unaware of a single left-wing individual or organization that has condemned NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for refusing to stand for the flag during the playing or singing of the national anthem that precedes NFL games.  To the contrary, on the Left, he is universally regarded as a hero.  Indeed, Nike anointed him as one, making him its brand model.  Leftists might respond that Kaepernick's public refusal to stand for the flag and national anthem says nothing about his love for America, as it is only a form of protest against racial injustice.  But that is nonsense.  Would leftists argue that anyone who publicly refuses to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.  Day really loves Dr. King?

Everyone Hates Kaepernick Now.  In the three years since Colin Kaepernick knelt his way off of the San Francisco 49ers and out of the National Football League, the one thing the drama has lacked is ambivalence.  People either hated him or viewed him as a social hero who was being mistreated and prevented from playing the game he loves.  Now everybody just hates him.

Leftists Vow to Cancel Nats' Kurt Suzuki for Donning MAGA Hat:  He 'Should Be Banned from Baseball'.  Leftists on social media blew a collective fuse after Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki donned a MAGA hat during the White House's welcoming ceremony for the World Series champions.

Trumpenfreude hits NHL boycotter.  When the Washington Capitals visited the White House in March for winning the 2018 Stanley Cup Championship in, it was without Devante Smith-Pelly, the star of that championship series.  He was very vocal about not attending when the team won the championship as he trashed the president.  But by the time the team visited the White House, he wasn't part of the team.  His game had fallen apart.  He was a fourth string winger that season until the team demoted him to the minor league Hershey Bears.  This season, the Capitals dumped him.  He tried out with the Calgary Flames but he quickly extinguished his hope of returning to the NHL.

Muslim cross-country runner demands rules be changed after she was disqualified for wearing hijab in a competition.  She thinks because of all the alleged messages of support she got from doing this video, that the rules of the sport will have to be changed to accommodate her Muslim supremacist beliefs.  I expect BNI readers will tell her otherwise.

Fans, Media Erupt After LeBron James' Outburst During National Anthem.  The NBA was understandably excited to start its season and get away from the China controversy that had embroiled the league over the past couple weeks.  However, even more controversy ensued on Tuesday night and on into Wednesday as video surfaced showing LeBron James walking off the court and screaming while the national anthem played.

Moral Relativism Taking Over Everything:  Sports, Politics, Libraries.  Since so many of us pay little to no attention to the NBA, you may have forgotten their "principled" stand on the North Carolina "bathroom bill."  In late February of 2016, ignoring science and sound morality, liberals on the Charlotte City Council passed an ordinance that would allow men into women's restrooms, locker rooms, and so on.  As is typical with the Left, the ordinance applied not only to city-owned property, but to private businesses as well.  In other words, Charlotte liberals "legislated morality," and they did so to the point of forcing all of the city's citizens to adhere to perverse liberal dogma.  To correct this gross injustice, the North Carolina Legislature passed a commonsense law (H.B. 2) that reversed the foolish Charlotte city ordinance.  In opposition to H.B. 2, later in 2016, ignoring the long understood truths on sex and sexuality, and goose-stepping along with the rest of the liberal elite, the NBA decided to pull its all-star game from the city of Charlotte.

NBA losing money — and well it should.  The NBA's commissioner, Adam Silver, acknowledged in recent remarks that China had pressed for the firing of Rockets general manager Daryl Morey — for the crime of publicly supporting freedom-fighting protesters in Hong Kong — and that the league, as part of the fallout from its seeming siding with the reds, rather than with the red, white and blues, has been losing money.

Defense of free speech [is] no longer a slam dunk in America.  When Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey issued a tweet in support of Hong Kong's freedom protestors, it caused outrage among China's totalitarian oligarchs.  A contract signed last June between the NBA and China's Tencent streaming television service, worth a cool $500 million, is in jeopardy.  In total, the NBA garners more than $4 billion in revenue from China.

The Woke Sports Fraud.  The controversies the NBA saw this week serve as reminders that it would be wise for professional athletes and those associated with professional sports to avoid opining on politics, because while making their righteous pronouncements, these persons, who nowadays are overwhelmingly left-wing, sometimes show themselves to be inconsistent takers of positions; or at their worst, sheer hypocrites willing to overlook an ostensible evil for lucre's sake.  What is more, their opinions, which are often ignorant, may well alienate fans, who don't, after all, follow professional sports in order to learn jocks' and coaches' views on human rights and transgender bathrooms.  The first controversy concerned Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, the man having tweeted his support — "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" — for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.  Now, the NBA is hugely popular in China, where the league generates millions in revenue each year, and in response to the Chinese backlash (and to pressure from within the Rockets organization, one imagines), Morey quickly deleted his tweet and issued an unmanly apology.

Trump-hating NBA millionaire LeBron James stands up for China.  I guess this is getting to be a pattern now:  if you've made your pile and you've made a lot of it from China, to heck with the Hong Kongers and their protests for freedom.  You'll be sticking up for their oppressor, communist red China, home of sweatshops, intellectual property theft, attacks on Southeast Asia, the laogai, the enslavement of the Uighurs, the social credit system, Venezuela's money, the supposedly lightened one-child policy, and Mao's many murder revolutions.  Because for such lefties, the only thing that matters is money.  We saw it with billionaire tycoon Michael Bloomberg.  Now we are seeing it with NBA big LeBron James, a millionaire athlete who was last seen in the non-sports news calling President Trump "a bum."  Asked if Texas basketball team owner Daryl Morey, who set off a firestorm by tweeting support for the Hong Kongers, ought to be punished, the famous social justice warrior went into hypocrite mode, sticking up for the ChiComs.

LeBron Jame$ Is A Coward.  NBA superstar LeBron James says Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey was "misinformed" and "wasn't educated on the situation at hand" when he tweeted in support of Hong Kong's freedom demonstrations.  Morey's sin was sharing an image of a slogan that read, "Fight for freedom.  Stand with Hong Kong."  Even though the GM, regrettably, deleted his tweet, one strongly suspects his grasp of China — where the state is running "re-education" camps filled with Uyghurs — is considerably stronger than any of the NBA's leading apologists.  Only last year, James, a purported champion of social justice, came out in support of former quarterback Colin Kaepernick with the vacuous platitude, "I stand with anyone who believes in change."  Anyone?  Of course, LeBron's stand, as with most acts of pretend celebrity bravery, resulted in hosannas being thrown at him by the press, and, more importantly, never costing him a penny.

Thanks, Houston Rockets, you've done us all a favor (and so has the NBA).  Everyone has been outraged at the recent spectacle of the NBA seeming to steer clear of fans supporting democracy on American soil, cutting off questions from reporters, and watching Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey delete his tweet supporting the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.  It's not enough for the NBA to kowtow to China's authoritarian regime, it seems, it also has to appear to act like that regime, as well.  But in fact, I think we all owe the NBA a vote of thanks.  They've helped to draw attention to a long history of American appeasement of the Communist regime in Beijing, including by successive presidents.  Our collective refusal to call China to account for their human rights abuses and violations of international law have done decades of damage to our economy, national security, and moral standing.

The Editor says...
What is the point of the NBA, anyway?  Throw the ball.  Bounce the ball.  Catch the ball.  How are you better off after watching an NBA game?

Pop Goes the Weasel.  "Fight for Freedom.  Stand with Hong Kong," read the tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.  The Chinese Communists didn't like it.  As CNBC reported, the Chinese Consulate-General in Houston attacked the tweet and urged the Rockets to "correct the error."  The tweet promptly disappeared, then came a statement from NBA boss Adam Silver.  "We have great respect for the history and culture of China," Silver said, "and hope sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together."  And so on, but nothing about fighting for freedom and standing with Hong Kong.  San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said Silver's speech "helps you understand what direction you need to go in."  It was a curious statement for someone with experience in dealing with totalitarian governments.

Hill editor-in-chief:  NBA is 'bending down' to 'almighty dollar'.  The Hill's editor-in-chief Bob Cusack said the NBA has a "disaster" on its hands following the league's response to a tweet by a Houston Rockets executive supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.  "This is a disaster for the NBA," Cusack told Hill.TV on Friday [10/11/2019], noting how the league is shutting down questions from journalists and not allowing players to respond to the controversy.

NBA takes a stand against freedom.  Last Friday [10/4/2019], Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, tweeted what seemed like a noncontroversial statement.  He wrote:  "Fight for Freedom.  Stand with Hong Kong."  Now, China, as you may have seen, is trying to crush Hong Kong, and it's not hard to pick a side.  China is a racist Communist ethnostate that bans dissent and murders its political opponents.  They have Muslims interned in forced reeducation camps at this very moment.  They viciously suppress the freedoms that we Americans take for granted.  You'd think every American would stand with Hong Kong without even thinking about it.  But not the NBA. The NBA is on China's side.  So, Morey was forced to delete his tweet.  The NBA issued a statement making it clear that under no circumstances do they support Hong Kong or human freedom.

China's Ultimate Goal Is To Control American Culture, And Companies Should Resist It.  If ESPN thought shutting down on-air discussion about China and Hong Kong would please its Chinese master and protect the commercial interests of itself and its corporate parent Disney, it's dead wrong.  What China wants is not simply to police a few words on social media or on air.  It wants to control American culture, period. [...] Chinese leaders closely studied America's ascent to a global superpower, and they believe America's cultural influence is a key ingredient to the country's success.  China wants to emulate America's success, albeit with Chinese characteristics.  Former Chinese President Hu Jintao said, "The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will definitely be accompanied by the thriving of Chinese culture."

Portland Trail Blazers Join Boycott Against Israel.  The Portland Trail Blazers announced that they have severed relations with a company that does business with Israel following a pressure campaign by activists tied to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.  As the NBA is facing outrage after the general manager of the Houston Rockets capitulated to censorship by the Chinese communist government, the Trail Blazers quietly severed ties with the manufacturer Leupold, which has a contract to produce accessories for the Israeli Defense Forces.

If Woke Corporations Had Police Power, They Would Act Exactly Like Communist China.  Since the NBA-China affair blew up last weekend, a number of commentators have lambasted the NBA for its craven response to China, noting the hypocrisy of a league that publicly prides itself on being the social vanguard in America but has no problem kowtowing to Chinese autocrats to maintain access to their lucrative markets.  The argument goes like this:  there's a massive disconnect between the values the NBA espouses and its willingness, say, to look the other way in China, where the league runs a training program not far from where Uighur Muslims are forcibly sent to reeducation camps.  The NBA's pursuit of filthy lucre, in this view, undermines its carefully crafted public image.

Nearly all of the NBA's Chinese partners have cut ties with the league.  Out of the 25 official partners listed on the NBA China website, 13 are Chinese businesses.  So far, 11 of those companies have distanced themselves from the sports league amid escalating tensions between China and the NBA.  Ctrip.com, Anta Sports, Changhong, Meiling, Dicos, EHi Car Rental, Master Kong, China Mengniu Dairy, Migu Video, WuZun and Xiaoyin Technology are among the Chinese companies that have ended or suspended their cooperation with the NBA, according to Chinese public statements translated by CNBC.  The remaining two Chinese partners are joint-venture brands that have not issued any statements yet.

Pro-Hong Kong Sixers Fan Booted From Philadelphia NBA Game.  A Philadelphia 76ers fan says he was tossed out of a preseason game after showing their support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, according to NBC Philadelphia.  Sam Wachs and his wife brought signs which read "Free Hong Kong" and "Free HK" to Tuesday night's game between the Sixers and the Guangzhou Loong-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association.  According to Wachs, he lived in Hong Kong for two years and supports the anti-government movement.  "We were just sitting in our seats near the Chinese bench," said Wachs.

Fans With 'Free Hong Kong' Sign Kicked Out Of NBA Game.  On Tuesday night [10/8/2019], a husband and wife holding "Free Hong Kong" signs at a preseason NBA game in Philadelphia were kicked out of the stadium.  The man, identified as Sam Wachs, and his wife had their pro-Hong Kong signs confiscated by NBA employees and were escorted out of the Wells Fargo Center arena after Mr. Wachs shouted "Free Hong Kong," a statement in support of the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations.

NBA, Houston Rockets Cower To Communist China, Get Blasted Online.  The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Houston Rockets cowered to communist China on Sunday after Rocket's General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted out support for Hong Kong which sparked an immediate backlash from Chinese businesses and the Chinese government.

Nike Commercial Starring Colin Kaepernick Wins Emmy Award.  Nike's controversial Dream Crazy ad, narrated by and starring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, won an Emmy Award for best commercial at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday [9/15/2019].  The commercial, which first aired in September, features Kaepernick waxing philosophical about the nature of sports, human achievement, and social justice.

Major League Soccer Team Bans Betsy Ross Flag, Calls it a 'Symbol for Hate Groups'.  America's premier soccer league, Major League Soccer, has declared the red, white, and blue Betsy Ross flag a "symbol for hate groups" and banned a couple in Utah from waving it at games.  A Utah couple who were in attendance at a Major League Soccer Real Salt Lake game says they were told by stadium officials to put away their Betsy Ross flag because the original flag of the American Revolution is a "symbol for hate groups."

Major League Soccer club bans 'controversial' Betsy Ross flag at games.  Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake has banned people from waving the Betsy Ross flag at games, claiming that the Colonial-era flag design has been "adopted as a symbol for hate groups" and doesn't fit with the team's mission of inclusiveness.  The controversy started last month after season-ticket-holders Randolf and Diana Scott started bringing their giant Betsy Ross flag to games at Rio Tinto Stadium, which "ignited a firestorm" against the couple on social media, the local Fox News affiliate reported.  Last weekend, stadium staff asked the couple to put the flag away.

NASCAR Begins To Inject Left-Wing Politics Into Racing.  The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, otherwise known as NASCAR, has reportedly started to take a "gradual shift" on its stances surrounding the Second Amendment.  The revelation comes after multiple gun companies have said that NASCAR, which has a primarily Republican base, banned them from running advertisements that feature guns. [...] The Free Beacon added that the reaction to NASCAR adopting left-wing politics, specifically the demonization of the Second Amendment, has generated a significant amount of backlash.  One specific example came in an article written by radio host Mark Walters, who wrote:  "Go ahead NASCAR, try to fill the stands with a bunch of David Hogg, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, urban, progressive, skinny jean wearing, soy sipping, man-bun wearing, Antifa loving, gun-hating socialists.  I won't be around to see how that turns out for you."

US fencer punished for kneeling on podium at Pan Am Games, other athletes warned.  Two U.S. athletes were given a year of probation by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for staging protests while on the podium at the Pan American Games earlier this month, letters sent Tuesday revealed.  Hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist and fencer Race Imboden took a knee while on the medal stand last week in Lima, Peru.  All athletes at the Pan American Games and the Olympics agree to rules forbidding political protest.  The committee also warned other athletes that future protests could face more serious consequences.

It's Time for Colin Kaepernick to Move On.  Colin Kaepernick.  Remember him?  Below-average quarterback.  Above-average poseur.  Not "activist," not really.  Activists actually say stuff.  Kaepernick almost never says anything.

Another athletic egomaniac looking for some extra spotlight by dissing the U.S. flag.  By now, the routine of athletes calling attention to themselves by dissing the U.S. flag at some athletic event has become so de rigueur you could write the script before it happens.  Lose the big prize.  Take a knee to the flag.  Make a raving or two to the press about the awfulness of the U.S. And reap lots of media attention your athletic performance wouldn't otherwise merit.  Instant fame.  Endorsement deals.  Money.  Profit big from insulting the very flag of the country that made your performance possible.

U.S. athletes protest Trump on medals stand at Pan Am Games.  Two Americans used their medal-winning moments at the Pan American Games to draw attention to social issues back home that they feel are spiraling out of control.

Hegseth, Rep. Crenshaw slam anthem protest by U.S. fencer: 'Delusional' if you think that's sacrifice.  "Fox & Friends" host Pete Hegseth and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, both U.S. military veterans, blasted a member of the U.S. fencing team who kneeled for the national anthem after winning the gold medal.  Hegseth emphasized Monday [8/12/2019] that Team USA won 293 medals at the competition and there only two protests.

Poll: Megan Rapinoe Beats Trump in Hypothetical Presidential Race.  A recent poll from Public Policy Polling, showed U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) co-captain Megan Rapinoe defeating President Trump in a hypothetical 2020 presidential matchup.

The Editor says...
Being a troublemaker is never a resumé enhancement, except in politics.

Inslee says he'll ask soccer player Megan Rapinoe to be secretary of State.  Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said Saturday that if he is elected president, he will ask soccer player Megan Rapinoe to be his secretary of state.  He said at the progressive Netroots Nation conference that one of his first acts as president would be to get a secretary of State who embraces world unity and "love rather than hate" as he rebuked President Trump's foreign policy.  "My first act will be to ask Megan Rapinoe to be my secretary of State," he said.  "I haven't asked her yet, so this could be a surprise to her."

Black Pastors Call on Nike to Sever Relationship with Colin Kaepernick.  The Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) called on Nike Thursday [7/12/2019] to end its relationship with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has a prominent endorsement deal with the athletic company.  Rev. William Owens, president of CAAP, said his organization is responding to Nike's decision to pull an athletic shoe celebrating the Betsy Ross flag after Kaepernick expressed objections to it.

US Soccer Final Viewership Down by Almost Half Thanks to Trump-Bashing, Far Left National Team.  They cursed the US President and disrespected their Country — What did they expect?  The US Women's Soccer Final viewership was down by ALMOST HALF this year thanks to the Trump-bashing, anthem protesting US national team.  You insult half your audience — you lose half your audience!  Great job, ladies!

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Cut Star Player For Christian Views.  Christian views may have kept star player Jaelene Hinkle off the US women's soccer team.  Back in 2015, Hinkle had objected publicly to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Accused Of Snubbing Star Player For Christian Views.  The absence of one of the best women's soccer players in the nation from the national squad that just won the World Cup has prompted questions as to whether she didn't make the team because of her openly professed Christian faith. [...] The Irish Times, which called Hinkle "the finest left-back in the NWSL," wrote in June, "Hinkle likely would have been a fish out of water on the uber-woke women's national team, some of whose biggest stars are openly lesbian, raising questions about whether she would have thrown off the squad's chemistry."

Megan Rapinoe Is No Leader.  Appearing on multiple news outlets, Megan Rapinoe appeared self-centered and divisive.  She criticized President Donald Trump, as expected.  She made accusations of homophobia, as expected.  And an adoring Rachel Maddow called for Rapinoe to run for president, as expected.  After famously scoffing at the very notion of interacting with people who hold different opinions, Megan Rapinoe took to the stage during the World Cup victory parade in New York City to call for unity:  "This is my charge to everyone:  We have to be better, we have to love more and hate less.  Listen more and talk less."  Speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Megan Rapinoe said that she would be willing to have a "substantive conversation" with "anyone" ... who "believes the same things" as she does.

Guess I'm a Female Chauvinist.  I don't particularly care for soccer anyway but it was the purple-haired star player Megan Rapinoe who turned me off by spouting her disdain for any White House visit before she was even asked.  Did she do that for publicity or was her Trump derangement too deeply entrenched?  Stomping on the American flag even accidentally during the World Cup celebration was more proof of her unworthiness to represent our great country.

We hate Trump, we hate you.  But buy our soccer jerseys.  The leftist women's World Cup team has made a lot of noise about wanting more pay, or pay that's equal to the men's teams, yet already the economics of the picture shows that they're actually overpaid.  This isn't something unfixable — more ticket sales, more team memorabilia revenue, more television watchers, more public interest would correct that easily, and it's clear that star players such as Megan Rapinoe know it.

The ladies won and let's salute them.  The TV ratings were great and everyone is happy. [...] Actually, not everyone is happy.  I am not happy and lots of people I've heard from are not happy.  First, the tournament showed that international women's soccer is a total mismatch. [...] The U.S. is obviously "the queen" of soccer and will only get better because our young women have more resources.  On that point, it did not help that some of the ladies showed so little class, as when they pounded Thailand 13-0!  Second, someone should remind the ladies that they are wearing the U.S. uniform not "blue states."  They should show respect for U.S. fans who don't like to see flag disrespected.

Megan Rapinoe rips Trump WH visit, says she'd accept invites from Pelosi, AOC.  U.S. Women's Soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe doubled down in her opposition to visit the Trump White House on Tuesday but expressed that she was open to accept invitations from anyone who "believes the same things we believe in" like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.

U.S. Women's Soccer Team Won't Go To White House, So Pelosi Makes Announcement.  With U.S. Women's Soccer star and outspoken Trump critic Megan Rapinoe having preemptively rejected any invite to go to the "[...] White House," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a big announcement on Monday:  Congress is formally inviting the Wold Cup-winning team to be honored on Capitol Hill.

The Woke World of Sports.  [Scroll down]  In the woke world of sports, [the history of the US flag] carries less weight than what a millionaire retired athlete with weird hair thinks constitutes "social justice," and the billion-dollar company caved when Kaepernick vetoed their design.  In real fact, the most socially useful thing the fellow could do would be to tell kids in the inner cities to spend their money more wisely than on Nike sneakers, which, by the way, are made by slave laborers under any other name in countries characterized by the late Karl Wittfogel as "Oriental Despotisms."

USA Women Win Soccer World Cup, Then Toss USA Flag on Ground & Dance On It.  The video says it all.  No exaggeration required.  Members of the US Women's Soccer team won the World Cup on Sunday then while celebrating, tossed the US flag to the ground like a rag doll and danced around it while posing for the cameras.  Trump-hater Megan Rapinoe was front and center of course.  She's the all star who has trashed President Trump and who was criticized for taking a knee during the national anthem before matches.

Allie Long, Megan Rapinoe Drop American Flag During World Cup Celebration.  U.S. women's national soccer team members Allie Long and Megan Rapinoe stepped on an American flag after Long dropped on the ground as they posed for post-game photos Sunday [7/7/2019].  Following their repeat World Cup win in Lyon, France, the team was celebrating on the field and posing for photos when Long dropped the flag she was holding.  She and Rapinoe then stepped forward, leaving the flag underfoot.

U.S. soccer fans chant 'F--- Trump' on live TV.  After the United States won the Women's World Cup by beating Netherlands 2-0 in Sunday's final match, a group of American soccer fans in France chanted an expletive about President Trump on a live television broadcast.  Fox News prepared to do a live TV shot from a sports bar in Lyon, France — the site of the final — that was populated with American fans.  Fans in the background began to chant shortly after reporter Greg Palkot began to speak.

USWNT fans chant 'F--- Trump' on live TV after World Cup title.  The U.S. women are World Cup champions.  Millions of fans across America are celebrating.  In parks, on downtown streets, in living rooms, and elsewhere.  So are the tens of thousands who travelled to France for the occasion.  Fox News figured it would send a reporter and camera crew across the Atlantic to capture the scene in Lyon.  And ... uh ... they found quite a scene!

The Democrats' Situational Racism.  [Scroll down]  Nike, not content to sell shoes to Americans of all political persuasions, stepped in it again via their vice president for social consciousness, Colin Kaepernick.  Nike made a special edition Betsy Ross flag shoe for Independence Day but Kaepernick objected to the flag as being racist and appealing to white nationalist groups.  Nike promptly recalled the shoe to virtue signal their wokeness over such a symbol of hatred.  MSNBC regular and Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson, "related the flag to other symbols of hate such as the Nazi swastika and burning crosses."  Why?  Because the situation called for it.  Anything to fan the flames of racism at a time when minority unemployment is at an all-time low in advance of a presidential election.

Megan Rapinoe is dividing Americans instead of uniting them in the fight for gender equity.  [Colin] Kaepernick, who blew up his NFL career by refusing to stand for the national anthem at games, is not alone in his hostility to patriotic symbols.  Megan Rapinoe, the co-captain of the U.S. national women's soccer team, refuses to place her hand over her heart with the rest of her team when the national anthem is played at the World Cup in Lyon, France.  "I'll probably never put my hand over my heart," she told Yahoo Sports.  "I'll probably never sing the national anthem again."

The Left's War Against America.  [Colin Kaepernick] has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since he decided to forgo his NFL career and become a professional protester.  His decision to disrespect the American flag by choosing NFL games to protest police treatment of African Americans was divisive to say the least.  While millions of Americans did not support Kaepernick's actions, Nike chose to affiliate with those Americans who agree with a spoiled former NFL player denigrating our national symbols.  His supporters tend to be young people, African Americans and progressives.  Kaepernick also has plenty of admirers in the media who are also disgruntled with our country.  In a July 1st New York Times video editorial, the authors claim that the United States of America is not the greatest country on earth, but "just okay."

Ted Cruz sacks Colin Kaepernick, grabs ball and scores (on Twitter).  Colin Kaepernick, Nike's commissar of America-hatred, may have been a quarterback, but he took a half-[bak]ed approach to anti-slavery hero Frederick Douglass.  Flaunting the blinders that progressives wear when they consider our collective history, he took a quotation out of context in order to try to score an own goal against the country that birthed him, made him a multi-millionaire, and now indulges him in his extended adolescence.  Fortunately, Ted Cruz knows much more than Kaepernick and demolished his point on Twitter (hat tip:  Twitchy).

Nike Fans the Flames of the Culture War.  Nike is doing it wrong.  I don't mean the shoemaking, though that thing with Zion Williamson was pretty bad, I have to say.  No, Nike is doing it wrong because it managed to do something that all the neo-Nazis, Klansmen, alt-righters, and other denizens of the lowest coprophagic phylum of our political life could never do:  It turned the Betsy Ross flag into a racist symbol.

Mo Brooks:  Colin Kaepernick Should Leave if He Hates America.  Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) says Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL player and the face of multinational corporation Nike, should leave the United States if he does not like the country.  This week it was revealed that Nike had ditched the production and sale of a pair of shoes that featured the famous flag created by Betsy Ross at the behest of former President George Washington because Kaepernick was offended by the emblem.

Corporate America Tilts Left.  [A] manufacturer of sports beverages, has made a commercial featuring soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who has refused to stand for the American flag and has sparred with President Trump.  That makes her a hot commodity in the world of advertising.

The Ugly Americans of soccer.  Somewhere in France today a group of ugly American female soccer players are sipping tea from imaginary cups to mock a polite society they make no efforts to understand or respect.  The Americans are loud and ostentatious.  They are ugly Americans personified.  If the female soccer players are trying to be ambassadors for their game, they are failing miserably.  I cared little for their sport before they arrived in France, and my interest has chilled considerably in the ensuing weeks.

Why Doesn't The Far Left Complain About Nike Sweatshops Anymore?  Protesting Nike used to be a go-to event for various far-left groups in America.  A massive company using slave-labor conditions to produce low-cost products that are then resold at 1000% mark-ups was representative of what was, in their minds, so wrong with globalized capitalism.  Then, suddenly, all that protest vanished.  Why?  The answer is simple.  Nike's marketing machine turned its attention to controversial anti-police, anti-America, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.  The company paid Kaepernick millions to divert attention away from its deplorable overseas operations and instead convince consumers how horrible American was — except for those who wore Nike products apparently.  No, it doesn't really make a lot of sense but it appears to have worked.

Killing The Fourth of July.  Never to be out-woked, Nike took the opportunity this July 4th to lash out at patriots (read: most Americans) by putting the kibosh on their planned 'USA Air Max 1' training shoes.  The design featured the Betsy Ross flag:  one of the first known emblems of the colonies that would go on to become the United States.  We're led to believe it was Colin Kaepernick — who is famous for just about everything except what he should be famous for:  football — who drove Nike to nix the shoe.

Now Betsy Ross Is a White Supremacist, Apparently.  Dear Reader, I do not care about shoe companies.  I don't care about professional athletes, current or former, who work for shoe companies.  They can sell what they want to sell, or not sell what they don't want to sell, and it's all the same to me.  I don't understand why anybody would care.  If you don't like it, don't spend your money on it.  What's the problem?  But no, it has to become a whole big thing.  Now this dumb Nike non-story has escalated.  It's no longer about a shoe company.  It's about America itself.  Now, feminist icon Betsy Ross is considered racist.

This Independence Day, Nike Appeases America Haters and Dictators.  Want a sign that the left is now bringing ruin to the business world, after it has done the same for the education and entertainment industries?  Look no further than Nike.  Days before the U.S. celebrates Independence Day, Nike pulled sneakers back from retailers that contained a small image of the famous Betsy Ross flag on the back.  Apparently that small homage to America's founding offended the delicate sensibilities of Colin Kaepernick, the reprehensible leftist former football player who protested the national anthem, whose idea of appropriate footwear is socks depicting police officers as pigs, and who prefers shirts honoring Cuba's murderous dictator Fidel Castro.

Kaepernick, Nike, Democrats:  Spitting on America and the 4th of July.  Nike has pulled its Betsy Ross American Flag shoe from the shelves.  Why?  NFL has-been Colin Kaepernick's complained that the Betsy Ross flag was a symbol of white supremacy.  Nike said they didn't want to potentially "offend" anybody.  Surprise to Nike.  They are offending a significant portion of the American public[.]  But spitting on America, and her freedom has become a way of life in 2019.  Not only for Nike and Kaepernick but also Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and soccer's Rapino as well.

Julian Castro praises Nike, compares Betsy Ross flag to Confederate flag.  Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro on Wednesday praised Nike's controversial decision to pull shoes featuring the Betsy Ross flag, saying the early flag design that represents the Thirteen Colonies evokes pain among some Americans, much like Confederate symbols.

WSJ: Nike's 'Patriotic Fumble' an 'In-Kind Donation to Trump's Re-Election'.  The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board observed Tuesday [7/2/2019] that Nike's decision to allow ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick to "call the play" of rescinding the company's release of its "Betsy Ross flag" sneaker is essentially an "in-kind donation to Trump's re-election."  The WSJ board referred to Nike's cave to Kaepernick as one of those "harebrained controversies" that ultimately "give many Americans the not unreasonable sense that their country is being maligned by pampered social-justice warriors."

Uh Oh, Guess Who Had the Betsy Ross Flag at His Inauguration.  As you've heard by now, Nike decided to pull the sale of a Betsy Ross American flag themed sneaker this week after woke and washed up athlete Colin Kaepernick complained it is tied to racism.  But there's just one huge problem with that argument:  [Photo]

CA Governor After Nike Cancels American-Themed Shoe:  They 'Represent The Best Of Our American Values'.  On Tuesday night, after Nike had canceled an American flag-themed shoe, triggering Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to withdraw financial incentives for Nike to open a manufacturing facility in Arizona, California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that Nike was "doing the right thing" and represented "the best of our American values."

Limbaugh: Kaepernick-Nike Shoe Saga Proof NFL Kneeling Not About Police Brutality — 'He Opposes Honoring the Flag'.  Tuesday [7/2/2019] on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh argued that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's opposition to Nike's so-called Betsy Ross footwear was proof Kaepernick's kneeling was not about alleged police brutality but animosity toward the American flag.  Nike pulled the product line based on Kaepernick's opposition, which came because the footwear featured the Betsy Ross flag.

Colin Kaepernick Lands Nike in Hot Water Over Recall of Shoe With an American Flag.  Colin Kaepernick has used his influence with Nike to have the company's American flag-themed shoe called the "Betsy Ross" pulled from production just days before they were to be sold to the public, prompting swift and immediate backlash.  Citing sources close to the story, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Air Max 1 USA was slated to go on sale this week in celebration of the Fourth of July.  "The heel of the shoe featured a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle, a design created during the American Revolution and commonly referred to as the Betsy Ross flag," WSJ reports.  And while Nike is claiming that it has declined to release the sneaker because it featured an "old version of the American flag," the real reason the sneaker has been recalled, according to WSJ, is because Kaepernick reportedly told Nike that the shoes were "offensive," prompting the company to recall the shoe and demand that retailers return their stock.

Old Photos From Obama's Inauguration Show Just How Ridiculous Nike's Shoe Ban Really Is.  It seems that those criticizing Nike for attempting to have a Betsy Ross flag on a pair of their shoes in celebration of Fourth of July forgot about former President Barack Obama using the same flags at his inauguration in 2013.  Nike stirred up controversy when they tried to have the earlier American flag, that displays 13 stars in a circle, on their Air Max 1 USA shoes but reportedly nixed the shoes after former National Football League player Colin Kaepernick called them offensive.  "Attention Nike:  The flag Colin Kaepernick told you was unacceptable on your shoes was displayed rather prominently at Barack Obama's inauguration," the Washington Examiner's Bryon York tweeted.

Nike steps on its own shoelaces in latest Kaepernick fiasco.  Just in time for the Fourth of July, Nike and washed-up footballer Colin Kaepernick have joined forces in an America-bashing cavalcade.  The enormous sportswear company planned to release a new red, white, and blue sneaker adorned with American Revolutionary Betsy Ross' 13-star flag, this country's first banner.  However, Kaepernick complained to Nike that this all-American symbol is — what else? — racist.  "After images of the shoe were posted online, Mr. Kaepernick, a Nike endorser, reached out to company officials saying that he and others felt the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Nike Has Offered Shoes Displaying Flags of Human Rights Abusers Such As China and Turkey.  This week, sportswear giant Nike agreed to pull their "Betsy Ross Flag" sneakers after former NFL player nd anthem-protester Colin Kaepernick, advised them that the American flag is a symbol of racism, hate, and slavery.  However, the company has had no issue offering shoes with many other national flags and colors, including human rights abusers such as China and Turkey.  Naturally, Nike was quick to create gay pride flag-themed shoes.  There are quite a few styles set up in the rainbow colors of gay pride.  So, as far as Nike is concerned, gay pride is great, but American pride is "racist."

Outrage for Profit — NIKE Pulls "Betsy Ross" Sneaker.  Is it possible to manufacture outrage as a profit strategy?  Yes.  Brand imagery is part of the overall business model for any business.  Begin with an ideological executive office; consider a manufacturing model dependent on a China/Asia supply chain; add a dose of political calculations into the mix; turn loose the actuaries and a unified CFO and CEO could easily find a way to turn market grievance into profit.  I'm not saying that NIKE is manipulating their market price.  However, I am saying if they were to consider their brand scale to enhance financial results, and buying back shares of their own stock to be timed with coordinated media events, you could see a benefit behind the controversy.

Colin Kaepernick objects to flag-themed shoes, so Nike pulls them.  For America's Independence Day, Nike released a new sneaker shoe style with the image of the early U.S. flag stitched by the notorious revolutionary Betsy Ross.  It had the familiar red and white stripes and 13 stars in a circle for the original colonies.  Apparently, sales were going well until noted kneeler Colin Kaepernick objected because, well, some of the 13 colonies had slaves at the time and we shouldn't be knowing that in this Woke era.  Naturally, the mega-company with $36 billion in annual shoe and athletic-wear sales responded to the unemployed NFL player by immediately pulling the patriotic shoe off the market, as the Wall Street Journal first reported.  What else could it do really?  He outnumbers the rest of us.  And a company can't be associated with patriotism these days unless it involves overpaid pro athletes refusing to stand for the National Anthem because, slavery.

AZ governor steps up for America, will 'withdraw all incentive dollars' from Kaepernick's Nike.  BizPac Review published reports on Monday that Nike developed a Betsy Ross-themed shoe just in time to celebrate Independence Day, then yanked it from production.  Shortly after, sponsored activist Colin Kaepernick reportedly complained that he found the imagery depicted on the clothing to be offensive.  As happens all too often in our softened society, Nike immediately recalled the shoe and drew the ire of patriots like Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who called the decision "pathetic" and declared that she will no longer be buying Nike sneakers for her family.

Betsy Ross costs Nike plenty.  When Colin Kaepernick objected, Nike stopped selling shoes that were a tribute to Betsy Ross, a woman legend of the American Revolution.  Now that will cost the company millions in incentives Arizona offered to snag a Nike plant.  It will cost the state 500 jobs.  More than a million soldiers have died defending that flag that Nike turned its back on.  The shoe featured the flag that legend holds designed the flag.  That seems to be based on family lore.  But she did more for America than any of today's quarterbacks did.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ends Nike deal after cancellation of 'Betsy Ross Flag' sneakers.  Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Tuesday [7/2/2019] the state would be canceling the incentives offered in a deal with Nike in response to the athletic company scrapping plans for a Betsy Ross-inspired sneaker[.]  The sneakers, featuring a U.S. flag with 13 stars on each heel, reportedly was canned after former football player and political activist Colin Kaepernick said the design could be seen as an offensive symbol of slavery.

Nike Ditches 'Betsy Ross Flag' Sneaker After Colin Kaepernick Raises Concerns over the Flag's Connection to Slavery.  Nike has decided to pull their America-themed 4th of July sneakers which featured the "Betsy Ross" flag, after former NFL anthem-protester and Nike pitchman Colin Kaepernick raised concerns over the offensive symbolism he felt the flag displayed, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Nike Nixes 'Betsy Ross Flag' Sneaker After Colin Kaepernick Intervenes.  Nike Inc. is yanking a U.S.A.-themed sneaker featuring an early American flag after NFL star-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick told the company it shouldn't sell a shoe with a symbol that he and others consider offensive, according to people familiar with the matter.  The sneaker giant created the Air Max 1 USA in celebration of the July Fourth holiday, and it was slated to go on sale this week.

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe accepts invitation to hang with AOC instead of Trump.  Megan Rapinoe accepted Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's invitation for the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team to tour the House of Representatives after Rapinoe rejected an invite to the White House.  "Consider it done @AOC," Rapinoe said Friday after the New York congresswoman extended the invite and the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team beat France 2-1 in the quarterfinal of the Women's World Cup.

Yankees add Stonewall Inn plaque to famed Monument Park.  A plaque behind the center field fence at Yankee Stadium was dedicated Tuesday night [6/25/2019] to commemorate the Stonewall Inn uprising 50 years ago, which sparked a pivotal rebellion in the LGBTQ rights movement.

Knicks feel their black front office helps in free agency.  Knicks president Steve Mills indicated having a pioneering predominately black front office will help the team in the upcoming free agency.  "The African American front office, that doesn't get lost on guys," Mills said in an article published Tuesday on The Undefeated, which deals with race issues.  After getting the job when Phil Jackson got canned, Mills hired GM Scott Perry, who is black, and player developmental director Craig Robinson, the brother of Michelle Obama.  Also hired after Jackson's firing was director of player personnel Harold Ellis and college scouting director Gerald Madkins.  Both are African American.

Megs, put a sock in it.  Megan Rapinoe, star forward for the women's U.S. national soccer team, seems to hate the world.  She goes around with a scowl permanently etched into her weathered face.  Though an outstanding soccer player, Megs has it in her head that she's getting cheated, and that the cheater is Donald Trump.  So she refuses to go to the White House if the team wins the women's World Cup.  Trump then extended an invitation to the team whether they win or lose, and of course, Megan took it with ill grace.  The girl has no graces, only grimaces.  Megan, like all liberal females, holds Trump personally accountable for every unfun thing that ever happened in her life or anybody else's life.  Despite her extraordinary skill on the field, Megan's about as ordinary a liberal as it's possible to be.

Brilliant Play — President Trump Invites U.S. Women's Soccer Team to White House "Win or Lose".  Megan Rapinoe is the co-captain of the U.S. women's national soccer team and a rabid hater of President Trump.  Ms. Rapinoe refuses to sing the U.S. national anthem; kneels during ceremonies to make her hatred for America visible; and grabs every microphone to tell the media about her politics in an effort to increase her resistance credentials.  The age-old axiom is: 'be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it".  Today [6/26/2019], President Trump brilliantly responded to Ms. Rapinoe.  First, by calling out her arrogance in declaring victory before she even played the World Cup matches; and secondly, by inviting the entire team to the White House "win or lose".

Adam Silver:  NBA done using term 'owner' over racial sensitivity questions.  NBA commissioner Adam Silver told TMZ the league office is done using the word "owner" amid concerns whether the title is racially insensitive, adding they stopped using the term a few years ago.  TMZ reported earlier this month that some NBA teams were debating whether to move away from the title, given some feel its racially insensitive in a league where the majority of players are African American.  Warriors forward Draymond Green also raised the issue on LeBron James' HBO Show "The Shop," saying he took offense to the term.

US women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe refuses to sing the national anthem before the Thailand World Cup match.  US soccer star Megan Rapinoe stuck to her resolve not to sing the national anthem ahead of the team's first match in the Women's World Cup against Thailand in France on Tuesday [6/11/2019].  The player stood silent and stony-faced as her teammates sang along to the 'Star-Spangled Banner' in the Auguste-Delaune Stadium in Reims.

NFL Dishes Out $20 Million in Grants to Social Justice Causes.  The NFL announced this week the list of various organizations that will receive nearly $2 million in "social justice grants."  One of the recipients is the Civil Rights Corps which "empowers communities to change the unjust legal system."  This brings the total of "social justice grants" by the NFL to $20 million for the year.

The Growing Popularity of Foot Shooting.  I used to be an NFL fan, especially of the San Francisco 49ers in the Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice era.  So far as I know none of them ever publicly expressed their political opinions.  I have not watched five minutes of a 49er's game in over a year.  The only NFL game I've watched in the past year was the Super Bowl.  I've heard numerous people say essentially the same thing.  They say they're done with the NFL.  Former fans are angry at the players for disrespecting their country, but the greater anger is directed toward the teams' owners and the NFL hierarchy.  The NFL has unfortunately revealed who and what they are.  Although they're good people in most ways, in this instance they've behaved like spineless, clueless cowards.  They should have nipped the protests in the bud before they became overblown and out of control.

Soccer Star Rapinoe on Her National Anthem Protests.  Soccer star Megan Rapinoe has vowed to continue her national anthem protests while representing the US in next month's Women's World Cup [...] Rapinoe created a furor when she knelt during the national anthem following former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who roiled the NFL with his anthem protest in 2016.

Yankees fans threaten boycott after ban of Kate Smith's 'God Bless America'.  Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" has been scrapped at Yankee Stadium, but Bronx Bomber fans are going to bat for her over allegations of racism.  Smith's niece, Suzy Andron, told The Post she is "honored" by the groundswell of support for the late singer among fans and media.  "Most are solidly behind the positive notion that this is a misunderstanding by a few people who took two or three of her songs [out of 3,000 that she recorded] out of context and inflated a story that my Aunt Kathryn must have been a racist," Andron said.  "Unfortunately, the Yankees bought into it."

Elizabeth Warren praises Red Sox manager Alex Cora for skipping White House visit.  Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is learning this week what it's like to be a political lightning rod.  Cora publicly confirmed he won't visit the White House when the Red Sox make their official championship trip Thursday [5/9/2019].  And now he finds himself in the middle of the typical Washington partisan battle.  Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, Democratic presidential candidate and long-running Donald Trump adversary, is praising Cora for taking a stand against Trump and the White House.

Virginia Basketball Declines White House Invite to Celebrate National Championship.  The Virginia men's basketball team has declined, while the Baylor women's team has accepted a visit to the White House after NCAA tournament title wins.  Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett tweeted Friday the decision of the program to decline the invitation to celebrate their 2019 NCAA men's tournament title win.

NCAA basketball champs will not accept invitation to White House — here's the coach's statement.  The NCAA championship basketball team from the University of Virginia will not accept the invitation from President Donald Trump to the White House, but the coach say it's simply a matter of scheduling.  Coach Tony Bennett released a statement that was tweeted out by the official University of Virginia account.

Virginia basketball latest champions to decline White House invite.  Add Virginia men's basketball to the long list of teams who won't celebrate a championship with President Trump at the White House.  The program tweeted a statement from head coach Tony Bennett Friday [4/26/2019] that stated the team has "received inquiries about a visit to the White House.["]

Nike launches 'Icon' Kaepernick jersey days after NFL collusion case settlement.  Nike released a special edition Colin Kaepernick jersey Wednesday just days after the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback settled a grievance with the NFL.  The Kaepernick Icon Jersey — a black design with white lettering — resembles the '#ImWithKap' jerseys that quickly sold out last fall.  The jersey sells for $150.  "We believe Colin Kaepernick is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward," Nike spokeswoman Sandra Carreon-John told USA Today, adding that the jersey "marks Nike's continued product collaboration with Colin."

All about race:  NFL shoves left's radical social justice agenda down throats of Super Bowl viewers.  Super Bowl LIII appeared to be the NFL's latest down payment in appeasing the hard left and their social justice agenda.  The NFL responded in December 2017 to the more radical elements of the game who were disrespecting the national anthem by taking a knee by committing $90 million over a seven year period to social justice causes — much of the money going to a number of left-wing organizations.  And Sunday, the league shoved a divisive race-driven message down the throats of Super Bowl LIII viewers at every opportunity.

Maroon 5 frontman hints Superbowl show will be hip-hop kneeling fest.  Proud, flag-loving patriots who hate seeing the American flag be disrespected may have no other option but to tune out of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show.  The show has been mired in controversy because of a concerted effort by radical far-left activists to stop any artist from performing at the event.  To them, any performance would be a slap in the face to unemployed former NFL quarterback and continued race-baiting agitator Colin Kaepernick.

The NFL Recovers From Kneeling Frenzy.  Ratings for NFL regular-season games rebounded, gaining 5 percent over the previous season.  That's not as amazing, since it's a small increase after two years of frightening declines.  But in today's ever-declining ratings for broadcast TV, due to livestreaming and cord cutting, the NFL is still a dominant player, far outdrawing regular scripted TV shows.  The panic in NFL offices has ended.  The bleeding stopped.  Everyone knows why, and it's not the powerful high-scoring offenses and the snazzy touchdown celebrations.  The NFL put an end to the national anthem kneeling protests.

Miami Dolphins' Robert Quinn complains about lack of coverage for his protest during national anthem.  Colin Kaepernick has received a ton of publicity for his protests during the national anthem, but he can't seem to find a job in the NFL.  Miami Dolphins defensive end Robert Quinn has the opposite problem.  Quinn lashed out at reporters Thursday [12/27/2018] over the lack of coverage he's received over his fist-raised protest during the national anthem, something he's done since joining the Dolphins in the offseason, according to the Miami Herald.

More Than an Athlete?  Lebron James is perhaps the most privileged person on the face of the Earth.  Graced with once-in-a-generation athletic talent, he also happens to be 6 feet, 8 inches tall.  And, best of all, he was born in the United States of America.  Our free enterprise system has allowed James to parlay his talent, and lots of hard work, into an $85 million a year income.  Not bad!  But not enough for King James.

Lebron James says NFL owners are a "bunch of old white men" with a "slave mentality".  LeBron James had some strong words for NFL owners on his HBO show "The Shop" which aired Friday night.  [He] blasted NFL owners for having what he called a "slave mentality" and calling them "a bunch of old white men".

NFL kneeling goes full circle.  The NFL has a long way to go until it is broke, but given the number of liberals put in charge of the league, it is but a matter of time.  The league took its fan base for granted, tried to expand its appeal, and virtue signaled like a Hollywood award ceremony.

The National Anthem Protests — Do Facts Matter?  NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who started the protests, did so over the supposed widespread instances of police brutality against blacks.  Kaepernick said, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. ... There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."  According to the Centers for Disease Control, since 1968 police killings of blacks have declined nearly 75 percent.  According to The Washington Post, almost 500 whites were killed by cops in 2015, an average of more than one a day.  Two hundred fifty-nine blacks were killed by the police.  Most suspects killed by police had a weapon.  Now for some perspective.  Do you know anyone who has been struck by lightning?  Neither do most people.  Yet each year an average of about 300 Americans are killed or injured by lightning.  That's approximately 40 more than the number of blacks killed by the police in 2015.  Is there an "epidemic" of Americans being struck and injured by lightning?

Fans Furious As NFL Cheerleader Hears Anthem, Gives Troops the Finger.  Fans who came out to see the Raiders take on the 49ers on Thursday were furious over what one cheerleader did as soon as she heard the National Anthem start to play.  Mediocre former-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the most hated man in the NFL two seasons ago — which is quite a feat in a sport filled with wife-beaters and convicts — when he began "taking a knee" as The Star-Spangled Banner was played before NFL games in 2016 to protest "police brutality" and "racial discrimination" in America.  Of course, this could not have been more ironic, seeing as Kaepernick was adopted by a white family who raised him with every advantage in the world.  Not to mention the fact that he makes more money than ninety-nine percent of white people.

49ers cheerleader takes a knee during anthem.  A cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers kneeled during the national anthem Thursday night ahead of the team's game against the Oakland Raiders.  The cheerleader has not been identified, but photos of her kneeling quickly circulated on social media.

Amy Schumer wonders whether white NFL players who don't kneel are 'complicit' in racism.  Amy Schumer on Friday [10/19/2018] questioned whether or not white players in the NFL who don't kneel with their black teammates are 'complicit' in the 'endless racism people of color face in our country.'  The "Trainwreck" star went on to propose that more white players should stand up for their "brothers and sisters of color" by taking a knee.  "I wonder why more white players aren't kneeling," she wrote.  "Once you witness the truly deep inequality and endless racism people of color face in our country, not to mention the police brutality and murders.  Why not kneel next to your brothers?  Otherwise how are you not complicit?"

Kneeling NFL players earn $16M combined this season.  Miami Dolphins wide receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson have knelt during the national anthem every game this season.  Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid, who joined Colin Kaepernick during the original kneeling protests in 2016, resumed kneeling before his season debut in Week 5 last Sunday.  The three players are slated to earn a combined $16.5 million in 2018, or more if they meet certain bonuses.  Under the NFL's current rules, none of the players will face fines or other disciplinary action for the protests.  [President] Trump has repeatedly called on the NFL to impose stiff penalties on any player who fails to stand for the national anthem.

Eric Reid takes a knee during national anthem in first game as Carolina Panthers player.  Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid took a knee during the national anthem before Sunday's game against the New York Giants in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Reid was the only player to kneel during the "Star Spangled Banner," continuing the protest he began while playing for the San Francisco 49ers.  He was the first Panthers player ever to kneel during the national anthem.

'Standup for America' jersey is Trump's latest attack on NFL kneelers.  Colin Kaepernick probably hasn't clicked on the shopping cart.  A popular online Trump merchandise site is hawking "Standup for America" football jerseys, the president's latest salvo in his war against the NFL and those kneeling for the national anthem.

Harvard to award Colin Kaepernick medal for work in African-American studies.  Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be one of eight people honored by Harvard University next month with the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.  The medal is given annually by the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.  "The medal honors those who have made significant contributions to African and African American history and culture, and more broadly, individuals who advocate for intercultural understanding and human rights in an increasingly global and interconnected world," the university said.

New NFL Season — Same Old National Anthem Protests.  The 2018-2019 football season kicked off this past weekend, and much to the dismay of many fans, so did a new season of National Anthem protests. [...] The original basis for the protests came as an anti-police and anti-America protest by Colin Kaepernick (who claimed both were racist), who wore socks with police pictured as pigs and lauded the murderous government in Communist Cuba, even though more whites than blacks are killed by police, though, according to the FBI, black Americans are charged with most of the murders in this country, most of the robberies, and nearly half the assaults (while only making up about 13 percent of the population) — and Cuba regularly "disappears" or imprisons or tortures citizens who criticize it.  That's what the protesting players are siding with.  Meanwhile black police officers are much more likely to kill both black and Latino suspects than white officers are, and more than 99 percent of those killed by police are armed at the time they are shot.

Colin Kaepernick thanks 2 Miami Dolphins players who kneel during anthem.  Miami Dolphins teammates Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson were the only two players to kneel during the national anthem on the NFL's opening Sunday, and Colin Kaepernick, who may no longer be welcome on an NFL sideline, offered his thanks to the players on Twitter.  "My Brothers (Stills) and (Wilson) continue to show their unwavering strength by fighting for the oppressed," Kaepernick tweeted.  "They have not backed down, even when attacked and intimidated... Love is at the root of our resistance."

Famed UFC Fighter, Special Forces Vet Tim Kennedy Says Special Forces Furious About Nike's Kaepernick Ad.  Tim Kennedy, the famed UFC fighter who served in the army and later in the 7th Special Forces Group where he was a sniper, sniper instructor, and the principal combatives instructor for C Company, 3rd Battalion, deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, said Special Forces members that he spent time with this week were furious about the Nike ad with Colin Kaepernick in which Kaepernick said he had "sacrificed."  Speaking to TMZ, Kennedy began, "There are problems.  There are huge problems in the city; urban problems, police problems, crime problems, and they have to be addressed and something needs to be done about it, but not by disrespecting the flag and somebody making a few million dollars off a sponsorship.  Come on."  When TMZ asked, "Will you wear Nike ever again?", Kennedy responded, "No, no."

The Circus of Resistance.  Nike hired NFL renegade Colin Kaepernick to peddle its sports products.  For all its billion-dollar market research, it apparently did not know what Donald Trump's animal cunning had almost immediately surmised:  a majority of Americans do not appreciate the pampered multimillionaire Kaepernick sanctioning violence against the police by wearing "pig" socks, or mocking the National Anthem by taking a knee.  Nike could just as well have hired Bowe Bergdahl to push its sneakers.

The Party of Kaepernick.  The Democrats' winning midterm campaign message would seem simple enough:  Trump is bad and must be opposed.  Yet at the moment the party risks being associated with a somewhat less attractive message:  The American flag is bad and must be opposed.  Last week, left-wing Democrat Ayanna Pressley ousted long-term incumbent Michael Capuano from the John F. Kennedy/Tip O'Neill House seat in the Democratic primary while praising the NFL anti-flag protests, which her opponent called "wrong."  Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke says — in Texas! — that there is "nothing more American" than kneeling for the national anthem.

Empty Seats Plague NFL Stadiums in Week One of Season.  Americans are fed up with athletes kneeling during the National Anthem and it showed — plenty of empty seats plagued stadiums on Sunday [9/9/2018].

Just Blew It:  Nike Favorability Drops By Double-Digits, No Boost In Key Demos.  [Colin] Kaepernick is a source of controversy, a vehicle for the left wing social justice activism that struck the NFL two years ago when he started to take a knee during the national anthem.  There were a multitude of reasons but race relations and police brutality seem to be the top issues for why he and other players started this nonsense.  No doubt the cause is worth a discussion.  I totally disagree with their take, but it's worthy of a discussion.  All that good will went out the window as soon as you start trashing the flag.  Kaepernick's anti-police stance also drew a backlash.  These players see their side getting attention.  Everyone else sees them trashing the flag, our veterans, and those who have died in service to the country.  It's unpatriotic.  It's not appropriate — and the NFL knows it.

The Things That Won't Fit in a Nike Ad.  When it comes to the Kaepernick-inspired debate, there are many serious issues at play — issues worthy of reasoned discussion.  You might think that athletes should be able to kneel during the national anthem as a matter of free speech.  You might think it's disrespectful to do so.  You might think that Kaepernick was right to call attention to police violence, but wrong to wear socks depicting police officers as pigs.  You might even think all of these things at the same time!  But these things are complicated, and they certainly don't fit in a Nike ad, which has one overarching goal:  To bring attention to Nike, a massive corporation under fire for various ethical issues as we speak.

College Dumps Nike:  "If Nike is Ashamed of America, We are Ashamed of Them".  The collegiate market is big for Nike.  And while much of that market will only embrace the sweatshop sportswear firm harder after its anti-American stance, there are still some American schools left in America.

Poll Reports Nike Kaepernick Ad Is Shoe-icide.  This might be turn out to be the biggest marketing disaster since Coca-Cola changed its formula to become New Coke.  Last week Nike was an iconic American brand.  But that was before it decided to commit shoe-icde.  Since it signed anti-American protester Colin brand favorability for its 30-anniversary "Just Do It" public support for the brand plunged.  In other words, Nike Did It — to themselves.

Massive Collapse in Brand Image for Nike Following New Colin Kaepernick Branding Campaign.  Never before in the history of corporate branding decisions has a multi-billion dollar company had such a massive and swift drop of brand image as Nike.  The results from Morning Consult Intelligence, a firm that specializes in monitoring and measuring the brand image and reputation for thousands of major companies, reflects a massive drop in brand image across every single demographic.  We suspected there would be a diminishment of brand image, but nothing like the scale discovered within the polled data.

Nike Becomes Face of Social Justice Despite History of Outsourcing, Employing Slave Labor.  Despite having a long, documented history of allegedly employing workers at slave wages, the multinational Nike corporation has become the face of the social justice wing of the political left with its newest ad featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.  As Breitbart News reported, the Nike corporation laid off 1,400 Americans just last year in the state of Oregon, cutting out workers who were older and likely sending their jobs overseas as the sports brand has done in the past.

Poll: Nike Favorability Crashes 34% with Kaepernick Ad Campaign.  A poll from Morning Consult shows devastating results for Nike's brand favorability, in the days after making Colin Kaepernick the face of their new ad campaign.

Nike, NFL, and Levis Strauss Political Business Strategy.  On its face, it just seems absurd.  Why would any major corporation intentionally stake out a branding position that is adverse to their financial interests? [...] The bigger risk to Nike has nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, U.S. Consumers, or Antifa-like political advocacy.  The bigger financial risk to the Nike Corporation has everything to do with geopolitics and a reset of international trade agreements.

Former Obama CIA Director John Brennan Praises Washed Up Athlete.  It's well established John Brennan is a weird one.  How a man who once voted for a communist to be President of the United States became head of the CIA is a story unto itself (See:  China) but just as confounding is how Mr. Brennan has conducted himself since riding into the proverbial has-been sunset.  The most recent example is his effusive praise of washed-up former NFL quarterback turned racist division-maker, Colin Kaepernick.  Mr. Kaepernick lost his starting position due to lackluster play and soon after he declared himself an anti-white and anti-police advocate who was then warmly embraced by the radical Black Lives Matter crowd.  Nike threw Kaepernick some "good boy" bucks for which Brennan is now glorifying as the Second Coming.

Nike steps in it!  Vets, ex-fans furious over Kaepernick deal.  Nike is under fire from military veterans for using Colin Kaepernick in a new ad campaign.  Many say the sports brand is promoting unpatriotic protests against the American flag since Kaepernick has been a Nike brand ambassador since 2011.  Army veteran Kurt Schlichter, an attorney and Townhall columnist, said Kaepernick's claim that he's "just making a statement" is disingenuous because there are more effective ways for him to protest without disrespecting the flag or the national anthem.

They Destroy Everything They Touch, Volume 2.  Nike's decision to turn [Colin] Kaepernick, the National Anthem-defiling, skills-atrophying, cellar-dwelling Social Justice Warrior ex-quarterback who last played NFL football with the then 2-14 San Francisco 49ers in 2016, into its latest corporate product pitch man was announced over the Labor Day weekend, and on Tuesday [9/4/2018] when the New York Stock Exchange got its first opportunity to weigh in on it the results weren't good.  Nike's stock closed Tuesday at $79.60, though it did rise a bit in after-hours trading.  That was a pretty serious bath from the $82.20 at which the stock closed on Friday before word leaked of Kaepernick's contract — a loss of 3.16 percent of its value, or more than $3.5 billion in market capitalization.

Get woke and go broke.  The American footwear company Nike made the disastrous decision to pay Colin Kaepernick millions of dollars a year to be a spokesperson for their "Just Do It" advertising campaign.  The company's new tag line for Kaepernick is:  "Believe in something.  Even if it means sacrificing everything."  By "sacrificing everything," evidently Nike means "make millions of dollars more a year to appear in an advertising campaign than you would make as a back-up quarterback in the NFL."  Boy, has Kaepernick ever sacrificed!  According to Yahoo Sports, he gets his own branded shoe line, shirts, jerseys and specific Kaepernick apparel.  He will be paid a comparable amount to the best NFL players signed to Nike deals, millions a year.

Kaepernick Deal:  Nike May Discover To Be Woke Is No Joke.  Nike's decision to make controversial former quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its 30th Anniversary "Just Do It" campaign marks the logical extension of politics into two places it shouldn't be:  sports and business.  Nike may regret its move.

Nike Decides to Make "Inspirational" Colin Kaepernick The Face of The Brand.  In the latest example of a corporation making a ridiculous decision to brand itself based on politics, Nike apparel has decided that Colin Kaepernick is the modern face of the brand.

Americans Launch Boycott Against Nike After Colin Kaepernick Named as Face of 30th Anniversary.  Colin Kaepernick ruined the NFL after he started the National Anthem boycott by 'taking a knee.'  He made headlines in 2016 when he wouldn't stand for the National Anthem because of cops.  NFL ratings have plummeted since Kaepernick's National Anthem boycott.  Stadiums often have rows and rows of empty seats because Americans are fed up with the politicization of football.  Now it's Nike's turn.

Colin Kaepernick to be face of Nike's 'Just Do it' campaign.  Nike has a new face for the 30th anniversary of their iconic "Just Do It" campaign:  Colin Kaepernick.  Kaepernick, who has filed a collusion suit against the NFL over his unemployment after he knelt and protested racial inequality during the anthem, unveiled the new advertisement on his Twitter.

Big & Rich Singer Promotes Nike Boycott in Response to Kaepernick Ad Campaign.  Nike announced its new campaign ad featuring controversial anthem protester Colin Kaepernick on Monday [9/3/2018], drawing support from some quarters and plenty of criticism from others.

Nike shares drop amid backlash over new Kaepernick ad.  Shares of Nike fell 3.2 percent on Tuesday [9/4/2018] as calls for a boycott of the sportswear giant gained traction on social media following its choice of Colin Kaepernick as a face for the 30th anniversary of its "Just Do It" slogan.  Former San Francisco quarterback Kaepernick, the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem as a protest against racism, posted a black-and-white close-up of himself on social media on Monday featuring the Nike logo and "Just do it" along with the quote, "Believe in something.  Even if it means sacrificing everything."  Over 30,000 people were tweeting with the hashtag #NikeBoycott on Tuesday morning, making it among the top trending topics on Twitter.  Some posted images of themselves burning and ripping their Nike shoes and apparel.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tweets Support for Colin Kaepernick.  Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to Twitter on Monday [9/3/2018], to lend support to anthem-protesting former quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Did Nike make a huge NFL-like mistake embracing Colin Kaepernick?  Is there business logic for Nike embracing Colin Kaepernick?  I think there is, for the NFL and athletic shoe business are very different.  In the conservative blogosphere, on Fox News, and among my friends, the name of Nike has been forever damaged by the brand's embrace of Colin Kaepernick, who sparked the widespread disrespect for our flag by NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem.  Pictures and videos of Nike gear burning already are proliferating among the outraged.

Kaepernick won't stand for the flag but he'll bow down to the Nike dollar?  'Believe in something, even it means sacrificing everything.'  Those are the words emblazoned across NFL star Colin Kaepernick's face in Nike's new campaign to mark 30 years of its 'Just Do It' advertising slogan.  'Sacrifice' is a big word, meaning 'to give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person'.  'Everything' is an even bigger word, meaning 'all that exists'.  So to sacrifice everything is a major undertaking.

Corporate Suicide Watch, Nike Edition.  Nike has chosen the star of its 30th anniversary #JustDoIt advertising campaign:  Colin Kaepernick.  At first glance, it seems weird for an athletic shoe company to select as its corporate icon someone who is no longer an athlete, and was never a star.  At second glance, it gets weirder:  Nike apparently thinks Kaepernick has sacrificed everything, which tells you something about 21st century corporate America.  Kaepernich is a multimillionaire whose "sacrifice" consisted of kneeling during the National Anthem, wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs, and generally denouncing his country.  Which has led to a second career as a leftist spokesman.  That is not exactly a contender in the annals of Greatest Sacrifice Ever.

Kaepernick fronts Nike's 'Just Do It' ad campaign.  Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is part of a new Nike campaign to mark the 30th anniversary of the sporting equipment giant's iconic "Just Do It" slogan, reports said Monday [9/3/2018].  Kaepernick, who triggered a political firestorm after kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice, has not played in the NFL since early 2017.

Tom Brady signals his support of Colin Kaepernick's controversial Nike ad.  [Colin] Kaepernick has not played a game of football for 11 months.  He opted out of his San Francisco 49ers contract last August after causing controversy by taking a kneel during the national anthem in a sign of protest against police brutality against African Americans.  On Monday [9/3/2018], Nike unveiled the campaign to mixed reviews.  Star athletes including Serena Williams praised the company for putting Kaepernick's message at the forefront of its advertising.  But Nike customers who opposed Kaepernick's on-the-field protests were outraged by the move.

James Woods Dumps Nike Stock in Response to Kaepernick 'Just Do It' Ad Campaign.  Veteran actor and conservative firebrand James Woods is selling all his Nike stock in response to the athletic apparel company's decision to name former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and infamous anthem protester Colin Kaepernick as the face of their new "Just Do It" campaign.  Woods on Tuesday [9/4/2018] tweeted a screenshot to his nearly 1.7 million followers of an email he sent to his portfolio manager asking all his Nike stock be sold.  "Please divest my portfolio of all Nike stock in my personal account and in the plan.  Henceforth never buy Nike stock for me again," the email read.

ESPN Goes Insane Over Tiger Woods' Trump Comments: 'He's Not Black'.  ESPN continued down their politically progressive path on Monday [8/27/2018], going fully insane over golf superstar Tiger Woods' recent comments about President Donald Trump.  "First Take" co-host Max Kellerman, fully triggered by Woods' comments, ranted about how "angry" he was about the "thoughtless statement."  And Kellerman's counterpart, Stephen A. Smith, said that Woods is "not black" and doesn't identify as black, which has upset the African-American community and explains the golf phenom's Trump comments.  Woods was asked about Trump, whom he has a personal relationship with, by a New York Times reporter on Sunday:  "I think a lot of people, especially people of color, immigrants feel threatened by him, by his policies. ... What do you say to people who might find it interesting, I guess, that you have a friendly relationship with him?"

ESPN host fumes at Tiger Woods' Donald Trump 'respect'.  ESPN's Max Kellerman said Monday on "First Take" that Tiger Woods' response to questions about President Trump made him "angry."  Woods was asked after the final round of The Northern Trust on Sunday about his relationship with Trump and urged people to respect the office of the president.  "He's the president of the United States.  You have to respect the office.  No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office," he said.  Kellerman blasted Woods' remarks, saying it was a "thoughtless statement dressed up as a thoughtful statement."

Kaepernick's Lawsuit with NFL Just Blew Up in His FACE.  Colin Kaepernick claims that the NFL colluded against him.  Cry me a river.  They certainly have a right to not hire him, particularly after his kneeling stunt.  Why should a company be forced to hire a disruptive employee?  Regardless, it appears now that Kaepernick's claims are baseless.  His claims of collusion just got a hole poked in his hot air balloon, at least according to John Elway.  Elway claims that the Broncos offered Kaepernick a deal, but he turned it down.

Beto O'Rourke says 'nothing more American' than NFL anthem protests.  Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke has jumped into the NFL national-anthem fray by defending players taking a knee during the ceremony, saying he could think of "nothing more American."  In a response going viral on social media, the Democrat seeking to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, compared the NFL kneelers to civil-rights icons like Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders during a campaign appearance last week in Houston.

Kneeling NFL players will help Republicans in November.  If National Football League players continue their protests during the national anthem this season, it will rile some Republican voters, increasing their intensity and making it more likely that they will vote.  At a time when Democrats want their candidates to be less controversial and let dissatisfaction with President Trump carry them into office, continued protests by NFL players will force the issue back into the public spotlight and onto the campaign trail, where Democrats will mostly have to side with the protesters.  I am often frustrated that President Trump and Republicans do what their political opponents want them to do.  But in this case, it is the Democrats who are being escorted by a few athletes into a position they would rather avoid.

[A few] Eagles Players Stay in Tunnel During National Anthem.  Three members of the Philadelphia Eagles refused to take the field in protest, during the playing of the national anthem at Thursday's [8/16/2018] preseason game.  Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and cornerback De'Vante Bausby continued their protests from last season by refusing to take the field ahead of their game against the New England Patriots.  The pair took the field after the song concluded, according to NBC Sports.

ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro:  Network won't show national anthem on 'Monday Night Football'.  New ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told reporters Friday [8/17/2018] that the network does not plan to televise the national anthem as part of its Monday Night Football broadcasts this season.  Pitaro, who was hired March 5 following the abrupt departure of John Skipper, told reporters at a media event on ESPN's campus in Bristol, Conn., that the network has not previously shown the national anthem during its Monday Night Football broadcasts and does not have plans to change — at least, not in the immediate future.  According to Axios, Pitaro also said that ESPN has informed the league of its plans "as (a) courtesy" given their partnership.  Earlier, he had told reporters that he has spent much of his young tenure at ESPN working to strengthen the company's relationship with the NFL.

The NFL Doesn't Actually Care About You, or Your Service.  Last year, when the kneeling controversy erupted like a California wildfire and the president launched a series of attacks on the NFL and Colin Kaepernick, I argued that cooler heads should prevail and a middle ground could be reached by both sides.  Like the recovering alcoholic I am, I must have been in denial, hoping like a chronic gambler that Roger Goodell would do the right thing, or even just do his job.  Obviously, I was wrong, because here we are again, my friends:  another year, another round of protests.  And all because the NFL and Roger Goodell have been subverted by the most sinister of human endeavors — politics.

Police Union Cancels Discount Ticket Program After Miami Dolphin Anthem Protests.  A union that represents police officers in Florida's Broward County is canceling its participation in a discount ticket program with the Miami Dolphins after several of the team's players refused to stand during Thursday's pre-season game rendition of the national anthem.  Despite the Broward County Police Benevolent Association's belief that the Miami Dolphins team would be requiring its players to stand, wide receivers Albert Wilson and Kenny Stills kneeled while one player, defensive end Robert Quinn, raised his fist before the team's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

NFL won't discipline kneelers as anthem protests make preseason return.  Professional football is back and so are the take-a-knee protests, but the NFL isn't planning on disciplining players who refuse to stand during the national anthem — at least for now. [...] In a statement, the NFL said it was still engaged in "constructive discussions with the NFL Players Association regarding the anthem and issues of equality and social justice that are of concern to many Americans."

NFL preseason sees kneeling, raised fists, during national anthem.  NFL players continued to protest during the national anthem on Thursday night as the league began the first full week of its 2018 preseason.  Some players held their fists in the air, while others decided to kneel, despite the controversy surrounding the action.  Wide receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson, both of the Miami Dolphins, knelt during "The Star-Spangled Banner," ahead of their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Herald reported.

Ingrates who won't stand for the anthem.  Colin Kaepernick started it back in 2016 when as quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers he refused to stand for the anthem during a preseason game.  His gripe?  "Racial inequality," or so he says. [...] Yes, it started while Obama was still president.  So you can't blame Trump for this one.  But they do.  Why not?  They blame him for everything else — the news media first of all.

Top 10 Black Racists.  [#6] Colin Kaepernick:  Colin Kaepernick, who launched a high-profile protest movement within the NFL, may now be unemployed and off-the-radar for many Americans, but he's still able to generate media attention.  His anti-American activism, best exemplified by the taking of a knee during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before football games, helped to alienate fans and accelerate the NFL's downward slide that was already in progress.  Like DeRay Mckesson and Alicia Garza, Kaepernick is a supporter of convicted cop killer Assata Shakur who broke out of prison in 1979 and fled to Communist Cuba where she still resides.  Kaepernick acknowledged raising $20,000 for Chicago-based Assata's Daughters in matching donations, on top of the $25,000 he personally gave the group previously, the Washington Times reported in February.

NFL should just dump the national anthem and get on with playing football.  Eyes will be focused on watching knees right from the jump of the NFL preseason in the annual Hall of Fame game Thursday between the Chicago Bears and the Baltimore Ravens.  Television cameras will capture just who is taking a knee and who is not as the national anthem plays.  But should Francis Scott Key's ode to his country even be played before sporting contests?  Sports are entertainment.  The national anthem is not played as you enter the museum, sit down at the symphony or stroll into the movie house, which also represent forms of entertainment.

The Editor says...
The USA Today writer (of the article immediately above) is apparently unaware that the national anthem is played in movie theaters on military bases — and everyone stands at attention while it is playing.

Jerry Jones May Have Single-Handedly Blown Up the NFL's New Anthem Policy.  Jerry Jones has a history of doing what he wants.  And last week, when it came to the NFL's new policy regarding player demonstrations during the national anthem, he broke with the league yet again.  The rule, announced in May, was controversial from the beginning.  It banned players from kneeling, raising fists, or otherwise participating in on-field demonstrations during the anthem, but gave them the choice to remain in the locker room while the song played.  The NFL Players' Association, which negotiates its collective bargaining agreement with the league, objected to the rule — and they weren't the only ones.

Projection:
LeBron: Trump is using sports to divide us.  LeBron James thinks President Trump is using athletics, and athletes, to split up the country. [...] "What I've noticed over the past few months," James shared with CNN's Don Lemon during a sit-down interview on Monday [7/30/2018][,] "(Is) he's kinda used sports to kinda divide us, and that's something that I can't relate to."  Referencing Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protests during the pre-game national anthem launched an NFL movement, and more recently, Stephen Curry, who honored his promise of skipping a visit to Donald Trump's White House, James bemoaned a myriad of instances in which Trump has twisted peaceful displays of dissent into an indictment of a decaying American value system.

The Editor says...
President Trump didn't originate Black Lives Matter protests or inject anti-American tantrums into football games.

Vegan soccer club first in world to be certified carbon neutral by UN.  An English soccer team has become the first professional sports team in the world to be certified carbon-neutral by the United Nations.

Follow The Money:  Will NFL Owners Choose George Soros or Millions of Their Fans?  [T]he same players who are funneling $90 million from last year's "settlement"/shakedown to left-wing activists have forced the owners back to the negotiating table.  These are the team owners who saw a 10 percent drop in viewership last season, eight million fewer Super Bowl viewers this year, and advertisers threaten to leave.  From a purely business perspective, capitulating to the players is clearly a bad idea.  The fans have identified the anthem protests for what they are:  the promotion of a false narrative that America is a racist country.  And they have made themselves heard loud and clear by simply tuning out. [...] The NFL's fans are the league's financial driver and represent a broad swath of America that turns to sport for what it is — entertainment, not politics.

Jerry Jones:  Cowboys players must stand for national anthem.  Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doubled down Wednesday on insisting that his players stand for the national anthem, declaring that he wouldn't support anyone who chose to stay in the locker room.

New NFL Anthem Protests are upon us.  Football season is fast upon us and the world's most profitable sport has fans geared up and ready to go, but the national anthem protest controversy that has plagued the NFL just won't die.

Tennessee Titans' Jurrell Casey says he plans to keep protesting and will 'take my fine' in upcoming NFL season: report.  Despite a recently-imposed NFL rule regarding players and personnel behavior during the national anthem, one Tennessee Titans player reportedly says he'll "take a fine this year" and continue to "protest during the flag."  NFL defensive end Jurrell Casey intends to keep holding up his fist in protest following the conclusion of the Star Spangled Banner, like he did during the 2017 season, regardless of the fines that may come his way, he told CNN Sport while attending an event in London on Wednesday [7/18/2018].

Trump says NFL players who kneel during the anthem twice should be banned for the season.  President Donald Trump demanded on Friday that the '$40,000,000 commissioner' of the NFL suspend players for a whole season if they kneel during national anthem more than once.  In a rehash of last year's controversy, the President took to Twitter to blast NFL commissioner Roger Godell for not doing enough to stem the tide of players protesting racial inequality in America.

NFL, NFLPA freeze anthem rules amid backlash to Miami policy.  Hours after The Associated Press reported that Miami Dolphins players who protest on the field during the anthem could be suspended for up to four games under a team policy issued this week, the league and the players union issued a joint statement late Thursday night saying the two sides are talking things out.

NFLPA files grievance challenging NFL's new anthem policy, claims it 'infringes on player rights'.  The NFL Players' Association announced on Tuesday that it has filed a grievance on behalf of the players challenging the league's controversial anthem policy, which was introduced in May.  "The union's claim is that this new policy, imposed by the NFL's governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights," the NFLPA said in a statement.

Colin Kaepernick receives civil rights award from National Education Association.  Colin Kaepernick was among a dozen honorees who received a human and civil rights award from the National Education Association.  Kaepernick was given the NEA's President's Award to recognize his work "to fight racial oppression through education and social justice activism" through the Know Your Rights Camp, a campaign that is fully funded by the footballer.  The youth camp aims "to raise awareness on higher education, self empowerment, and instruction to properly interact with law enforcement in various scenarios," according to its website.

Colin Kaepernick receives civil rights award from National Education Association.  Colin Kaepernick was among a dozen honorees who received a human and civil rights award from the National Education Association.  Kaepernick was given the NEA's President's Award to recognize his work "to fight racial oppression through education and social justice activism" through the Know Your Rights Camp, a campaign that is fully funded by the footballer.  The youth camp aims "to raise awareness on higher education, self empowerment, and instruction to properly interact with law enforcement in various scenarios," according to its website.

The Ways Roger Goodell Has Politicized the NFL: 
  •   Tim Tebow was banned from wearing "John 3:16" on his eye black
  •   The NFL required the Pentagon to pay the league for military tributes
  •   The NFL made RG3 turn a "Know Jesus" t-shirt inside out
  •   The NFL pleaded with teams to consider signing Michael Sam
  •   The NFL banned a gun vendor's ad from the Super Bowl
  •   The NFL banned off-duty cops from carrying guns to games
  •   The NFL denied the Cowboys' request to honor Dallas police after a mass shooting
  •   The NFL refused a veterans group's "please stand" Super Bowl ad

Minnesota United Hosts Pride Night.  Minnesota United FC hosted Pride Night during its game against FC Dallas Friday night [6/29/2018].  The celebration came on the same day United midfielder Collin Martin announced he is gay.  Martin is the only openly gay active player in any of the five major male professional sports leagues.

Offending NFL Fans Isn't Just Bad for Owners, but Players Too.  One of the most obnoxious stories in America the past year has been the controversy over players protesting during the national anthem.  While I personally sympathize with both concerns from athletes about police brutality in minority communities, as well as the desire of most football fans to simply not have any sort of political advocacy mixed into their sports, the resulting media coverage — from both political and sports outlets — has been largely nauseating.  While the NFL offseason obviously brought discussion of the topic down to a simmer (with the exception being the occasional update on Colin Kaepernick — and now Eric Reid's — lawsuit against the league), the NFL's decision this week to change its anthem-policy has it once again at a raging boil.  Unfortunately most of these articles try to make this issue more complicated than it really is:  it's all about money.

Vikings Hold First Sports LGBTQ Summit.  The Minnesota Vikings made history on Thursday.  Vikings players, coaches and members of the LGBTQ community came together for a first of its kind inclusion summit held by an NFL team.  The LGBTQ summit and fundraising event was held at the TCO Performance Center Auditorium in Eagan.  It centered around bridging the gap between the LGBTQ community and sports

Hollywood "Celebrities", Deviants and Predators, Continue Showcasing Democrat Ideology.  When millionaire football players kneel down rather than honor our fallen soldiers and stand proud of our country, we see that.  Check the NFL TV ratings — take note.

Remembering Old Glory.  As the NFL continues to dig their knees into political Astroturf, Americans continue to tune out.  Even the most diehard fans get riled up when they witness disrespect shown toward our flag and, ultimately, to the men and women who have sacrificed dearly to preserve the very freedom that the NFL has flourished under.

How Poisonous Politics And Social Media Managed To Even Ruin Sports.  Now we've learned that not only were most of the Philadelphia Eagles not planning to go to the White House, but neither the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors were intending to go even before their championship series was over. [...] What was once just a pleasant, if pointless, afternoon of fun for the team and the White House staff has morphed into a toxic brew.

Trump cancels Eagles' White House celebration on eve of visit after fewer than 10 players planned to attend.  President Trump on Monday [6/4/2018] abruptly rescinded an invitation to host the Eagles at the White House, citing the "smaller delegation" that was planning to attend and again stoking a national debate by insisting that players "proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart."  The celebration was canceled fewer than 24 hours before the team was scheduled to visit.

Trump Cancels Eagles Reception Amid National Anthem Protests.  President Donald Trump canceled a planned Super Bowl reception for the Philadelphia Eagles Monday after many players would not attend due to his position that all players must stand for the national anthem.

Trump taunts NFL over 'escaping' to locker rooms after changing Eagles visit to a national anthem party.  President Donald Trump taunted the NFL on Tuesday by hyping up a party at the White House he decided to throw without them.  Typically, US sports teams who win a championship may be invited to the White House.  But during Trump's presidency, with his repeated criticism of the NFL and sports teams, the affair has become more complicated.  On Monday [6/4/2018], the White House released a statement saying the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles would not attend the ceremony.

Yo, Philly!  Trump says your Eagles can go take a knee somewhere else.  NASCAR has no kneeling problem.  It flaunts the flag and patriotism at every race with drivers and their families standing together outside the cars for the anthem and prayer before harnessing themselves in.  Ten days ago for a 600-mile contest at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR handed out more than 5,000 free race tickets to military and invited troops into garages to talk shop.  But a convivial championship ceremony will not be happening today with the NFL's Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at Donald Trump's White House.  Faced Monday evening with a boycott by a significant number of team members and employees, who object to Trump objections to their National Anthem protests, Trump disinvited everyone.

Report: 'Five or fewer' Eagles planned to visit White House.  The ongoing battle between Donald Trump and the NFL added another chapter when the President announced the Philadelphia Eagles' trip to the White House had been cancelled.  And it appears not many players would've showed up anyway.  According to ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., the number of Eagles making the trip could've been counted on one hand.

Trump absolutely correct to rescind Eagles' White House invitation.  Being invited to the White House for public recognition of your achievements is an honor.  This is true regardless of who is president.  Why?  Because the president — whether you personally approve of him or not — is the representative of the American people and the White House is the people's house.  So, what happened when the Eagles were invited to the people's house for a ceremony to honor them for their Super Bowl victory?  Fewer than 10 members of the organization accepted the invitation.  Apparently all of the other Eagles had something more important to do than to condescend to accept the accolades of their fellow Americans.

Black firefighter takes heat after taking knee at police-fire football game.  A political and emotional brush fire is smoldering within a grieving Chicago Fire Department over a national anthem protest that marred a charity football game dedicated to the memory of two fallen Chicago heroes.  Camron McGarity, an African-American firefighter, kneeled while the Star Spangled Banner was being played before the CFD Blaze faced off against the Chicago Police Department's Enforcers last Saturday in the eighth annual "First Responders Bowl."  A photo of the protest clearly shows the firefighter, wearing the No. 7 jersey, kneeling on the sidelines while players on either side stood at attention dressed in bright red jerseys and matching red pants.

Athletes Can No Longer Play Nice.  An invitation from the commander-in-chief of the United States to visit the White House in celebration of your Super Bowl victory sounds like a great time, but you can't visit this particular commander-in-chief without appearing to endorse his conflict with the NFL over the national anthem or, for that matter, his conflict with anyone about anything.  A brief review of the facts of the case is in order. [...]

Disney/ABC Should Merge with Starbucks and the NFL.  Disney/ABC, Starbucks, and the NFL should merge, as they are this week's prime example of how to drive away customers while engaged in absurd CEO virtue signaling.

The NFL: It's Game Over.  The mainstream media fell all over itself announcing that [Colin] Kaepernick was the Social Justice Warrior that the world had been waiting for.  Here, at last, was a black sports icon who could start a movement.  All you had to do was open the New York Times to discover the San Francisco 49ers quarterback was really Martin Luther King Jr.  The media had finally found its Chairman Mao in Kaepernick, and its Red Guard in the NFL (of all places!) which suddenly turned itself overnight into the sports-entertainment arm of the DNC. [...] Once all the losses are totaled, the NFL's anthem outrage will go down as the most spectacularly stupid business decision that has ever been made.

The NFL controversy is about so much more than a flag or song.  What are the chances that this minority of unhappy players will forsake the opportunity for national publicity by sitting obscurely in a smelly locker room instead of making their "statement" by publicly kneeling in front of thousands of paying fans and millions more munching Doritos at home?  About the same as the Cleveland Browns winning the next Super Bowl.  The controversy, which began almost two years ago when a benched quarterback refused to stand for the anthem, is a disturbing one.  It plays off a mere game, albeit one that has supplanted baseball as the national pastime.  It's serious business though, costing the league, teams, advertisers, television networks, parking lots and sports bars countless millions in lost sales of tickets, concessions, merchandise, meals and drinks, lost viewers and considerable good will even among disaffected non-fans.

NFL Owners To Players:  Get Off Your Knees, Boy.  The idiotic "take a knee" scandal in the NFL was launched in 2016 by a mediocre quarterback named Colin Kaepernick, a mudpuppy ingrate who was the product of miscegenation and apparently had to loudly declare to the world that he's black because even he has his doubts.  It was based on the idea that racist cops are wantonly slaying young black males in the streets because they are jealous of their charm, good looks, and sexual prowess rather than the fact that it is young black males who are statistically far more likely than any other group to be shooting at them.  Last NFL season Donald Trump nuzzled his way a little further into our hearts when he said, "Get that [despicable person] off the field" when referring to the blockheads who knelt during the Star-Spangled Banner with the same sort of defiance that leads several black males to resist arrest or reach for policemen's guns during routine traffic stops.

NFL stars 'threaten to sit out games until Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are signed by new teams'.  Several NFL stars are reportedly considering not playing until Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are signed by teams.  According to columnist Shaun King, the protesting players are hoping that up to 25 percent of the league will join them in sitting out.  In 2016, Kaepernick drew worldwide attention and sparked a protest movement after he began to kneel during the national anthem to raise awareness of racial equality and police brutality.

Democrats and the media are losing the culture war.  The New York Times ran three pieces this week opposing the NFL's new policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem during games, or remain in the locker room if they won't.  The Times' liberal columnist David Leonhardt called the rule "unpatriotic" because it "reject[s] a basic American value."  (Making a statement about your special interest during a short patriotic song, you see, is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind.)  The paper's editorial board injected its favorite topic, race, writing that the NFL "capitulated to a president who relishes demonizing black athletes."  And in keeping with the Times' long tradition of publishing conservative voices so long as their opinions are weak, the paper gave space to anti-Trump writer David French to denounce "the conservative mob" for approving of the NFL's policy.  By "conservative mob," French apparently means the large majority of Americans who don't approve of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.

Liberals Put The "F" In NFL.  It's not often you get to watch a major corporation publicly try to pull out of a self-inflicted nosedive, but that's exactly what the National Football League attempted to do this week.  The last two seasons have been a time of shrinking viewership for the league that "owns a day of the week," as they saying goes, and that negatively impacts the bottom line.  So the NFL came up with a solution to what they see as the problem.  Starting this season, the NFL will fine teams with players who don't stand for the national anthem.  Whether or not those teams fine the actual players who refuse to stand is up to them, but the team will also be penalized, which could cost some teams some games.  If that isn't enough to at least give activist players pause — harming their teammates — nothing will.

The Editor says...
Sunday used to be called "The Lord's Day."  To state that the NFL now owns it is blasphemy.  Moreover, the NFL also conducts games on Mondays and Thursdays.  They don't own those days either.  Nor does your television.

NFL players, leave your agendas in the locker room.  The idea that the NFL is only implementing its new national anthem policy because of falling ratings and public pressure is exactly how businesses work.  No business exists to employ people; they exist to make as much money as possible.  Hemorrhaging fans, or customers, is the quickest path to failure, so it's smart for the NFL to do all it can to stop the swirling public relations disaster its players created.  Fining teams whose players kneel during the anthem isn't "punishing dissent," it's the people who sign the front of the players' sizable checks exerting the authority inherent in any employer/employee relationship.

In the NFL, patriotism is for sale.  On Wednesday [5/23/2018], the NFL announced a new policy of fining teams whose players decline to stand for the national anthem and empowering the teams to fine those players in turn.  This is heavy-handed and probably will prove foolish.  The pro-football establishment — not only the NFL itself but also its media partners — has done far more than Kaepernick to turn the sport into a political spectacle.  It's simply that the nationalist pageantry that is appealing in Trump country is welcome, while the Black Lives Matter-inspired displays of Kaepernick et al. are not.

Report: NFL to Fine Teams for 'Any Flag, Anthem Disrespect'.  The NFL will allow players to remain in the locker room during the national anthem.  However, if they come out and protest the flag or anthem, their teams will get fined.  That is the new policy announced in a statement by Commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday [5/23/2018].

Keith Ellison boycotting NFL games over 'cowardly' kneeling ban.  Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said that he will boycott NFL games this upcoming season over the league's new policy requiring players to stand during the national anthem.  "Friends who know me, know that I love football.  But I won't be watching this NFL season because of the unfair cowardly and idiotic kneeling ban," the progressive lawmaker tweeted on Sunday, adding the hashtag "Boycott NFL."

NFL Players' Association criticizes new league policy on kneeling during national anthem.  The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) on Wednesday criticized the league for its new national anthem policy.  In a statement, the union said it would review the new policy and "challenge any aspect of it that is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement."  The union accused the league of contradicting its previous statements and of ignoring players' wishes in developing the new policy, which instructs that all team and league personnel should stand for the national anthem.

NFL is 'considering 15-yard penalties for teams who kneel during the national anthem'.  NFL club owners are considering potential 15-yard penalties for kneeling during the national anthem among ways of coping with a backlash over player protests, Sports Illustrated reported Tuesday [5/22/2018].  According to a story on the magazine's website, owners set aside three hours to talk about the anthem issue, which President Donald Trump elevated into a major controversy last year.  Ideas to handle players kneeling during the anthem included allowing home teams to decide if players should be out of the locker room during the pre-game playing of The Star-Spangled Banner or not.  If players are on the sideline, then 15-yard penalties could be imposed on teams with players who kneel during the anthem.

Trump suggests NFL players should leave the U.S. if they don't stand for the national anthem.  President Donald Trump backed an NFL rule change Wednesday that bans kneeling during the national anthem and hits violators with fines.  However, the president — who instigated the new policy with his withering rebuke of players refusing to stand during the tribute to America — said the measure doesn't go far enough.  'I don't think people should be staying in the locker rooms,' he told Fox & Friends in a pre-taped interview that aired on Thursday's [5/24/2018] program.  'You shouldn't be playing, you shouldn't be there.  Maybe they shouldn't be in the country.'

Jets chairman Christopher Johnson says he'll pay any anthem-related fines for Jets players.  Despite the institution of a new policy requiring players to stand during the national anthem and imposing fines for any that don't, no New York Jets players will be paying any fines.

NFL Completes Hail Mary to Beat Social-Justice Wreckers.  Though even at the height of the phenomenon just a small percentage of the players knelt, the spectacle of millionaire athletes disrespecting the country that made them rich proved so offputting to fans that television ratings tanked.  Ratings declined by 10 percent in 2017 over the previous season.  And in 2016, when the league lamely attempted to blame the presidential election, the numbers dropped by 8 percent.  While numerous factors contributed to the sharp decline in viewers, the kneelers undoubtedly wrestled the ratings down the most.

Players Considering New Forms of Protests for Revised National Anthem Policy.  Some NFL players are reportedly considering new ways to protest after NFL owners voted on a new national anthem policy Wednesday [5/23/2018], reports Sports Illustrated's Robert Klemko.  According to Klemko, some are discussing ways to skirt new rules "just to spite the NFL."  The policy removes a requirement for players to be on the field for the anthem, and gives players the option to stay in the locker room.  Teams will be fined for any personnel that "do not show proper respect for the flag and Anthem" on the sidelines.

NFL players mulling new anthem protests 'to spite' league over planned crackdown: report.  Some NFL players are reportedly planning new protests during the national anthem "just to spite the NFL" in wake of the league's new anti-kneeling policy that was announced Wednesday [5/23/2018].  The players, who weren't planning on demonstrating during the national anthem this season, said they were looking for way to "skirt" the new NFL rules, Sports Illustrated reported Thursday.  Some NFL players are reportedly planning new protests during the national anthem "just to spite the NFL" in wake of the league's new anti-kneeling policy that was announced Wednesday.

Kneeling NFL players should choose a different form of protest.  For nearly three weeks last fall, the National Football League waged war against President Trump over player protests during the national anthem.  After 19 days, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell began a slow-moving public relations train wreck of capitulation, culminating in a new rule announced Wednesday [5/23/2018] that will allow the league to fine teams for actions taken by players deemed disrespectful during playing of the anthem.  Under the policy, it is up to individual teams to decide whether they want to discipline players for protesting during playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Rep. Pete King: 'Indefensible to Kneel' for 'False Narrative' on Police Violence.  It is "indefensible" when National Football League players refuse to stand for the National Anthem, and represents a "false narrative of police bias against black men," Rep. Pete King said in a column Saturday [5/26/2018].  In the column, as in a tweet earlier in the morning, the New York Republican drew a comparison between those who kneel in protest of police violence to people who would make a Nazi salute on the football field.  In his tweet, King declared it "disgraceful" that the owner of the New York Jets, Christopher Johnson, would "pay fines for players who kneel for National Anthem.  Encouraging a movement premised on lies vs. police.  Would he support all player protests?  Would he pay fines of players giving Nazi salutes or spew racism?  It's time to say goodbye to Jets!"

Vikings to Host Daylong Summit on LGBTQ Inclusion.  The Minnesota Vikings will become the first NFL team to host a summit on LGBTQ inclusion in sports.  The Vikings announced Wednesday the summit will be held at the team's headquarters in Eagan on June 21.  A reception will be held afterward to raise money for local and national LGBTQ organizations.  The team is working to create opportunities for people in the LGBTQ community.  "We hope that this really jump-starts the conversation," Vikings chief operating officer Kevin Warren said.

Whatever the Left Touches it Ruins.  The left is increasingly poisoning sports.  In most football stadiums this past season, one could not attend an NFL game without being subjected to left-wing contempt for America and its flag.

Report: Seahawks Cancel Meeting with Colin Kaepernick After He Refuses to Stop Anthem Protests.  According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Seattle Seahawks canceled a visit with Colin Kaepernick after he refused to say he would stop protesting during the playing of the national anthem.  Schefter reported that the Seahawks tried to get the former NFL player to commit to ending his protests, but Kaepernick refused.

Transgender Runners Can Race Boston Marathon Under Identified Gender.  Transgender runners who qualify can take part in the Boston Marathon as their identified gender, according to Boston Marathon officials.  The issue has garnered attention following a profile in Canadian Running of three transgender women signed up for the race.  Comments to the article included reservation from readers that the elevated testosterone levels would potentially bump other women from the race, who would otherwise have qualified.

Kaepernick's "Collusion" Grievance Against The NFL Moves Forward.  If you thought we'd heard the last of noted National Anthem protester and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, think again.  The budding social justice warrior still hasn't given up on the idea that he can land a starting spot with a National Football League team simply by demanding that one is owed to him.  He filed a "grievance" against the league last year claiming that the league and the various team owners were all "colluding" against him to keep him from playing.

NFL owners finalize $90M social-justice deal without resolving anthem protests.  NFL team owners unanimously gave their final approval Monday [3/26/2018] to an unprecedented $90 million social-justice initiative but made no decisions about how to handle players refusing to stand for the national anthem.  Instead, owners are expected to continue the discussion about whether to change the game-day policy, which does not require players to stand, at the spring league meeting in May, according to a post on NFL.com citing the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.  The decision to avoid an anthem vote at the March 25-28 annual league meeting in Orlando came with the owners split on how to handle the divisive two-year-old sideline protests, which have been blamed in large part for the NFL's 9.7 percent ratings decline in the 2017 regular season.

NFL owners' social justice cash may defuse anthem protests, may not satisfy fans.  After two years of kneeling players and plummeting ratings, NFL owners are expected next week to put the finishing touches on an $89 million social justice package intended to defuse the sideline protest problem that began with Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and put the focus back on what happens on the field.  But while some activist players have indicated that it's time to move on — unsigned safety Eric Reid, for one, said Thursday that his anthem-kneeling days are over — others have said no deal.  The package's $25 million for former Obama administration figure Van Jones and his left-wing Dream Corps isn't likely to sit well with conservatives already fed up with the league's politics.

The Patriots Flew Parkland Students to D.C. Ahead of 'March for Our Lives' on Team Plane.  Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left Florida on Thursday, for the "March For Our Lives" against gun violence in Washington, DC, this weekend.  And their transportation came courtesy of the New England Patriots.  According to the Boston Globe, "On Thursday [3/22/2018], team owner Robert Kraft provided the team's official plane to fly the families of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and some of the students who were injured and survived the harrowing incident to the nation's capital for the event, according to Patriots spokesman Stacey James."

Hollywood stars, athletes driving away viewers with political activism, poll finds.  Actors and athletes increasingly using their forums for political activism are turning off viewers, according to a newly released poll.  A McLaughlin & Associates/Media Research Center survey released Wednesday [3/21/2018] found that 44 percent were less likely to watch sports and entertainment shows "because they have become too political."  In addition, 75 percent said they watch sports and entertainment to escape from politics, and "do not want to be bombarded with partisan political messages."  The poll of 1,000 likely voters comes with television ratings plummeting in the last year for high-profile sports and entertainment events.

QBs cashing in — except for the unwelcome Kaepernick.  As free agency kicked off the start of a new football season, the NFL sent a clear message to anyone paying attention:  Colin Kaepernick, you're still not wanted.  Probably not ever.  Oh, and while we're at it, it's pretty clear the owners have every intention of clamping down on any other players who tries to carry on Kaepernick's legacy.

Four NBA Teams Play 'Negro National Anthem' at Games for Black History Month.  At least four NBA teams have played the Black National Anthem before their games last month.  The Washington Wizards was the fourth NBA team to play the anthem at a game in February for Black History Month.  The white national anthem was not played this year.

The Editor says...
If there's a black national anthem, that means the blacks think they have their own nation.  That's black separatism.

Several Eagles will skip Donald Trump White House visit after winning Super Bowl.  Several Eagles players plan on skipping the traditional White House celebration after winning Super Bowl LII over the New England Patriots on Sunday night.  Wide receiver Torrey Smith, defensive end Chris Long, and safety Malcolm Jenkins are among the players planing to boycott visiting President Donald J. Trump.

Confronting Leftist Lies.  Millions are outraged at the NFL.  Americans who simply tuned in to watch Sunday football games were slapped in the face by NFL players, coaches, and management politically protesting on the field against our flag, country, national anthem, and police.  And yet, NFL management had the audacity to reject an ad for the Superbowl program booklet, claiming it is too political.  The ad featured a veteran, a U.S. flag and the words, "#Please Stand."  The NFL's rejection of the ad is evidence of the NFL arrogantly supporting the American Left while dissing mainstream Americans.

'All I know is murder'.  Everything you need to know about the Super Bowl can be found in the rap hit "Dreams and Nightmares," by Meek Mill.  But which more truthfully could be named after a line in the song:  "The Murder Game" or "All I Know Is Murder."  Everything about how far professional football has fallen and how the NFL celebrates the obscene, the vulgar, the dangerous, and the foolish will be on full display as that song blares as the Eagles take the field.  This song that the Eagle players have chosen is about guns, drugs, money, bitches, and murder, over and over and over.  Just like the rest of Meek Mill songs, which also include a healthy dollop of the evils of the white man. [...] Meek Mill will not be there.  He's in the joint.

Kaepernick Raises $20K In Donations For Group Honoring Cop Killer.  There's always something new shedding light on who this guy really is, to say nothing of the celebrities who ponied up the 2-large for this group.

Kaepernick raises $20K in celebrity donations for group honoring convicted cop-killer.  Colin Kaepernick said Friday he has raised $20,000 for Assata's Daughters, named after convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur, through matching donations from his celebrity friends as part of his Million Dollar Pledge.  The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback announced that comedian Hannibal Buress and actress Yara Shahidi would both donate $10,000 to Assata's Daughters, which says it "carries on the tradition of radical liberatory activism encompassed by Assata Shakur."

Boycotting the Super Bowl - Veterans, bars, even a bowling alley are saying 'no' to the big game.  A growing number of Americans have decided they have better things to do with their time on Super Bowl Sunday than support a professional football league that doesn't have the decency to honor the national anthem.  American Legion and VFW posts, restaurants and bars, and even a bowling alley have decided they will not broadcast the Super Bowl game in their establishments — out of respect for veterans and law enforcement.

Herschel Walker:  Players Received 'Hush Money' From NFL to Stand for Anthem.  Former NFL running back Herschel Walker accused the NFL of essentially giving out "hush money" to stop players from kneeling for the national anthem.  The 1982 Heisman Trophy winner highlighted the fact that the NFL in late November offered $100 million to social justice organizations favored by players.  The move was widely viewed as an attempt by the league to end the controversy surrounding the anthem protests.

NFL disrespects our vets again; Time to boycott the Super Bowl.  Don't let the military jet fly-over fool you this Super Bowl.  The NFL is just as anti-military as they were before.  The NFL rejected a veterans group, AMVET's, Super Bowl ad because it asks people to stand for the anthem.  The two words that frighten the NFL and Roger Goodell to the core is:  "please stand."  There is only one word to describe this:  Censorship.  The NFL invited AMVET's to advertise during the Super Bowl.  But was quickly rejected once the ad stated #PleaseStand.  The reason?  They didn't accept the ad because they consider it a "political statement."

NFL to highlight players' work on equality issues.  The NFL announced Tuesday [1/23/2018] it would establish a council of players and owners to highlight league members' work on issues of racial justice and equality.  A press release on the NFL's website details the "Let's Listen Together" campaign, which includes five current NFL team owners and five current or former players and plans to "focus on supporting programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity, with a priority on supporting improvements in education and economic development, community and police relations, and the criminal justice system."

Nets Ignore NFL Quashing 'Please Stand' Super Bowl Ad by Veterans Group.  With the protest-filled 2017 NFL season set to come to an end in a couple of weeks, the league found itself engulfed in controversy Tuesday when they banned an ad from a veterans group asking people to "please stand" for the national anthem.  It was a truly sad story, but the none of the major network news outlets (ABC, CBS, and NBC) felt the need to report it to their viewers during their evening broadcasts.

NFL Made 'A Big Mistake' by Rejecting Pro-Veterans Ad.  The NFL has turned into a political sideshow over the past two seasons — and when it comes to this year's Super Bowl, the league has shown it's not supportive of those whose political opinions differ from its own narrative.

Kaepernick named finalist for NFL's 'Community MVP' award.  NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been named a finalist for an award honoring players for their community service work.  Kaepernick and four other players were announced as finalists for the NFL Players Association's (NFLPA) Byron "Whizzer" White Community MVP award, according to NBC Sports.  The free agent quarterback pledged $1 million to various charitable organizations during the 2016 season.  He won the NFLPA's "Community MVP" award during Week 1 of the 2017 season after donating $100,000 to four charities and holding a back-to-school backpack giveaway in New York City.

NFL's kneeling comes to abrupt halt:  Protesters miss playoffs.  NBC plans to televise any players who refuse to stand for "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, but there may be nothing to show.  It appears that NFL players are no longer taking a knee during the national anthem, namely because none of the teams with still-active protesters has qualified for the postseason.

The pathetic results of the NFL kneeling spree.  What, exactly, did the NFL "take-a-knee" protests by wealthy black football players protesting racial injustice accomplish?  Based on what most people could see, pretty much nothing, other than lost ticket sales.  People go to football games to be entertained, not to be lectured by their supposed betters in another dreary virtue-signaling game.

NBC Will Show Kneeling If It Happens At Super Bowl.  NBC announced Tuesday [1/9/2018] that they will definitely show players if they take a knee during the national anthem at the Super Bowl next month, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  "It's certainly possible," Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of the big game, said about the chances of players taking a knee in protest.  "It was a pretty big story in our country this fall.  We'd show it."

California federal court rules high school football player can't be ordered to stand for national anthem.  A California federal court has ruled that a high school football player cannot be ordered to stand for the national anthem before games.  The decision, made by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Dec. 21, struck down statutes enforced by the San Pasqual Valley Unified School District, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday [12/30/2017].  The district prohibited students from "kneeling, sitting or similar forms of political protest" at sporting events and "required students and coaches to "stand and remove hats/helmets during the playing or singing of the national anthem," according to court documents.

NFL national anthem protests continue during final week of regular season.  More than a dozen NFL players protested during or right after the national anthem on Sunday, the final weekend of the league's regular season.  Nine Seattle Seahawks players sat or knelt during the anthem prior to the teams' game, as they have throughout the season.  Michael Bennett, Marcus Smith, Frank Clark, Dion Jordan and others were among those demonstrating, The Associated Press reported.  Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews remained off the field during the national anthem before his team's game, while his teammates, Brian Orakpo and Jurrell Casey, raised their fists once the anthem ended.

Papa John's CEO John Schnatter steps down weeks after wading into NFL anthem controversy.  Papa John's CEO John Schnatter is stepping down from his position, the company announced Thursday.  He will be replaced on Jan. 1 by COO Steve Ritchie.  Schnatter will remain chairman of the board.  Schnatter's face is a fixture to TV-watching sports fans; he is best-known for peddling his pizza on Sunday TV spots featuring Peyton Manning and J.J. Watt.  Schnatter's resignation comes weeks after he courted controversy by blaming the NFL's handling of players protesting social injustice who take a knee during the national anthem for falling sales and tanking stock prices.  Papa John's stock has lost more than 30 percent of its value since the beginning of 2017.

Papa John's controversial CEO steps down after facing backlash for his criticism of NFL anthem protests.  The controversial founder and CEO of Papa John's, John Schnatter, is stepping down, the company announced Thursday [12/21/2017].  The company said its current president, Steve Ritchie, would replace him.  Schnatter sparked controversy in November when he slammed NFL leadership over players' kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.  "Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership," Schnatter said in a call with investors.

Ravens president sends letter to season-ticket holders blaming 'noticeable' number of empty seats on Baltimore players' 'one-time protest'.  The Baltimore Ravens sent a letter to season-ticket holders this week which was signed by team president Dick Cass blames the team's diminished attendance on the players who protested police brutality against minorities by kneeling during the national anthem before the team's September 24 game in London.  That game was the first of many protests that day immediately following President Donald Trump's condemnation of the protests [...] during a speech in Alabama.  The Ravens players have not protested since.

NFL Co-Hosting 'Social Justice Workshop' For College Athletes.  The National Football League has lost millions of fans and seen its profits and ratings tank as a result of the "#takeaknee protests that spread across the league in the first few weeks of the season.  But thanks to a new commitment to social justice issues, borne out of the Colin Kaepernick-led protests, the NFL will actually take part in a training program that will help to focus the next generation of activist athletes looking to make a "social justice" difference.  The "Advocacy in Sport" workshop, presented by the NFL in concert with Morehouse College, will teach student athletes "how to develop and implement effective advocacy platforms that positively impact society," according to Campus Reform.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs wants to buy Carolina Panthers and sign Kaepernick.  Hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs said Sunday night [12/17/2017] he's interested in buying the Carolina Panthers and signing quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has been unemployed this season after kneeling during the national anthem in 2016.  Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced Sunday he would be selling the team after the 2017 season, just hours after Sports Illustrated published accusations of sexual misconduct from former employees. Richardson also allegedly used a racial slur about a team scout.  Diddy took to Twitter soon after the Panthers announced the upcoming sale, declaring his desire to own a team and increase diversity among NFL ownership.

The Editor says...
Brilliant idea.  I strongly encourage Mr. Combs to buy the team, make it the most radical left-wing BLM/SJW activist branch of the NFL, and then see what happens to ticket sales and the resale value of the team.  Then we will all see the value of "diversity among NFL ownership."

NFL Team Hit With Lawsuit, Courtesy of Flag-Loving Americans.  Fed up with the NFL's ongoing national anthem protests, one fan has attempted to strike back by filing a suit against the New Orleans Saints in the hopes of recouping the thousands of dollars he spent on season tickets to the team's games.  Louisiana resident Lee Dragna filed a suit in a district court Monday "seeking a refund for the tickets as well as attorney's fees, claiming the protest by some players against police brutality and racial injustice has prevented him and his family from enjoying the games," reported the The New Orleans Advocate.

Goodell defends NFL's massive planned donation for social justice causes.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday [12/11/2017] defended the league's move to pay nearly $90 million to social justice causes supported by some players, despite critics' claims that it was meant purely to appease activist athletes, including those who have kneeled during the national anthem this year.

AP counts 5 NFL players protesting during anthem.  The Associated Press counted five NFL players protesting during the national anthem of the league's early games Sunday [12/10/2017].

NFL Players' Protests Focusing Attention on League's Tax Breaks.  The knee-bending antics of professional football players are focusing attention on a key issue:  Are the taxpayer subsidies involved in supporting the NFL worth it in generating new revenues as promised?  An issue getting less attention is whether taxpayers should be involved in supporting professional football in the first place.  Especially when those in the league are thumbing their noses at the very taxpayers who are funding them.  Jeff Mordock, writing in the Washington Times, said that "the protests are sparking a conversation on the NFL itself and whether the public investment in teams pays off for [the] communities that host them — and often serve [instead] as their cash machines."  That conversation is revealing what economists have concluded from time immemorial:  there is no net gain to taxpayers either from their funding of stadiums or helping the teams' owners purchase their players' contracts.

Lindsey Vonn:  I won't be representing US President at Winter Olympics.  A number of US athletes have spoken out against Donald Trump during his presidency — and skier Lindsey Vonn has become the latest to have her say.  Targeting Olympic gold at February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Vonn is in St.  Moritz, Switzerland, where she spoke passionately about what it means to compete for the US ski team.  "Well I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president," Vonn told CNN's Alpine Edge.

Colin Kaepernick honored with ACLU award.  Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the surprise honoree at the ACLU of Southern California's annual awards dinner Sunday night, accepting the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award for his kneeling protests against the national anthem that sparked a movement across the NFL.  Mr. Kaepernick's appearance, which was not announced prior to the event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, was met with a standing ovation.

Sports Illustrated Grants Award to Colin Kaepernick for Disrespecting National Anthem.  Sports Illustrated has followed GQ down the rabbit hole of radical leftism by granting an award to the bitterly anti-American former football player who set in motion the ongoing collapse of the NFL, Colin Kaepernick.

NFL Week 13 : Thugs Who Disrespect the Anthem, Flag and Military.  As the NFL continues to lose attendance and TV viewership, NFL thugs continued their "oppression" protests for Week 13 in the NFL.

NFL Kneeler to Fans:  If You Don't Like the Protests Stay Home!.  The New York Giants defensive lineman who protested the national anthem during the Thanksgiving Day night game against the Washington Redskins has a message for fans who don't like it.  STAY HOME!

Colin Kaepernick Is Recipient of 2017 Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award.  Colin Kaepernick made his truth known when he first decided not to stand for the national anthem.  He had a lot of football left to play and a lot more money to make when he made his decision.  It was late August, 2016.  People who were anonymous in life had become famous in death.  Philando Castile.  Eric Garner.  Alton Sterling.  Freddie Gray.  They were tragic symbols of a society that had taken a terribly wrong turn.  As the anthem played ahead of the 49ers' preseason game against the Texans, Kaepernick, San Francisco's 28-year-old quarterback at the time, quietly took a seat on the bench.  It took two weeks for anyone from the media to ask him about it.  Kaepernick explained that he was making a statement about inequality and social justice, about the ways this country "oppresses black people and people of color."

NFL to Contribute $100 Million to Social Justice Causes as Part of Anthem Protest Surrender.  The NFL's sellout to their anthem-protesting players is starting to look a lot more like a buyout.  According to ESPN, the league will offer nearly $100 million to causes designed to promote "social justice change."  In a move unlike anything seen from a major American sports league, the league will offer the money in hopes that it will end the ratings-killing protest movement begun by Colin Kaepernick in the preseason of 2016.

Ticket Prices for Thanksgiving NFL Game Tumbling to Less than $15 as Anthem Protests Continue.  It has gotten increasingly hard for average Americans to afford to take their families out to sporting events, because the costs are so high.  But as the NFL continues to lose fans, TV ratings, and moral authority, ticket prices have also crashed to unheard of lows.

NFL owners could change anthem policy next season if protests continue.  Some NFL owners believe there is a strong possibility they will enact an offseason change to the league's national anthem policy if players' protests during the anthem persist through the end of this season, reverting to a previous approach of keeping players in the locker room while the anthem is played, according to several people familiar with the league's inner workings.  "I think that if players are still kneeling at the end of the year, then it could very well happen," said one person familiar with the owners' deliberations on anthem-related issues.  That person said it was "too early to tell" for certain if the change to the anthem policy will be made by owners and the league.  The person was "not sure" if a formal vote of the owners would be required to enact such a change but said, "I think most owners would support it, particularly if players continue to kneel this season."

NFL learns there's No Free Lunch.  Let us cut to the chase: the NFL owns the players' protest because not only has the league failed to hold players accountable, its owners joined in the anti-American protest.  Well, virtue signaling has a price.  Americans are about to pull tax breaks that the league enjoys.

NFL mulls changing anthem policy for next year.  The NFL is considering an idea for next year to keep players inside their locker rooms during the playing of the National Anthem.  "I think that if players are still kneeling at the end of the year, then it could very well happen," said one person familiar with the owners' deliberations on anthem-related issues.  Years ago, the players would come out on the field to warm up and then return to the locker room during the National Anthem.  The league is thinking of going back to that policy.

NFL repays billions in American taxpayers' dollars with a knee.  No thanks.  This Thanksgiving, for the first time since I was a toddler, I will not be watching any NFL games.  I find the League's disrespect for our country and our national anthem reprehensible and a totally unwarranted injection of partisan anti-police politics into a cherished sport.  I'm hardly alone in that belief, as a recent Remington Research poll found that 80 percent of Americans responded that they'd like to see less politics during sporting events.  Most of the blame for this mess clearly lies with Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose feckless lack of leadership allowed this issue to fester despite clear NFL rules about players standing respectfully for our flag.  Amazingly, Goodell is about to ink a new contract that, according to ESPN, will pay him approximately $40 million a year and perhaps include such perks as lifetime private jet travel.  It's astounding that the NFL owners, a very savvy group of business leaders, would reward Goodell with such generosity after his many management fumbles including the Ray Rice scandal, Deflate-gate, and sagging TV ratings.

Colin Kaepernick celebrates 'Unthanksgiving Day' on Alcatraz Island.  True to the theme that he's been nationally talking about — or rather, taking a knee for — since last summer, former 49er Colin Kaepernick attended an "Unthanksgiving Day" celebration on Alcatraz Island.  The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony, held annually on Thanksgiving since 1975, commemorates the survival of Native American peoples following the settlement of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere.

NFL Player Will Only Stand for Mexican National Anthem.  Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch sat during most of U.S. anthem and stood for the Mexican anthem before their game against the Patriots at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.  Lynch has not stood for the national anthem since returning from retirement this season.

The National Boycott of the NFL Did Not Matter.  America hating Leftists never back off or surrender ground.  As a matter of fact, to continue poking a finger in the eye of normal Americans, Leftist rag GQ magazine outrageously named Colin Kaepernick its Citizen of the Year.  Kaepernick is the player who started NFL players shamefully kneeling during our national anthem.  Sports media instantly declared Kaepernick, a mediocre quarterback, a hero.  And yet, sports media is obsessed with pressuring an NFL team to hire Kaepernick.  NFL players have been fooled into believing their protest is about fairness and justice.  These young men are clueless that Leftists view them as useful idiots in their long-term plan to bring down America economically, culturally, and globally.

Lefty Protest Gets Kaepernick "Citizen of the Year".  Name country singer Blake Shelton People's Sexiest Man of 2017 and left-wing media go in an uproar.  Pick out-of-work quarterback Colin Kaepernick as GQ's "Citizen of the Year" and sane people look at you stupefied.  Kaepernick worked with the magazine to "reclaim the narrative of his protest."  So they photographed him in Harlem "intending to evoke the spirit of Muhammad Ali's anti-Vietnam War protests."

Britt McHenry, ex-ESPN reporter, blasts GQ for naming Colin Kaepernick 'Citizen of the Year'.  On Monday, GQ magazine released its special issue naming former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick "Citizen of the Year."  The controversial figure in sports, and the magazine, received a lot of backlash, including a string of tweets from former ESPN reporter Britt McHenry.  "I see that magazine cover and I think if we want to go with a football player, Houston Texans' JJ Watt raised $37 million for Hurricane Harvey relief.  Why is he not the citizen of the year," she told Fox News' Neil Cavuto Monday night [11/13/2017].

Hey, NFL owners, tired of half-empty stadiums?  Tell your players to stand up for America.  [I]t took quite a bit to get me to boycott the NFL, but they managed it.  Until the owners require their players to stand for the national anthem, or sit for the game, I won't watch a minute, and I'm not alone.  Since Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the anthem in a misguided protest against police violence, the NFL has been hemorrhaging fans.  Both TV viewership and attendance at stadiums are well down and once people find other ways to spend their Sundays, they may not come back.

No, Colin Kaepernick Is No Muhammad Ali.  GQ magazine named former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick its 2017 "Citizen of the Year."  In doing so, GQ overlooked NFL Houston Texans' J.J. Watt, who raised some $37 million for hurricane relief.  Many of Kaepernick's supporters liken his protest to that of boxer Muhammad Ali, who refused to be inducted into the military.  The comparison is not well-taken.

College Basketball Teams Make National Anthem Demonstrations At The Champions Classic.  It appears the national anthem protest has trickled down to college basketball.  Two of the four college basketball teams that participated in the Champions Classic in Chicago on Tuesday night participated in a national anthem demonstration before their game.  While nobody took a knee, the players on each team wore t-shirts in an apparent demonstration in pre-game warm-ups and during the playing of the national anthem.

From One Frenzy to the Next.  It is hard to sustain outrage about NFL racism when twentysomething multimillionaires, in a league of over 75 percent African-Americans, insult the sources of their income by refusing to stand for the National Anthem — and belatedly come to realize that the logical trajectory of their supposed principled demonstrations is their own irrelevance and eventual impoverishment.  What cooled the NFL hysteria was the reality that the hyped story of "taking a knee" was morphing into the scarier narrative of less money, an absence of politically correct proportional representation among players, looming league downsizing, pampered athletes, traumatic brain injuries, and a public weariness with everything from ESPN to Colin Kaepernick.  In other words, taking a knee reminded about 20 percent of NFL fans that there were already reasons enough to turn the channel.  And so they did.

These Three NFL Players Knelt During The Anthem On Veterans Day Weekend.  Three NFL players took a knee as the national anthem played at the New York Giants game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, according to multiple reports.  As "The Star Spangled Banner" played at Levi Stadium over Veterans Day weekend, Eric Reid and Marquise Goodwin knelt on the San Francisco side.  They were joined by Olivier Vernon on the New York side.  No NFL players knelt during the early games on Sunday [11/12/2017], according to the New York Daily News.

Bears Packers Game Half Empty at Soldier Field.  The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have a historic rivalry.  But after several weeks of NFL National Anthem protests even Soldier Field in Chicago was half empty today [11/12/2017].

Labeling Vin Scully a racist is a new low point.  Saturday, Vin Scully, who turns 90 on Nov. 29, had the audacity to protest the protesters.  He thus was condemned as an "Old Retired White Man" on a popular, but reckless, often dishonest and vulgar sports website featuring cheap-shot artists who make snap, no-research bad guesses to mischaracterize and defame.  Like Morning Zoo radio, that's how several internet sports journalism sites generate attention.  That's where we're headed.  At a symposium, Scully calmly answered a question about NFL take-a-knee national anthem protests.  He said he's so upset by them, he'll never watch another NFL game.  He's hardly alone among those who won't suffer conspicuous disrespect for the anthem and flag over any selected or selective issue.  Such protests appear dismissive or ignorant of greater symbols of freedom, history and sacrifice.

The Editor says...
As far as I know, all Mr. Scully said was that he didn't want to watch football any more.  How is that racist?  Racial politics has certainly been injected into professional sports, but not by Mr. Scully.

NFL's Invitation To Kaepernick To Meet With Goodell Turns Into Snarky Public Feud.  Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback-turned-activist who started the anthem protests by refusing "to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," continues to be both unemployed and making headlines.  In the latest episode of the Kaepernick saga, the NFL extended an invitation to the sidelined QB to meet one-on-one with commissioner Roger Goodell — a proposition that quickly devolved into a snarky public feud between Kaepernick's lawyer and an NFL spokesman.

Vin Scully says he'll 'never watch another NFL game again'.  Saturday night, former Dodgers announcer and Hall of Famer Vin Scully was at the Pasadena Civic Center for an event called "An Evening With Vin Scully."  At some point during the event, Scully was asked about the NFL's national anthem protests, in which players have taken a knee during the anthem to protest police brutality and racism.  Scully said he "will never watch another NFL game" because of the protests.

NFL Advertisers to NBC: Stop Showing Players' Protests.  The unease among advertisers over falling National Football League TV ratings is starting to boil over.  One of the league's major sponsors is considering pulling the plug on its NFL advertising next year, and, according to Business Insider's Mike Shields, other "brands are threatening to pull ads from NFL coverage if NBC keeps covering players' national-anthem protests."  If those ad dollars go away, technological shifts may cause advertisers to decide not to return.

Veteran Refuses Service Award Offered by Saints, Calls NFL Protests 'Slap in the Face'.  The NFL has long-standing tradition of mixing respect for the flag, and those who defend it, into their pregame ceremonies and community outreach.  However, since the NFL has recently decided to mix disrespect for the flag, and those who defend it, into their pregame ceremonies.  One veteran in Louisiana has decided to call them out on it.  Meet John Wells, he is a retired Navy commander and executive director of the national Military Veterans Advocacy organization, in Slidell, Louisiana.  Mr. Wells was chosen by the Saints to be the recipient of the People's Health Champion award.  A recognition offered to a member of the community who exemplifies "the exceptional achievements of Louisiana residents age 65 and older."

NFL's most powerful owners targeted in Kaepernick's collusion case.  Some of the NFL's most powerful owners will be at the center of Colin Kaepernick's collusion case.  The Cowboys' Jerry Jones, the Patriots' Robert Kraft and the Texans' Bob McNair will be deposed and asked to turn over all cellphone records and emails in relation to Kaepernick's accusation, ESPN.com reported.  Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and 49ers owner Jed York is also on the deposition list, according to Yahoo Sports.  The 49ers quarterback-turned-NFL martyr is charging that NFL teams, in "calculated coordination" with President Trump, blackballed him from the league after he became the face of the NFL anthem protests, which he started to fight against racial inequality.

Papa Johns Whines About Lower Pizza Sales Because of NFL Thugs.  Papa John's, an NFL thug supporter is whining that pizza sales are dropping because fewer and fewer people are watching the NFL. Hey, here's a thought Papa John.  Pull your sponsorship of the NFL and your pizza sales will rise like your crust.  Any company associated with the NFL, like Papa John's deserves to see their revenue tank.  If you are financially supporting a league that hates this country, then by extension, you hate this country until you pull your ads.

Game Over:  NFL Owners Stunned as Ratings Plunge 25 Percent.  The NFL has been struggling to regain its footing following weeks of players choosing to "take a knee" during the performance of the US national anthem.  The ensuing controversy gained national attention when President Trump called for a total boycott of the NFL until officials and owners require players to stand during the 'Star-Spangled Banner.'  As a result, ratings, ticket purchases, and merchandise sales have plummeted as football fans protest with their wallets.

NFL Ratings [Can Be] Blamed on [an] Inferior Product.  If you think the demise of the NFL and the proliferation of social engineering and political correctness is a coincidence, then you're likely a Leftist.  Black players are a product of their environments and their politics.  These high-paid employees bring all the problems that America faces.  So it was only a matter of time for these thugletes to rebel.  So yes, the product of the NFL [stinks].  And the games are no fun to watch.  Sadly, the sports shows offer no relief either, as we have seen these shows become more politics than sports.

East Coast Sports Reporter Leaves Lefty Bubble, Finds Out Middle America Really Dislikes the Anthem Protests.  A sports reporter recently left his comfortable liberal bubble in New York City, traveled to the interior of the country, and was shocked when he discovered that NFL fans in fly over country really do hate the NFL's constant anti-American national anthem protests.  Fox NFL writer Peter Schrager found out first hand that real Americans are pretty steamed about the anti-American NFL protests going on across the country.

NFL in Death Spiral:  San Fran 49's Spend $$ on Gun Control, Not Better Players.  Did you really think the politicization of the NFL starts and stops with the taking of a knee at the sounds of the national Anthem you are wrong.  Now the San Fran 49'ers are acting as a Democrat Party PAC — giving $500,000 to promote gun control.  "According to ESPN, the 49ers presented the gun control pledge as part of creating a "more understanding and safer America."  The $500,000 will also be used to push a ban on bump stocks and armor-piercing bullets.  The ban on armor-piercing bullets is somewhat ambiguous, but appears similar to a ban which was unsuccessfully pushed by the Obama administration in 2015.

Houston Texans find new fake cause to kneel.  After months of kneeling over the national anthem — and in protest of supposed targeted police brutality against blacks — football's finest in on-field showboating have finally found a new cause: offensiveness at their team owner's remarks.  The possibilities of this type of protesting — and by this type, it's meant, fabricated and fake — are endless, it seems.

NFL or Gilligan's Island, the Choice Is Easy.  It's not a tough decision at all, for me the choice is obvious.  This year I'll be watching reruns of Gilligan's Island before I'll watch a single down of the National Football League.  I just don't have the interest level that I once had in watching professional football, it simply doesn't appeal to me anymore.  And it won't appeal to me until the NFL decides to stand up to the thugs and prima donnas on its payroll who want to protest against the very country that has enriched them far beyond that of most Americans.

The Editor says...
Why not just turn the television OFF and read a book, or walk around the block, or something?  Must you be entertained constantly?

Free Speech Works Both Ways:  Fans Abandon NFL Over Protests, Leave Half Empty Stadiums.  Frankly, I could care less about that National Football League and the ongoing social justice protests.  The game has no impact on my life and neither does its players.  However, it appears that many Americans are finally putting some shoe leather to their anger at players who kneel during the national anthem and will not stand for the raising of the US flag and it's showing up in photos from NFL stadiums across the league.

Cowboys cut ex-Giant Damontre Moore, one of two Dallas players who continued to raise his fist at end of national anthem.  If Damontre Moore wants to continue his national anthem protest, he'll have to do so with a new team.  The Cowboys released Moore in order to make room to sign kicker Mike Nugent, the team announced Wednesday [10/25/2017].  Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has publicly stated he believes all players should stand for the anthem and recently said he believes anthem protests are hurting the NFL.  While no Cowboys player has kneeled or sat during the anthem, Moore was one of two players who continued to raise his fist at the conclusion of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in recent weeks after Jones previously talked to players and explained his feelings on the matter.

NFL Week #7 — More Empty Seats Seed Doubt for Future of Commissioner.  The vast majority of NFL fans held a middle-class, center-right, common sense, and patriotic outlook toward sports and entertainment overall.  In essence most of the NFL fan base are/were positively MAGA-minded.  It reflects the profound disconnect between the corporation and their customer base that the NFL didn't recognize the danger in making social justice causes part of their business enterprise.  That blame lays squarely on the well paid leader of the NFL, Roger Goodell.

Why don't you just play football?
San Francisco 49ers Pledge $500,000 to Push Suppressor Ban, Other Gun Control Measures.  The San Francisco 49ers pledged $500,000 Thursday to secure a suppressor ban and other gun controls.  The push comes in the weeks after the Las Vegas attack.  Suppressors were not used in that attack, but the 49ers are dedicated to banning the devices anyway.  According to ESPN, the 49ers presented the gun control pledge as part of creating a "more understanding and safer America."  The $500,000 will also be used to push a ban on bump stocks and armor-piercing bullets.

The Regrettable Marriage of the NFL and Left-Wing Identity Politics.  What we are witnessing in the media narrative around the NFL protests is the prevailing modus operandi of contemporary leftists seeking to introduce their identity politics into all aspects of American life, even where those politics are unwelcome for most Americans.  In fact, we actually saw the left orchestrate something quite similar just a few years ago.

NFL Ratings CRASH Gets Real With New Numbers — and America Has Just Begun!  For constantly shoveling the kneeling, hand-locking and bad attitudes about the flag and the National Anthem, the NFL has confirmed that for the first six games of this season, the ratings that indicate total number of viewers have fallen 7.5% more than last year's total viewership.  A few weeks ago we wrote about the decline in viewership for Monday Night Football, with the boycott in full swing.  From September of this year to October of this year, viewership was down by 10%.  Last October we were already reporting a lessened viewership thanks to Kaepernick's grandstanding.

In Case You Missed It, the NFL Might Have Caved on a Lot More than just the Anthem Protests.  It's safe to say, that when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a memo to the league informing them it was time to "move past the anthem controversy."  Most people thought he meant moving past it by ending the protests, and, as a result, ending the controversy.  However, a disturbing nugget of information from today's meeting suggests that Goodell might have meant something else entirely.  ESPN's Sal Paolantonio caught up with Goodell after the four-hour meeting with the owners and player representatives.  Paolantonio asked Goodell if the league had asked the players to commit to standing for the anthem.  Goodell's response, did not inspire confidence.

Florida man takes 'Boycott the Jags and the NFL' message to sky.  A former Jacksonville Jaguars fan decided to take his grievances with national anthem protests to the sky Sunday, hoping the players on the field would see his message 1,000 feet above.  Terry Smiley said he was disgusted by Jaguars players who took a knee during the national anthem in London last month, and he decided he needed to make his voice heard.  So Smiley hired a pilot to fly his banner, which read[,]  "BE AMERICAN.  BOYCOTT THE JAGS AND THE NFL," over EverBank Field on Sunday [10/15/2017] before the Jaguars faced off against the Los Angeles Rams.

Goodell Falsely Claims Only a Half Dozen Players Have Protested the National Anthem.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell falsely claimed that only "six or seven players" were actually protesting the national anthem during a press conference following the annual fall owners meeting on Wednesday [10/18/2017]. [...] "I think we also have to keep focus on [the fact that] we have about six or seven players that are involved with this protest at this point," Goodell continued.  Goodell's claim that only about a half dozen player are involved in the national anthem protest is blatantly false.

NFL's cratering ratings may be starting to hit Fox's bottom line.  I talked recently to an NFL fan of many decades who has completely turned his back on the league.  We both agree that if the NFL was to die it probably would be just fine and also would probably save the brain cells of many an aspiring football player.  Another friend (online friend) said that he'd stopped watching 3 weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that he had a whole lot more weekend to play with.

After meeting, NFL, NFLPA release statement indicating no change to anthem policy.  The much-publicized Tuesday [10/17/2017] meeting between NFL officials, team owners, NFLPA officials and several players lasted about three hours.  While there was undoubtedly a lot discussed in that time, it sounds as though there has not been a resolution on a rule change to require that players stand for the national anthem before games.

NFL Stadiums Nearly Empty Across League As Backlash Grows.  Note, that the Jets played New England on Sunday, meaning there should have been a big crowd for that game.  The Texans, Atlanta, and Baltimore are also very relevant teams with relatively loyal fan bases.  Yet, thousands upon thousands of fans no-showed or didn't buy tickets for those games.

CBS Losing Money.  Guess Why.  Gee, any guesses why CBS' third-quarter advertising declined?  If you said NFL football tanking with the public, you get the blue ribbon. [...] [Credit Suisse analyst Omar] Sheikh added that CBS' Sunday NFL ratings have plunged 17% from the same period last year in which the first few games of the regular season were played.

'Monday Night Football' Ratings Fall To Season Low As Titans Break Colts' Streak.  It felt like a little bit of history was being made on Monday Night Football as the Tennessee Titans finally snapped their streak of 11 consecutive losses to the Indianapolis Colts.  However, as social media sparked with ESPN not showing the playing of the national anthem, another type of history was also being made:  Last night's primetime broadcast of the Titans' 36-22 victory stumbled to a season low with a 6.1 in metered market results.

Kaepernick Files Grievance Against NFL Owners, Alleges Collusion to Keep Him Out.  Former NFL quarter Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against NFL owners because he believes they colluded to keep him out of a job due to his protests during the national anthem. [...] He could have had a job this season if he had not chosen to opt out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers.  The contract gave him $16.9 million plus bonuses for 2017.

Report: Kaepernick files grievance against NFL owners for collusion.  Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance under the collective bargaining agreement for collusion against NFL team owners, reports Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report.  Kaepernick has hired high-profile attorney Mark Geragos and is preparing to release a statement about his grievance soon, added Freeman.  The free-agent quarterback has remained unemployed since his release by the San Francisco 49ers in March and has garnered little interest from teams around the league.

Labor lawyer:  Colin Kaepernick will have to prove 'pattern' to win collusion grievance.  In order to win his collusion grievance against NFL owners, Colin Kaepernick will need to prove a pattern of communication with and between teams that led to his current unemployment, a labor law expert told USA TODAY Sports.  "He's going to have to show some kind of pattern — of dealings with the clubs, where clubs were aware that he was willing and able to work, where there was some sort of communication with him and then unexplained reasons went elsewhere," said William Gould, the Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

Colin Kaepernick's case against the NFL is as lame as his skills at quarterback.  Colin Kaepernick's newly-filed grievance accusing the NFL of colluding or conspiring against him is a legal "Hail Mary."  He and his lawyers stand little chance of winning because both the law and the facts are against him.

NFL: No plans to force players to stand during anthem.  The NFL said Friday [10/13/2017] it has no plans to force players to stand during the national anthem, but will convene to discuss ways to end the controversial protests without imposing new rules. [...] The league released a joint statement with the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) earlier this week saying that they would work to advance the mission of the protests, which have called attention to issues of racial injustice and police brutality toward African-Americans.

Silence of the Republican Lambs.  America's culture war is on full display and the left is losing badly.  Public opinion is not on the side of left-wing social justice causes and moral preening.  Where to begin?  NFL players disrespecting law enforcement and the national anthem, kneeling or sitting to protest "oppression" and "injustice."  Ratings are down and the NFL is now one of the most divisive brands in the U.S.  Not a winning business formula.

Roger Goodell Killed the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg.  In August 2016, America was experiencing a polarizing presidential election.  San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the playing of the national anthem, to protest injustice.  It was a politically divisive act directed at fans who regard the national anthem as something sacred.  The league did not lift a finger to stop him.  Most employers don't let their workers make controversial political statements to their customers.  It is why you do not know your UPS driver's views on the expansion of NATO.  The Constitution does not prohibit private businesses from regulating speech during work.  A savvier commissioner would have reminded Kaepernick that he is being paid millions to wear the logo of the NFL, and the league does not permit players to use its brand to flaunt their personal politics.  Instead, Roger Goodell permitted the pregame ceremonies to become the focus of intense political scrutiny, as the media lined up to catalog whether players stood, sat or knelt during the national anthem.

NFL execs just SPIT in America's face.  When Colin Kaepernick inspired hundreds of millionaire NFL players to disrespect the American flag every Sunday, fans responded with boos.  When the players refused to stop their dishonorable protests, fans began to boycott the league.  If critics thought the NFL had learned their lesson, though, the leagues executives proved this week that they hadn't.

The Beginning Of The End Of Progressive Domination?  The preposterous "protests" by NFL players disrespecting the flag during pregame ceremonies has angered large numbers of Americans and hit the League in the wallet.  The race card that always has trumped every political or social conflict has perhaps lost its power.  The spectacle of rich one-percenters recycling lies about police encounters with blacks and the endemic racism of American society has discredited the decades-long racial narrative constantly peddled by Democrats, movies, television shows, and school curricula from grade-school to university.  The endless scolding of white people by blacks more privileged than the majority of human beings who ever existed has lost its credibility.  The racial good will that got a polished mediocrity like Barack Obama twice elected president perhaps has been squandered in this attempt of rich people who play games to pose as perpetual victims.

The NFL is attacking an America that has treated it very well.  Choosing to disrespect our flag is an over-generalized indictment of the greatest nation on Earth.  Kneeling for the anthem does nothing to advance solutions to racial injustice, police brutality, or any other social plight.  It is a slap in the face to patriotism itself.  It is a statement that America as a country is no longer worth standing for.  It is bizarre to see the NFL attacking an America that has treated it so well over the years.  Taxpayers pay over 70 percent of the cost of stadiums.  Our citizens pay more and more for tickets, and valuations of professional sports franchises have skyrocketed.

Kaepernick's Collusion Claim Is a Likely Loser.  If you're going to do Muhammad Ali-type activism, you'd better have Muhammad Ali-type talent.  That is the ultimate lesson of the Colin Kaepernick saga. [...] There is no need to collude against a player who is not an obvious net-plus (in terms of performance and popularity) for any particular team.

It's 1968 All Over Again.  The National Football League is imploding as it devolves into a political circus.  Multimillionaire players refuse to stand for the national anthem, turning off millions of fans whose former loyalties paid their salaries.  Politics — or rather a progressive hatred of the provocative Donald Trump — permeates almost every nook and cranny of popular culture.

An Open Letter to the NFL Players.  You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you.  We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, and your vulgar displays of wealth. [...] But now you have gone too far.  You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans.  You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country.  I am done with NFL football and encourage all like-minded Americans to boycott the NFL as well.  Millionaire spoiled brats deserve neither our respect nor sympathy.  Grow up and act like men instead of puppets of the radical left who hate America.

NFL Goes Left:  Won't Force Players To Stand For Anthem, Focuses On Social Justice.  As NFL ratings continue to plummet — down nearly 10 percent from last year — news networks are increasingly choosing not to show the national anthem because of protests by players, which often elicit boos from fans.  Thursday's [10/12/2017] matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles, despite being a strong matchup between two high-profile teams, was down 5 percent from the previous week's Thursday night matchup.

Tennessee Titans Player Says He'll Quit The NFL If Forced To Stand For The Anthem.  Tennessee Titans player Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday [10/12/2017] that he'll quit the NFL if the league implements a rule forcing players to stand during the anthem.  "No I will be done playing football," Matthews tweeted and ultimately deleted when asked if he would be willing to face punishment for not standing if a new rule is implemented.

Bombshell Report:  The NFL Players' Union Has Been Working With George Soros.  This makes so much sense.  Lots of people have been wondering why the NFL has been drifting into left wing politics.  Associating with George Soros in any way will typically make that happen.

The NFL and its owners salute one flag:  The dollar.  Ignoring their own league rules caused conservative organizations, pundits, media, and activists to call for an NFL boycott.  Football fans and businesses rallied, burning jerseys and season tickets, canceling their Direct TV Football packages, not buying tickets, merchandise, and playing smash mouth themselves by turning the channel.  Due to the costly backlash, according to the Wall Street Journal, the National Football League's owners will discuss next week whether to unilaterally change league policy and require players to stand during the national anthem.  If players refuse to rise up, they could face disciplinary action by the league or by the team.  The NFL may change the rules of conduct in direct response to their fans who are rejecting politics on the field and hitting them where it hurts them most — their Gucci wallets.

Rishard Matthews of the NFL's Titans said he'll quit if forced to stand for the anthem.  A National Football League (NFL) player says he would rather lose his job than be forced to stand during the national anthem.  "No, I will be done playing football," Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews tweeted Thursday when asked about the issue, according to ESPN.  ESPN reported that WSMV producer Matt Parker asked Matthews whether he would stay in the locker room for the song if the NFL created a rule mandating they stand or face punishment.

NFL TV audience numbers continue to decline early in 2017 season.  No wonder alarm bells are sounding in NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's office.  The league's average TV audience through Week 5 of the 2017 season dropped 7 percent vs. the same period of the 2016 season, according to Nielsen data obtained by Sporting News.  Worse for the league, the average game audiences are down 18 percent compared to the first five weeks of the 2015 season.

Kneeling's a kick in the stomach to our country.  The ongoing flap over NFL players disrespecting our national anthem is lowbrow theater at best, casting jocks as deep thinkers whose moral indignation demands everyone's attention.  So they take a knee when "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played as a way of alerting the rest of us that we live in an imperfect world.

Victor Davis Hanson:  Kneeling NFL Players Are 'Violating the Cardinal Rule of Business'.  "The players think that the audience are coastal hipsters, and they're not.  They're mostly, the hardcore audience ... males, usually about 30 to 60, and they tend to be red-state conservative males," Hanson said.  "So they're basically violating the cardinal rule of business:  You never insult your base, your customer base.  And that's what they're doing."  "There are certain vulnerabilities that the players don't realize that they're pushing into the face of the fan.  It's not going to work," Hanson added.  "I think they're going to lose 10 or 20 percent of their fan base, and that's going to make radical changes in how it's financed and operated."  Noting that the entire controversy is "all going to be distilled down to money," Hanson said, "that's what the NFL is about."

Pence walks out of an NFL game and sports journalists lose their collective minds.  [Scroll down]  The reaction was largely predictable, with fans tired of the political posturing of overpaid sports stars applauding, and social justice warriors condemning.  What was extraordinarily funny, however, was the way that the sports media humiliated themselves in responding.

Online Media Ridicule Pence for Leaving NFL Game After Anthem Protests.  Vice-president Mike Pence and his wife Karen went to the Indianapolis Colts' football game today to cheer on their favorite team and see the club retire the uniform of former great, quarterback Peyton Manning.  But when 23 members of the visiting San Francisco 49ers dishonored America by taking a knee during the national anthem, the VP left.  Left-stream media predictably put on an all-out blitz against the VP.

Pence Walks Out Of Football Game After Players Kneel.  Good for him.  Several San Francisco 49ers players reportedly knelt during the anthem.  All Colts stood for the anthem.

Poll shocker:  NFL now the least like[d] sport.  Another Sunday in the NFL, which means more protests, more controversy.  While the players seem oblivious to the catastrophe their league is undergoing, owners have to be getting frantic.  A new poll shows that the NFL is no longer "America's game."  In fact, it has gone from the sport with the highest favorables to the sport with the lowest.  The drop has coincided exactly with the anthem protests.

Sorry, sir, no refunds.
Vice President Mike Pence leaves Colts game over protests during anthem.  Vice President Mike Pence tweeted Sunday that he left the Indianapolis Colts game against the San Francisco 49ers because of protests during the national anthem.  No Colts players knelt during the anthem, but some 49ers players did.

NFL ticket prices plunge amid backlash over players kneeling during national anthem:  Report.  NFL ticket prices have plummeted in the wake of the uproar over the national anthem protests, dropping for the first time this year below the 2016 season's prices.  An analysis released Friday [10/6/2017] by CNBC found that ticket prices during the first three games of the 2017 season enjoyed a 20-40 percent increase over last year, but then skidded in Week 4 and actually dropped by 2 percent in Week 5.

Shock poll:  NFL now least liked sport, core fans down 31%.  Over just one month of player, coach, and owner protests of the flag and National Anthem, the National Football League has gone from America's sport to the least liked of top professional and college sports, according to a new poll.  From the end of August to the end of September, the favorable ratings for the NFL have dropped from 57 percent to 44 percent, and it has the highest unfavorable rating — 40 percent — of any big sport, according to the Winston Group survey provided exclusively to [the Washington Examiner].

America Fights Back:  Record Number of Patriotic Cord-Cutters Tumble TV Stocks.  There is only one way — one! — to finally and forever destroy Hollywood and much of the mainstream media.  You have to cut your cable or satellite cord.  You have to cancel your pay TV package.  The one-legged stool propping up ESPN, CNN, MSNBC, Disney, MTV, and the entire Tinseltown crime syndicate is you paying for cable TV. [...] Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is no single act any American can perform that will do more damage to the institutional left than to cut your cable/satellite cord.  So please do so today.

Nolte: Want to Destroy ESPN and CNN Forever?  Cut the Cord, Dummy.  Almost all of the cultural and political power possessed by Hollywood and the mainstream media is held up by a one-legged stool, a single leg that gets shakier by the month — this increasingly fragile appendage we call the Pay TV Package.  Going forward, for reference purposes, the Pay TV Package is your cable or satellite bundle, which brings with it hundreds of channels and a monthly bill that dings you for $1000 to $1500 a year.  Without this bundle, almost every institution determined to destroy everything you hold dear — faith, family, country, individual liberty, self-reliance, prosperity, racial harmony, and moral decency — would disappear entirely or at least be much weaker than it currently is.  Of course, I am talking about CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central, Disney, MTV, MSNBC, and the like — institutions you — yes YOU — are subsidizing against your will.

How To Destroy CNN, Survive Without Cable TV, And Save Lots of $$$.  Did you know that, on average, CNN is not only in last place behind MSNBC, but that the left-wing outlet's average viewers are below 1 million?  With such poor ratings, there is no way CNN could survive on advertising revenue alone.  So how does CNN stay afloat?  By picking YOUR pocket.  Yes, Genius, YOU are subsidizing a Fake News outlet that is actively trying to destroy you and everything you stand for.  How?  Whether or not you watch CNN (and no one really does), if it is part of your cable package, you are putting money directly into CNN's pocket with what is called a subscription fee.

Marine Veteran Pulls Plug On Playing ESPN In His Restaurant Now America Is Responding!  A Marine veteran turned restaurant owner decided that ESPN has no place in his family business.  Bill DeFries owns Beef O'Brady's in Bevearcreek, Ohio, and has now publicly pledged that he will not show any NFL games as long as the players continue to protest the National Anthem before games.  Both the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals linked their arms during the Anthem this week.  When he applied for a refund on his investment, DirecTV has denied the $6,000 refund on his NFL package.  While DirecTV is still offering refunds to their residential customers, they are not doing it for commercial accounts.

Steelers' Linebacker Tells Disappointed Fans To 'GET LOST, Don't Bother Coming Back'.  The boycott of Steelers merchandise that began in September has been hurting the third party retailers, with one store in Lancaster called Steel City Sports having to balance their customers and their wishes to keep politics out of their store.  While their Penguins and Pirates merchandise is still selling, Steelers sales are way down.  The boycott was in retaliation to a Week 3 incident where, before playing against the Bears, every team member stayed in their locker room during the National Anthem except for their offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva.

NFL Fans Disgusted as Video of Players Yelling At Them Surface.  It seems that most NFL fans are not loving the continued national anthem protests.  When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick launched the protests last year, he undoubtedly had no clue that it would mean the end of his career, and plummeting ratings for the NFL.  Yet players have continued to protest, and some players in particular have not responded well to the lack of fan support.

'Monday Night Football' Ratings Crash!  After siding with their players against their fans, the NFL has been seeing some pretty steep losses in both viewership and revenue.  Early numbers from last night [10/2/2017] show that ratings from last night's game are down a whopping 10% from the September 25th game.  Compared to this same week last year, total viewership is down 8%.

NFL TV ratings drop again as angry fans exercise their own rights.  Pretty soon, it could be NFL team owners on their knees begging TV viewers to come back.  Once again in Week 4 of the 2017 season, as players continued their sitting-kneeling protests against something, former fans silently exercised their right of free speech using TV remotes.

How many $ billions will the NFL lose over its kneeling fiasco?  Signs are evident that the NFL has done permanent damage to its business by appearing to side with the Colin Kaepernick-initiated kneeling during the National Anthem.  My guess is that the owners of NFL teams collectively have lost billions, and I suspect that Roger Goodell will lose his job.

Raiders Staff Cover Marshawn Lynch As He Sits During the National Anthem.  Television networks have gone to great lengths to conceal the ratings-killing anthem protests that are costing the league huge money in terms of viewership and attendance.  However, it looks like NFL teams have also started trying to conceal the anthem protests.  In one case, by literally covering a player up.

The Tragic Incoherence of the NFL Protests.  It has become a sort of reflex to object to the National Football League's players' bended knee/sitting through the National Anthem — while also conceding that their complaints have merit.  But do they?  To answer that question, one would have to know precisely what the protests are about.  But so far the various reasons advanced are both confused and without much merit.  That is why the players will eventually stand for the anthem before their tragic incoherence loses them both their fans and their jobs with it.

CNN Confirms Data Showing Trump Is Right About Anthem Protests Torpedoing NFL Ratings.  Seventy-two percent of Americans view Kaepernick's actions as unpatriotic.  This culture battle was over before the first shot was fired.  The NFL is paying the price.  Approval for the league is down 13 percent.  Ticket sales at week three are down almost 20 percent.  Fans are burning merchandise, asking for refunds of their NFL packages, and are booing their teams when they see players take a knee.  Is free speech part of this discussion?  Sort of — they have the right to do this, but it's still viewed as spitting in the faces of those who have served and are still serving.  We're still at war in Afghanistan.  Whatever these players' social cause is goes out the window when people see disrespect to the flag.

NJ Car Dealership Pulls TV Ads from NFL Broadcasts over National Anthem Protests.  A New Jersey car dealership is pulling its television ads from NFL broadcasts for the rest of the 2017 football season in response to NFL teams protesting the national anthem.  NJ Advance Media reports that the owner of Flemington Car and Truck Country said it would pull ads for the dealership from NFL game broadcasts for at least the rest of the 2017 NFL season.

High school football players booted from team for kneeling, raising a fist during national anthem.  Two high school football players in Texas were kicked off their team for protesting during the national anthem Friday [9/29/2017].  Cedric Ingram-Lewis raised a fist while his cousin, Larry McCullough, kneeled during the national anthem.  The cousins, both students at Victory & Praise Christian Academy, said that after the anthem ended, their coach, Ronnie Mitchem, told them to remove their uniforms because they were being kicked off the team, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Conrad Black:  What Protesting NFL Players Don't Get.  This controversy is the logical and nasty result of the long pursuit of identity politics, mainly by Democrats.  The country has been atomized into smaller and smaller constituencies, pandering to each in the approximate order of the militancy of their grievances.  This process, after a point, operates at the expense of the spirit of national unity and a common cause for all to make America better.  It is understandable that the president sees these acts of rank disrespect to the country and all who believe in the country despite its faults, as offensive.  He and all of civilized America are in common cause with Kaepernick and his followers in deploring racist oppression, but protesting it by slagging off the anthem and flag alienates the majority of Americans who would otherwise be on Kaepernick's side.  It is not surprising or unreasonable that Trump and millions of others find the spectacle of a few people with huge incomes for very short work-years, putting on the airs, not only of martyrs, but of martyrs claiming they represent the only wronged people in the country.

The NFL House of Cards.  The problem with the NFL is not just Donald Trump, but the greater dilemma that the league's reason to be has become predicated on a labyrinth of lies.  The majority of the viewing audience is not young, hip, and loyal as hyped, but, even if fading, still largely reflects the majorities in red-state America that have no patience with gratuitous insults to the National Anthem and flag.  The NFL apparently never grasped the political truism that you never insult your base and core supporters; sympathetic CNN talking heads and the solidarity of progressive political activists will not turn around sagging revenues, but will only contribute to them.

Wall Street vets are threatening to pull the plug on the NFL.  Wall Street veterans are huddling up against the NFL.  Many brokers and bankers — some of whom are also military veterans — have threatened to pull the plug on pro football for not reining in players who are using the American national anthem as an opportunity to protest by taking the knee.  And as the protests gather steam this weekend, some vets of the financial markets — a huge employer of former US military service personnel, have unleashed a barrage of criticism in response and could be counted among the estimated 2 million fewer viewers over the first three weeks of the season.

Steelers' Head Coach Held Fundraiser For Hillary, Donated Heavily To Obama.  Steelers' Head Coach Mike Tomlin held a high-end fundraiser in 2016 for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at his home with ticket prices reportedly costing over $30,000.  Tomlin hosted the event with his wife on June 14 with supporters required to pay $33,400 to meet Clinton — those who couldn't afford to pay that amount to meet a woman claiming to represent the middle class were given the option of simply paying $10,000 to attend.

No, NFL, You DON'T Have an Unassailable 'Right' to Protest the National Anthem.  There has been a lot of pious talk from these anti-American leftists who now seem to infest the National Football League who say that they "have a right" to protest the national anthem at the start of each NFL game.  But the fact is they really don't.  Thanks to the sham that is America's liberal besotted system of miseducation, there is a lot of confusion about what our "rights" as Americans are.  So, let's get this straight right now.  You have no "right" to behave however you want at work.  And if you DO behave however you want, you had better be prepared for consequences including being fired if your boss sees fit.  But, what of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, you ask?  Doesn't that "free speech" thingie give you a right to say whatever you want, whenever you want?  No, not really.  At least, not in the way you might assume.

NFL Camera Operators Told Not To Show Booing Crowd When Players Knelt During Anthem.  Aesthetics are everything to a message, and it wouldn't do well if the networks showed the NFL kneelers — the media's latest favorite fad — receiving boos and disapproving shouts while it was going on.  That's why networks ordered camera crews that were filming Sunday and Monday's NFL games to avoid shots of the angry crowds insider sources told Michael McCarthy of Sporting News: [...] What really went on in the stadium during Sunday's game can be clearly seen thanks to a video by the Associated Press.  Fans can be heard booing loudly as players knelt or sat during the anthem.  Shouts of "stand up" can also be heard.

What if the NFL Players Were Protesting Abortion Instead?  Many Americans support the Free Speech rights of the NFL players to protest but a large percentage of Americans believe protesting the national anthem is not appropriate and it's disrespectful to the country.  They believe the football players should choose another venue to protest what they perceive as racism.  Because the NFL football players are protesting racism — the mainstream media and many on the left are hailing them as Heroes.  But what if they were protesting for a cause that is not seen as quite so cool in the media limelight.  What if they were protesting for people who Hollywood Elites look down upon?  What if they were refusing to stand and place their hands on their hearts and respect to their country to back a class of people who faced the ultimate discrimination?  What if they were sitting down or kneeling to protest abortion?

First grader told to stand after kneeling during Pledge of Allegiance at local elementary school.  A first grader in Pasco County chose to take a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance, and his mother is upset with how the teacher, the school and the Pasco County school district responded.  At school on Monday [9/25/2017], a local first grader went down on one knee during the Pledge of Allegiance, he was then told by his teacher to stand up and stop it, in front of all his classmates.  His choice came after countless NFL players took a knee during the national anthem on Sunday, setting off a storm nationwide, sparking discussions in homes across America.

On the Collective Football Plantation.  [Scroll down]  It is clear that initially the protest of NFL players was inspired by political opponents of Trump.  But when it came down to the disrespect of the national flag and humiliation of the national anthem, even the Democrats realized that this boomerang would hit hard on return.  After all, professional sports do not produce anything materially necessary and exist only at the expense of their long-standing reputation.  A remarkable confirmation of this is the loud silence of the Democrats on the issue of the humiliation of the national anthem.  They immediately realized that Trump's position in this matter was one hundred percent winning, and they prudently decided to keep quiet.

'They're afraid of their players!' Trump says NFL owners are too scared to insist football stars stand for the National Anthem.  Donald Trump says NFL franchise owners acknowledge that they need to stop players from kneeling for the National Anthem, but they're too scared to take action.  'I have so many friends that are owners, and they are in a big box,' he said in a 'Fox & Friends' interview that aired Thursday morning [9/28/2017].  'I have spoken to a couple of them.  They say, "We are in a situation where we have to do something."  I think they are afraid of their players, you want to know the truth.  And I think it's disgraceful.'

Take a Knee.  Why did Colin Kaepernick say he was taking a knee?  Somebody look that up.  Okay, taking a knee is an anti-Trump thing, right?  Wait a minute, if it's an anti-Trump thing, then Colin Kaepernick did it when Obama was president, so it would have been an anti-Obama thing.  That can't be right.  Okay, taking a knee means you're pro-free speech, it's to support people's right to take a knee even if Trump says nobody should take a knee.  Or is it just to support Colin Kaepernick's right to take a knee?  Colin Kaepernick doesn't even play football anymore, he's just the king of knee-taking because he did it first.  So that's not it.  By the way, "take a knee" in football used to mean "run out the clock."  We really need some other term.

NFL Fan Outrage So Severe The League May Never Recover.  While the long-term impact will take time to be quantified, early indicators are the NFL has entirely destroyed itself by allowing the politicization of the sport.  A significant number of NFL fans are so upset with players refusing to stand for the national anthem they have decided to respond with demonstrations of their own.

Memo To The NFL: Remember Your Middle Name.  The word is out: your National Football League is looking for a "senior communications strategist," whose role will include "provid(ing) crisis communications counsel."  After all, the league is mired in a no-win Twitter war with the President — on top of the boos, boycott threats and burning jerseys from fans over the national anthem protests; continuing litigation and bad press over concussions and domestic violence; catastrophic attendance showings for recently relocated teams in Los Angeles; and long-term ratings declines in a splintering media market.

End the NFL.  An NFL rookie's minimum salary is $465,000.  And the majority of NFL players are usually bankrupt a few years after retirement because they blew through most of their money.  Dozens of NFL players are arrested every year on charges ranging from murder to rape to animal abuse.  2017 was a banner year for the NFL with three times as many arrests as last year.  Along with the usual drunk driving and disorderly conduct arrests, there were 7 arrests for assault/battery, 6 for drugs and 5 for domestic violence.  The Seattle Seahawks announced that they weren't going to "participate in the national anthem" because of the "injustice that has plagued people of color in this country".  While they lost that game, they are one of the top ranked teams in arrests.  Alongside the Los Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, all of whom showed some solidarity with the anti-American protests, these top NFL criminal teams have racked up arrests for domestic violence, drugs, DUI and assault and battery.  It's no wonder that so many of the NFL's millionaire scumbags are eager to join Colin Kaepernick's protests against the justice system by degrading our anthem.  It's because they're criminals.

How the NFL is going the way of Detroit.  Football fans watch their favorite team playing their favorite game with their favorite cheerleaders and favorite player.  They know this player's stats and his autobiography.  They know his family, his college team, when he went pro, and his current life experiences.  Their favorite player is the American Dream.  Many of these guys came from rough backgrounds and overcame.  They're making millions and living large and loving life playing a game for a job.  They've made it. [...] The NFL doesn't know it, but it's reached its zenith.  Oh, it still has fans, just like Americans still buy American-made cars.  But it won't be the same.  It already isn't the same.  The magic is gone.  Taking a knee is taking it too far.  A disgusted fanbase will turn its attention elsewhere.

The Patriots vs.  The Nihilists.  In the obscenely overpaid — whether it is actors who make millions for mouthing silly lines off a cue card or athletes who earn more money in a few games than most make in a lifetime — a certain self-loathing must exist.  Making so much for doing so little can only generate an unease that gnaws at them.  At the same time it seems to fill them with a grotesque sense of self-importance.  Their staggering salaries, they evidently conclude, confer upon them a right to pontificate at a society stupid enough to pay them all that money.  It is not surprising that out of this toxic combination of self-loathing and self-importance comes some astonishingly bratty and richly ironic activism: actors, athletes, and other celebrities inveighing against the warped values of society even as their entire status depends upon them.

Colin Kaepernick Has Never Registered to Vote.  [Colin] Kaepernick began his protest of the national anthem and the American flag in August of 2016 while he played for the San Francisco 49ers.  He made headlines when he decided to sit for the national anthem during a preseason game.  Since then the number of athletes protesting has also grown.  Backlash from angry fans reached a fever pitch this week after President Trump lashed out at NFL players protesting.  It has turned into an all out war with fans burning NFL gear and bombarding their network providers with phone calls cancelling football packages.  Today, Kaepernick is an unemployed whiner and it turns out that he has never even registered to vote.

Donald Trump vs.  Pro Football Is a Ratings Game the NFL Can't Win.  Never in the history of the NFL have its ratings been so scrutinized. [...] For years, it was able to exert strong control over its own narrative.  The league and its powerful media partners continuously burnished the brand as a mass-market symbol of American vitality, strength and exceptionalism.  The current commotion has, in totality, the opposite effect, reducing the NFL to the role of a sick patient looking for a proper diagnosis, a scofflaw institution deserving public shaming by the commander in chief.  The reversal — from heroic savior of Sundays to something in need of saving — is proving difficult to shake off.

NFL ticket sales plummet 17.9%.  The National Football League is feeling the impact of the "Trump Effect."  Ticket sales since he called on team owners to fire players who take a knee to protest the National Anthem have cratered.  The online ticket reseller TickPick told Secrets that sales have dropped 17.9 percent, far more than the usual Week Three fall.

The Editor says...
Bias alert!  The NFL's problem is not the "Trump Effect."  It's the "Overpaid America-Hating Political Activist" effect.  It's the "Why Don't You Just Shut Up and Play the Game" effect.  It's the "Insolent Multi-Millionaire Crybaby and Perpetual Victim" effect.

The NFL Just Lost Its First Sponsor Over Players Kneeling During The National Anthem.  Cleveland businessman Allan Jones, the CEO of Check Into Cash, a payday lending chain, and owner of Hardwick Clothes is hitting the NFL where it hurts — their bank account.  According to reports, Jones has instructed his media buyer to remove any commercials from airing during NFL games "for the entire season," following NFL players decision to knell during the national anthem over the weekend.

NFL Players Think They're Protected Over Protests, But That's Not True As Experts Weigh In.  The NFL pre-season has never been more controversial.  The third week of practice games saw at least six where a player showed one act of protest or another during the renditions of our National Anthem.  Scoffing at President Trump's calls to "fire any[one] who kneels during the National Anthem," social justice supporting players think their televised antics are protected as free speech under the First Amendment.  Legal experts are quick to advise the assumption is just not true and they could lose their high paid careers at any time.

NFL owners PANIC after 3 huge backlashes.  2016, when the protests started, was the lowest-viewed season of football in decades.  This year, the ratings have gotten significantly worse.  After three weeks, Nielsen reports that ratings for NFL games are down 11-percent across the board compared to 2016.  "Nielsen said the games averaged 17.63 million viewers for the first three weeks of last season, and have dipped to 15.77 million this year.  The 2017 figures don't include this week's Monday night game between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals," Breitbart reported.  The NFL pays hundreds of millions to athletes — and depends on advertising revenue from their television broadcasts to pay for it.

NFL Owners Are Patriotic — For a Fee.  "Follow the money."  That is often good advice, if someone wants to find out why many individuals do what they do.  It is apparently excellent advice if one wants to know why many owners of National Football League (NFL) teams do what they do.  While many heretofore NFL fans have rightly expressed disgust at the anti-patriotic statements and actions of many NFL players (and make no mistake, the protests are directed at what Colin Kaepernick, who started it all last season, contends is a racist country), are the owners any better?  Most fans would have understandably concluded that all these patriotic demonstrations before games, and sometimes during halftime shows, take place because the owners are just extremely patriotic lovers of their country.  Of course, they should be lovers of this country, considering that they have been able to become very wealthy in America.

NFL Favorability Gets Nearly Cut In Half After Anthem Protests.  A new poll shows that the favorability rating of the NFL among Donald Trump supporters was nearly cut in half after more than 200 players kneeled during the national anthem last week.  Morning Consult conducted the survey, and the results are a very bad sign for the NFL.

Packers' Attempt to Involve Fans In Anthem Demonstration Falls Flat, Most Chant 'USA!' Instead.  The Packers players wrote a long letter to their fans this week.  A letter in which the team asked their fans to join them in interlocking arms during the anthem on Thursday night.  According to quarterback Aaron Rodgers, this was a moment that stood for, "...equality."  As well as "...unity and love, and growing together as a society and starting a conversation around something that may be a little bit uncomfortable for people."  Well, as it turns out, most Packers fans didn't want to have a "conversation," weren't interested in "growing together," and certainly had no desire to be made "a little bit uncomfortable."

Kaepernick donates $25,000 to group honoring convicted cop-killer.  Colin Kaepernick started out taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality, but his activism has since expanded to encompass a wide range of leftist causes, including a group named after a convicted cop-killer.  The Colin Kaepernick Foundation donated in April $25,000 to Assata's Daughters, a Chicago "direct action" resistance organization honoring Assata Shakur, who escaped prison and fled to Cuba after being found guilty in the 1973 murder of Officer Werner Foerster.  The grant includes $2,500 for CopWatch, a program that trains volunteers to follow and video police, and $15,000 for teen training, part of the group's commitment to "develop and train young people, ages 4-19, in the Black queer feminist tradition and in the spirit of Assata."

JP Morgan Chase Lowers Outlook for CBS After Widespread NFL Anthem Protests.  The NFL's protests against the national anthem are causing fans to reassess their interests in football, but the protests also seem to be causing investors to reconsider their investments in the league as well.

TN Titans' Delanie Walker Tells Fans to Stay Home if They Don't Like Protests.  Apparently Tennessee Titans tight end, Delanie Walker, doesn't know where his bread is buttered.  He straight up told his fans to stay home if they don't like the players protesting the National Anthem.

NFL player:  Don't come to the game if our protest upsets you.  I suppose it takes a great deal of arrogance to play in the NFL, but what's revealing about [Delanie] Walker's comments is that they prove that their protest for "free speech" is a little one-sided.  They don't care about the fans' free speech rights.  "It's your freedom of choice," said Walker, while denigrating any opposition to his actions.  At bottom, the players demand that you love them and respect them for their protest.  And if you disagree, your views aren't worthy.

Can We Please Stop Pretending the NFL Protests Have Anything to Do with Free Speech?  [Scroll down]  So why, exactly, are they kneeling?  Those kneeling assert that there is an epidemic of white police officers who work their beat every night with the explicit intention to murder innocent black people.  They are suggesting that there is an epidemic of institutional white racism in this country going unaddressed, and that the only way to draw attention to this, the Black Lives Matter narrative, is to kneel during the National Anthem at pro football games.  There is no convincing evidence that either claim is true, and it is a malicious narrative that has arguably already led to a death toll among police officers being targeted for their presumably widespread racism and brutality. [...] They imagine that I and millions of other Americans don't accept this narrative only because it's not being adequately thrown in our faces.  I, among millions of other Americans, refuse to accept that.  I therefore find those kneeling during the National Anthem in order to advance that narrative despicable, entitled babies for whom I have no respect and who are undeserving of my financial support.

Titans' Delanie Walker: 'No one's telling you to come to the game'.  Don't come to the game.  That's the message a couple of the Titans' star players have for any outraged fans threatening to turn their back on the team, after the Titans and Seahawks remained in the locker room during the national anthem before their game Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

Goodbye, FS1.
FS1's Sharpe:  Racist U.S. Flag Is Just 'A Piece of Cloth... Nobody Fights For'.  After engaging in character assassination against Green Bay Packers fans who chose not to protest during Thursday's National Anthem, FS1's Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe did the same with the American flag, declaring it to be merely a racist "piece of cloth" that "nobody fights for."  "The flag, you see, to a lot of people, symbols, patriotism but what does that symbol actually mean?  What does — what does — okay — you keep telling me that the flag means so much and it's opportunity and freedom and liberty.  Okay.  Can you honestly say that everybody in America has freedom and liberties and opportunity," Sharpe wondered to co-host Skip Bayless.

Unfair Charges of Systemic Racism.  It seems the thrust of the protesters' complaint is that American law enforcement and America itself are systemically racist.  But if a protest movement seeks to be constructive, its complaints must be considered on the merits, and that means a full and substantive discussion of the facts.  Those who disagree with the gravamen of the complaint have just as much right to express their opinion as the complainants.  Bullying them into silence is hardly going to facilitate a resolution.  If the complainants truly are asserting that America's law enforcement institutions or America itself are systemically racist against African-Americans, they bear the burden of proving their assertions, especially when facts and statistics appear to contradict those claims.

The Slow Death of the NFL?  HGTV was my refuge.  Watching a marathon of real people get their houses remodeled was much more entertaining than watching pampered millionaires wrestle in taxpayer-funded stadiums while disrespecting the national anthem and the American flag.  Since I wasn't a rabid fan the NFL won't really notice that I'm gone.  But I'm not alone.

The National Anthem Protests — Do Facts Matter?  Recently, in Illinois, in a kids' 8-and-under football league, the entire team, which appeared to be all black, including the coach, took a knee during the national anthem.  Asked why, one third-grade player parroted Kaepernick, saying, according to the coach, "Because black people are getting killed, and nobody's going to jail."  Facts don't matter.  The coach, presented with a teachable moment, fumbled it away.

Unnecessary Roughness.  Football is a sport, but it is also a business.  Fans pay big money for tickets, gear, parking and overpriced food and drinks.  They have put up with a lot to root for their favorite teams, but these protests, which many regard as disrespecting America and the flag, may have exceeded their high tolerance level. [...] These players should first consider who is responsible for their unequally high salaries.  Where else could most of them earn that kind of money?  If fans stop coming to games and watching them on TV, the unique covenant between player and fan will be broken, perhaps forever.

The Suicide of the NFL.  Every liberal CEO in America should be watching and listening.  This is a case study for how to destroy a billion-dollar business by injecting your offensive leftist politics and alienating your own customer base. [...] Ratings are plummeting.  Revenues are plunging.  The player's spokesman deals are being cancelled.  Fans are booing.  Fans are burning tickets and uniforms.  Lifelong NFL zealots are vowing to never watch another game.

Kaepernickism and Anti-Americanism.  [Scroll down]  Of course, Kaepernickists deny that they are anti-American.  They insist that the object of their protest is much more specific than America itself.  That object is "police brutality" toward American blacks.  That police are roaming the countryside looking for black males to gun down is a fiction of the first order.  Nor is there a shred of evidence to substantiate, but much to negate, even the thesis that blacks are shot by police more frequently than are their white counterparts.  However, even if this thesis was true, a symbolic repudiation of the country, besides being wildly offensive to most Americans who see it as anti-American, amounts as well to the ultimate non sequitur.

Fans Fed Up with the NFL Anthem Protests.  Millions of fans are unhappy with the current trend of national-anthem kneeling by NFL players — and they've expressed their anger and disgust over the last few days in a number of "we're-not-taking-it-anymore" moves.

Trump Is 100 Percent Right About the NFL.  I love the NFL. I love football.  But I love America infinitely more.  If they keep disrespecting our flag, I will never watch them again.

NFL Protests Are Now About Trump, Not Police Violence.  Bernie Goldberg said that NFL players' national anthem protests are no longer about police brutality or racial inequality, but defying President Donald Trump.  [Video clip]

Why didn't TV networks show angry, booing NFL fans Sunday or Monday?  Networks typically do not televise the national anthem except for the Super Bowl and other special occasions, but they recognized there would be intense viewer interest this past weekend.  Some fans, if they reacted at all, happily clapped and cheered during protests, but others did not, and they angrily let their home teams know it.  The audio mics picked up the boos.  Yet the TV networks mostly avoided crowd shots Sunday, so there was never a chance for viewers to see fans jeering players.

Colin Kaepernick's big lie.  President Trump seems to have stirred up a hornet's nest of opposition with his call for athletes who don't respect the national anthem to be fired.  Many NFL owners and players who were previously indifferent seem to have rallied to the Colin Kaepernick cause.  Kaepernick, of course, considers his protest to be a cry against slavery and racial oppression, for which he holds America to be the guilty party.  Kaepernick's allies seem to be standing — or rather kneeling — for the right to protest, in opposition not necessarily to America but certainly to President Trump.

64% demand NFL players stand for national anthem, 50% less likely to watch over politics.  The first poll of NFL fans following this weekend's moves by dozens of players to take a protest knee during the playing of the National Anthem finds that most want the pros to stand and they are also turning off the games as a result of politics.  The survey from Remington Research Group found that 64 percent want players to stand for the national anthem.  Of the 51 percent who have watched less football this season, 69 percent cite player protests as the reason.

I'm done with the NFL.  Memo to the NFL players: you have ruined Sunday football for me!  And you clearly don't understand the people who make you stars and make you rich. [...] I know your protest is more than just some misguided political movement, misplaced protest, or bogus facts.  It's bigger than just football.  You players decided to disrespect our country and her flag.  You decided to insult your customer.  You decided to insult those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so you can have the freedom to play a game and make a fine living.  You decided to alter an American institution to fit your own political needs.

VFW, American Legion go to war against NFL.  The Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion issued blistering condemnations of the National Football League — calling recent protests against the national anthem disrespectful, misguided and ungrateful.  "There is a time and place for civil debate, and wearing team jerseys and using sporting events to disrespect our country doesn't wash with millions of military veterans who have and continue to wear real uniforms on real battlefields around the globe," said VFW leader and Vietnam War veteran Keith Harman.

Dallas Cowboys Kneel Down in Arizona — Crowd Boo's — NFL Implosion Complete.  The Dallas Cowboys, together with team owner Jerry Jones, take a collective knee at the start of the Monday Night Football game to display their unity with... well, something probably.  Stick a fork in the financial future of the NFL, it's done; finished.  The only thing that was saving the NFL from full organizational collapse was the advent of Fantasy Football Leagues and the subsequent betting and fan-based league play therein.  Never underestimate the inability of any business organization to inoculate itself with idiot resistant policies once they enter the arena of identity politics.

NFL Rundown:  Empty Seat Alert.  For those who know my work, I explain why black unemployment is so high.  It's because of idiots like this.  Even when black Leftists make MILLIONS of dollars, they still complain.

Trump calls NFL kneeling 'disgraceful,' disrespectful to veterans.  President Trump doubled down Tuesday [9/26/2017] on his criticism of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, calling the protests "disgraceful" and blatantly disrespectful to veterans who fought for flag and country.  "I don't think you can disrespect our country, our flag, our national anthem," Trump said at a Rose Garden press conference.

TV networks skipped one crucial part of NFL protests.  Television networks uncharacteristically showed the national anthem before NFL games this weekend, but at least one staffer says that coverage may have come with certain restrictions.  A "behind-the-scenes staffer" told the Sporting News camera operators were told to avoid crowd shots during the anthem, because of any fans potentially booing or protesting the NFL players' protest.  There were reports from several stadiums of fans booing when players decided to kneel for the anthem, joining a protest of racial inequality started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.  Jennifer Sabatelle of CBS told the Sporting News the network's crews were under no such orders.

Angry NFL Fans Lash Out, Burn Jerseys Over Protests:  "You Can Take Your NFL And Shove It".  While it is clear as day to anyone who can disassociate themselves from the emotional response to being verbally attacked by a tweetstorm (as truly 'terrifying' as such a thing can be), the NFL doesn't seem to understand that while almost every American can agree that football is a great sport, roughly 50% of them will vehemently disagree with whatever political stance any given player or league exec decides to publicly announce.  And, since the NFL's future depends on selling overpriced ad spots to massive corporations looking for a consistent number of eyeballs, alienating any group of viewers, for whatever reason, is just bad for business.

The NFL's Worst Fumble Yet.  President Donald Trump tapped into the sentiment of the vast majority of Americans over the weekend, and the Leftmedia hate him for it.  "Trump turns sports into a political battleground," headlined The Washington Post, as if athletes, coaches, owners and commentators hadn't already politicized sports.  What Trump did do was give voice from the most powerful bully pulpit in the land to what many Americans already think:  Athletes who make millions of dollars each year to entertain us on the field should not spit in the face of our great nation by disrespecting the national anthem before games.  Take the activism off the field.

Shocker: Another Poll Shows Americans Aren't Big Fans of Anthem Protests.  One of the most striking elements of the NFL anthem protest controversy is the glaring disconnect between average Americans — especially sports fans — and the media covering the story.  Airwaves and column inches are disproportionately crowded with pro-protest (and anti-Trump) perspectives, whereas most non-elite observers come down on the other side of the issue. [...] Setting aside the stipulations that of course peaceful protests are protected speech, that Trump erred in calling for firings, and that issues like police brutality are worthy of serious attention, most Americans do not support using the national anthem as an occasion for protest.

NFL Protests Are The Dead End Of 'Resistance' Culture.  At a rally on Friday, President Trump said that the NFL should fire any players who copy Colin Kaepernick by going down on one knee when our national anthem is played.  So this Sunday, dozens of NFL players dutifully responded by going down on one knee to show their "resistance" to Trump.  That's where we are with the stupid politics of the "Resistance." All that is necessary to decide the right thing to do is to check on what Donald Trump says and do the opposite. [...] It was an ill-conceived form of protest, bound to backfire.  The symbolism is all wrong.  By its very nature, it does not come across to most Americans as a protest against excessive use of force by the police.  It comes across as a protest against the national anthem.  And since the national anthem is, well, our national anthem, it comes across as a protest against America.

NFL players and owners can't take criticism.  [Scroll down]  But what are they protesting?  It started with Colin Kaepernick protesting "racial inequality" and "police brutality."  Does anyone, including the players, have any specific incident or policy he wishes to protest?  They just mouth generalities.  What have they accomplished by their kneeling, besides alienating the fans?  Have they helped anyone?  It seems the kneeling has developed into an anti-Trump gesture, with over 200 players taking a knee or sitting down on Sunday, September 24.  The flag is a proxy for our country, which some of the players apparently do not like.  To others, the flag is a proxy for Trump, whom they do not like.

Will NFL Demand Respect for Old Glory?  "America refuses to address the pervasive evil of white cops killing black men, and I will not stand during a national anthem that honors the flag of such a country!"  That is the message Colin Kaepernick sent by "taking a knee" during the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" before San Francisco '49s games in 2016.  No NFL owner picked up his contract in 2017.  But a few players began to copy Colin and to "take a knee." [...] And so the stage was set for NFL Sunday.  Two hundred players, almost all black, knelt or sat during the national anthem.  The Patriots' Tom Brady stood in respect for the flag, while locking arms in solidarity with kneeling teammates.

NFL Sunday Down Double-Digits Again As Americans Say NO To Anti-American/Anti-Police Protests.  Exactly what millionaire athletes are protesting these days isn't exactly clear to them or anyone else.  The common thread appears to be some anti-American/police sentiment.  America is racist?  Police are racist?  Whatever it is millions of Americans have had enough as evidenced by the ongoing NFL ratings spiral.  Has a once-dominant professional sports franchise ever committed suicide?  It looks like we may be about to find out.

The NFL is looking more repulsive by the day.  Billionaires and millionaires linking arms and taking knees in unity for what?  There are brave men and women in real uniforms but you won't find them on the football field.  You'll find them in the military and law enforcement.  They're not famous.  They're not rich.  But they're our very best.  They put their lives on the line everyday.  And they're being disrespected.  Football players are not doctors who care for the sick, inventors who improve the quality of life, scientists who find breakthrough medicines, etc.  They're fake activists.  And they're increasingly fake entertainers.

NFL To Fans:  Drop Dead.  Whether you agree with them or not, the NFL players and the executives that run the National Football League have really stepped in it, damaging their brand and alienating millions of fans and potential fans for no real good reason.  It was a classic mistake.  Like it or not, and whether it's fair or not, many Americans feel that professional athletes as a whole lead a privileged existence, working only part of the year and earning millions for their efforts.  When they're seen leading "protests" by disrespecting the flag and the national anthem — and all the high ideals and sacrifice those symbols represent — it's too much.

DirecTV allows some NFL refunds after anthem controversy.  DirecTV is allowing at least some customers to cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds, if they cite players' national anthem protests as the reason for discontinuing service, customer service representatives said Tuesday [9/26/2017].  Under Sunday Ticket's regular policy, refunds are not to be given once the season is underway.  But the representatives said they are making exceptions this season — which began in September — because of the controversy over the protests, in which players kneel or link arms during the national anthem.

USAA members demand organization cut ties with NFL.  Members of the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) are calling for the company to end its sponsorship of the NFL after the string of recent protests during the national anthem, Sharon Ko of WTLV in San Antonio reports.  Since 2011, the USAA has served as the Official Military Appreciation Sponsor of the NFL, with the league shows appreciation for the military through its "Salute to Service" campaign.  But USSA [sic] members angry with the NFL are voicing their displeasure in community page forums and demanding the company cut ties with the league.

The Nail in the NFL's Coffin.  When NFL players began taking knees and raising Black Panther fists during games last year, the NFL had to take swift action.  It failed.The result is that football has now become politicized, handing the Left another victory in the culture wars. [...] The player represents the team's brand.  He represents the city.  He represents America, the country that gave him the freedom to excel, to become an elite member in the field of American professional sports.  The player is paid millions of dollars.  To choose the moment, dictated by tradition, to show disrespect for all of these things, shows exceptionally poor judgment.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is paid well over $40 million annually to protect the league's reputation and business.  He's done a horrible job the last few years, palming off issues of domestic violence, and failing to take a firm stance regarding the anthem.

5 Problems With The NFL's National Anthem Protest.  [Problem #2]  The NFL's Utter Inconsistency:  [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell and NFL owners were adamant this weekend that players had the right to express themselves without fear of any retaliation.  This even though there are rules that the NFL could apply to stop protests of the national anthem. [...] There were rules the NFL chose to apply to stop the wearing of decals to commemorate the murder of five Dallas police officers working to protect the people at an organized protest of police brutality.  The NFL fines players for dancing in the end zone.  It threatens fines for 9/11 tributes.  It shows leniency for other issues, such as domestic violence, but it needs to show more consistency about on-field behavior.

Flashback: NFL Banned Honoring Murdered Cops; Threatened Players Honoring 9/11.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell attacked President Trump for showing a "lack of respect for the NFL" — regarding the president's recent comments criticizing players for not standing during the national anthem — because it violated the "constitutional rights of our players," referring to the First Amendment.  This comes from the same commissioner who threatened NFL players who wanted to honor both 9/11 victims and five police officers who were murdered in Dallas.  The Dallas Cowboys wanted to pay tribute to the five Dallas officers who were murdered at a Black Lives Matter protest on July 7, 2016.  The Cowboys had been wearing a special decal on their helmets that said "Arm in Arm" that specifically honored the police officers — that is, until the NFL stepped in and stopped it.

Half A Billion Dollars:  How Much the 17 NFL Players Who Took a Knee in London Make.  The 17 Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars players who took a knee during the presentation of the national anthem in London on Sunday have combined total contracts of nearly $450 million.  Combing the total value of each players contracts adds up to a whopping $448,373,425, a figure greater than the gross domestic product of over a handful of the world's nations.  ESPN reported that 10 Ravens players and roughly the same number of Jaguars players took a knee during the national anthem Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London.

NFL picked sides in the culture war, now it has to live with the consequences.  [Scroll down]  The NFL is as political an organization as there is, now.  It picked sides in the culture war, and the side it picked is decidedly left.  The NFL refused to allow the Dallas Cowboys to display a decal honoring the Dallas police killed by a Black Lives Matter supporter, yet it is completely supporting the "right" of players to kneel on the sideline while the National Anthem is played, as both a sign of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and an anti-Trump protest.

N.F.L. Owners' Unity With Players Might Be Short-Lived.  The image was striking — several owners of N.F.L. teams locking arms with their players on the sidelines Sunday [9/24/2017] in a dramatic statement of defiance to a president who ridiculed their sport and condemned players for refusing to stand during the national anthem as a protest against racism.  And then on Monday night, the league's most prominent owner knelt with his entire team.  Beyond the appearance of unity, though, is a far different reality:  The owners have done little to support players who protest to fight social injustice.  A few owners have told their players that kneeling for the anthem is inappropriate.

Steelers Coach Didn't Want Army Vet To Stand For Anthem.  Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin indicated Sunday night [9/24/2017] that he did not want offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva to stand for the national anthem, instead of sitting it out with the rest of his teammates.  Villanueva, a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Afghanistan, was the only Steelers player to stand for the anthem.  While Villanueva stood in the tunnel, hand over his heart, the rest of the team remained in the locker room in protest of President Trump's comments that players who kneel during the national anthem should be fired.

Former Army Ranger Is Only Steelers Player To Stand For National Anthem.  The entire Pittsburgh Steelers team remained in the locker room during the national anthem, with the exception of one player:  Army veteran Alejandro Villanueva, who plays offensive tackle for the Steelers.  While the rest of his teammates remained in the locker room, Villanueva stood in the tunnel holding his helmet in his left hand and holding his right hand over his heart as the anthem played.

Steelers President Claims Team Never Intended to Boycott National Anthem, Make Political Statement.  Art Rooney II, the president of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, told fans on Tuesday that his team both respected military service members and didn't intend to make a political statement when its players stood off the field during the national anthem on Sunday.

The Editor says...
Ri-i-i-i-ight.

Sure, players can kneel — and NFL's customers should walk.  Mass fan walkouts at stadiums will prove more effective than boycotting NFL advertisers.  Organize mass exits and I guarantee you'll beat the flag flouters at their own mass-media game.

Hey, 'Kneelers,' Let's Get a Few Things Straight.  The reason we stand for the anthem — no matter how disappointed we are in the trajectory of our nation — is to show that we love our country and wish it well.  That's all.  Americans have long believed that whatever our differences — indeed because of our differences — it is important to have a ritual where we all express our shared patriotism.  That ritual is the respect we show for the national anthem.  When people protest the anthem, they are not sending a patriotic message.  Instead, they are telling the rest of us that they don't like this country, and they wish it ill.

A third of Americans less likely to watch NFL games due to anthem protests.  "Are football fans voting with their TVs?" asks a new Rasmussen Reports survey.  "As the NFL struggles to explain this season's downturn in viewer ratings, 34 percent of American adults say they are less likely to watch an NFL game because of the growing number of protests by players on the field," the poll reports, noting that 12 percent say they are more likely to watch, while half say the protests have no effect on their viewing decisions.

America First:  NASCAR Owners Threaten To Fire Drivers And Crew If They Kneel During National Anthem.  Multiple NASCAR team owners indicated Sunday they will not tolerate drivers or crew members who kneel during the national anthem as unpatriotic protests plague the beleaguered National Football League.  Former NASCAR champion and legend Richard Petty, who owns Richard Petty Motorsports, told the Associated Press that he would fire any member of his team that chooses to kneel during the national anthem.  "Anybody that don't stand up for the anthem oughta be out of the country.  Period.  What got 'em where they're at?  The United States," Petty said.

Are NFL players required to stand for the national anthem?  After NFL teams or players stayed in the locker room, knelt, sat or linked arms during the national anthem before games Sunday, people want to know what the NFL rules say.  Are the players required to stand on the field during the national anthem?  What does the NFL rule book say?  On social media, many people have been cutting and pasting the following excerpt:  ["]A62-63 of the NFL League Rulebook.  It states:  "The National Anthem must be played prior to every game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.  During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking.  The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition...["]

The Editor says...
Anyone who has ever negotiated a contract knows that should is not the same thing as must.

Stadium worker quits after Bills protest anthem.  A stadium worker with nearly three decades of NFL games under his belt quit his job Sunday [9/24/2017], saying he was "pushed" to the limit after several Buffalo Bills took a knee during the national anthem.  Erich Nikischer said he's putting the few good years and "a lot of the bad ones" at New Era Field behind him after several Bills took a knee before Sunday's 26-16 win against the Broncos.  "I was [finally] pushed to my limit today and had to quit," Nikischer posted on Facebook in response to the Bills' protest, a show of defiance against President Trump's suggestion that NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality should be fired.  "I [cannot] work in a place where [multimillionaires] cry that they are oppressed."

NFL may lose bigly with social justice antics.  The NFL is famous for its activism.  Support for Black Lives Matter after Ferguson.  Solidarity with Trayvon Martin.  Lectures from Bob Costas — not on the upcoming game, but on gun control or global warming.  Now it's disrespecting the National Anthem by taking a knee or sitting down.  Colin Kaepernick popularized this before Trump was president.  It's activism is spreading through the NFL and beyond, even to eight-year-old football players in Illinois.

Stars should get off their knees and lead a constructive conversation on race.  As more than 100 NFL players protested during the singing of America's national anthem across the country Sunday [9/24/2017], what had been a small protest of the way police treat African-Americans turned into a much larger protest directed at President Trump.

Kaepernick and Curry Pop the Sports Bubble.  We've all watched the bubble inflate for years.  Palatial new stadiums were built (often with tax dollars), multi-billion dollar television deals were signed, and multi-platinum player contracts shocked our sensibilities.  Combined with sky-high ticket prices that put a night at the game out of reach for many families, these were all signs that things had gone too far.  But how and when a bubble will deflate is anyone's guess.  Usually — maybe always — it's done in by the excesses of its biggest beneficiaries.

NFL players lobby Roger Goodell for formal league involvement in racial justice causes.  A team of four current and former NFL players is lobbying commissioner Roger Goodell to engage the league in fighting for the cause of social justice, even asking him to formally designate November as activism awareness month.  Current players Michael Bennett (Seattle Seahawks), Torrey Smith (Philadelphia Eagles), and Malcolm Jenkins (Philadelphia Eagles), along with former player Anquan Boldin, sent Goodell and another executive a 2,800-word memorandum in August requesting the league invest significant resources in the cause.  The memo, available in full here, is specific and thoughtful, but its requests would almost certainly prove divisive among fans, many of whom are already wary of players' incorporating their activism into gamedays.

Kevin Jackson: 'Kaepernick Effect' to Blame for NFL's Ratings Decline.  At a rally in Alabama on Friday night [9/22/2017], President Donald Trump railed against National Football League players who have protested the national anthem.  He said players who disrespect the flag and refuse to stand for the national anthem should be ejected from the stadium and cut from the team.

It's Shocking How Empty The Stadium Was For Thursday Night Football.  The San Francisco 49ers Thursday night game against the Los Angeles Rams kicked off in front of a nearly empty stadium.  Los Angeles Times reporter Lindsey Thiry tweeted a photo at the time of kickoff, which showed thousands of open seats.  In fact, most sections in the photo have more empty seats than fans.

The NFL and ESPN need to get politics out of sports or risk losing millions.  ESPN host Jemele Hill is back on the air after calling President Trump a "white supremacist" who has surrounded himself with "other white supremicists" — remarks that earned her a reprimand, but not a suspension, from the network.  The Twitter-taunting and subsequent fallout comes as the sports network's ratings have taken a significant hit over the last year, starting with players' social justice protests at pre-game festivities.  Both the TV networks and the NFL are paying the penalty.

NFL TV ratings continue to tank after viewers boycott over Kaepernick.  The National Football League is in the midst of turbulent times as ratings for the second week of the football season received less than promising returns.  After a 12 percent dip during the kickoff weekend from 2016, week 2 saw a 15 percent slump from the previous year.

Taking Sports into the Left Lane.  Totalitarian regimes use sports to disseminate political propaganda.  In Nazi Germany, sports served to glorify the "Aryan" race and to prepare Germany for war.  In the Soviet Union, the elite athlete became as valuable as the soldier or the diplomat in promoting Communism.  The Soviets developed a system of state-run sports schools and clubs to produce world-class athletes who would be technically proficient and ideologically correct.  A coach's fundamental duty was to instill what one Soviet sports periodical called a "high Communist consciousness" in which athletes saw themselves as "Soviet patriots ... irreconcilable to the enemies of socialism and Communism."  With Neo-Marxism permeating American education, identical thinking predominates.

Cleveland police, EMS unions refuse to hold flag at game after Browns players kneel.  There is new fallout from the fierce debate over Cleveland Browns players kneeling during the national anthem.  Cleveland safety forces have backed out of a plan to hold a large flag on the field for the opening game.  A dozen Browns players created a firestorm during a recent preseason game by not standing during the anthem.  They created the largest demonstration in the NFL during the anthem since former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick started his protest more than a year ago.

ESPN should be more sports, less politics, Sage Steele says.  ESPN has faced criticism recently for limited sports coverage and what many say has been an increasing shift to political commentary.  But frustrated sports fans may be in luck:  ESPN anchor Sage Steele hinted in an interview that the network's signature "SportsCenter" highlights show may go back to focusing on sports, and leave social and political issues "to the news networks."  Steele told the New York Post "there is a time and place" for covering issues that transcend sports.  She cited NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's controversial refusal to stand for the national anthem before games, and his current struggle to make an NFL roster, as examples of when coverage might "cross over."

NAACP wants meeting with NFL commissioner about Kaepernick.  Kaepernick's supporters, including some who planned to protest at the NFL's headquarters in New York City on Wednesday [8/23/2017], say the quarterback is being blackballed for his advocacy.

Colin Kaepernick to have exhibit at National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Colin Kaepernick may not be employed by an NFL team, but he continues to be a fixture in the NFL's 24-hour news cycle.

Colin Kaepernick — History's Hero?  The National Football League's preseason is underway, and national anthem-hating quarterback Colin Kaepernick still doesn't have an NFL job.  One can easily identify the liberal journalists by their anguish over this so-called injustice.  You can also identify them by their dishonest arguments.

The NFL doesn't have the guts to bench unpatriotic players.  Raiders coach Jack Del Rio told SFGate.com that [Marshawn] Lynch's disrespectful behavior is not an issue for the football team.  "He said, 'This is something I have done for 11 years.  It's not a form of anything other than me being myself,'" Del Rio said.  "I told him I very strongly believe in standing for the national anthem.  But I respect him as a man and he can do his thing."  Well, that doesn't speak very well of Coach Del Rio's character either.  The coach respects a man who disrespects the country?

Seahawks' Bennett to sit during national anthem for entire NFL season.  Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said he plans to sit during the national anthem for the entire season after staying on the bench for the anthem during Seattle's first preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday [8/13/2017].  Bennett said he was motivated by the events in Charlottesville and wanted to speak out on racial injustice.  On Sunday [8/13/2017], Bennett remained on the bench with a towel around his shoulder pads while the rest of his teammates stood for the anthem.

BLM, Spike Lee, and Colin Kaepernick Jointly Degenerate Into Total Farce.  A guy who theatrically refuses to stand for the national anthem, who praises a communist dictator, and whose girlfriend publicly depicts an NFL owner as a slave owner pleases ESPN moonbats like Max Kellerman and Skip Bayless immensely but will chase away fans.  But we are expected to believe that no team has signed him due to racism, despite most NFL players being black.  Meanwhile, Kaepernick is said to have turned down at least one offer, presumably so he could stoke the phony racial controversy in hopes of starting a bidding war among teams eager to prove how politically correct they can be.  The Kaepernick spectacle is phony and pathetic, like all things leftist.

NFL Source:  Kaepernick Turned Down At Least 1 Contract To Play Up The Race Card.  Colin Kaepernick is still a free agent, and an NFL inside source told The Daily Caller Monday that the former 49ers quarterback has no one but himself to blame.

Politicize Sports, Pay the Price.  When players get political, it turns out that fans can get political right back.  After months of speculation and piles of anecdotal evidence, market-research company J. D. Power has weighed in with real data.  After surveying 9,200 fans, researchers found that "national anthem protests were the top reason that NFL fans watched fewer games last season."  The protests were never popular.  A September 2016 Reuters poll indicated that a super-majority of 72 percent of Americans believed the protests, led by Colin Kaepernick, were "unpatriotic," but evidence that his protest had an impact on ratings was spotty, at best.  Now that's changed.

ESPN's Kellerman:  NFL 'Injecting Politics' Into Games With Nat'l Anthem.  ESPN commentator Max Kellerman raised some eyebrows by claiming that the NFL is "injecting politics" into games simply by having a pregame performance of the national anthem.  The discussion on "First Take" centered around a Seattle Seahawks player comparing Colin Kaepernick to Muhammad Ali for his refusal to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner last season.  Kellerman argued that Kaepernick, who remains a free agent after his controversial boycott, "did not go looking for a protest" and is not obligated to stand for the anthem.

Michelle Obama gets standing ovation at ESPYs.  Former first lady Michelle Obama was greeted by a standing ovation when she honored the late Eunice Shriver at the ESPYs on Wednesday night [7/12/2017].

A tale of two first ladies and troubling media bias.  Last night, Michelle Obama was the honored guest of the annual ESPY awards.  Naturally, the media collective was head over heels with praise and admiration.

Kaepernick Skips Fourth Of July Celebrations, Travels To Ghana To Gain 'True Independence'.  Football player Colin Kaepernick refused to celebrate the Fourth of July, choosing instead to travel to Ghana to experience "true independence."  Kaepernick, famous for kneeling during the National Anthem, released a video Tuesday showing his travels to the African nation.  He visited his "home," Ghana, because he couldn't celebrate a day that oppressed the rights of his ancestors in America.  "How can we truly celebrate independence on a day that intentionally robbed our ancestors of theirs?  To find my independence I went home," Kaepernick tweeted.

The Editor says...
Now that you're "home" in Africa, perhaps we'd all be happier if you stay there.

I Told You Testosterone Would Make Women's Sports More Interesting.  As has been widely reported recently, a female wrestler in Texas — Mack Beggs — has won the state championship in her division largely due to the fact that she has a significant competitive advantage:  she's taking steroids (testosterone).  Once upon a time, such behavior was widely considered cheating.  In fact, some of the biggest scandals in sports history involve behavior virtually identical to that of Mack Beggs.  (Alex Rodriguez took testosterone.)  In fact, due to the widespread problem of "doping" (taking performance-enhancing drugs) in the world of athletics, in 1999, the World Anti-Doping Agency was created.  Clearly (and always) on the list of banned substances:  testosterone.  In spite of being an endogenous (naturally occurring) anabolic androgenic (promotes male characteristics) steroid, testosterone use among athletes is prohibited if administered from outside the body.

Nearly One-Third of Americans Boycotting NFL Because of Black Lives Matter Protests:  Poll.  Nearly one-third of American adults say they are less likely to watch a National Football League game because of the growing number of Black Lives Matter protests that are happening by players on the field, a Rasmussen poll found.  Thirty-two percent polled online and by telephone said they're willing to skip NFL games this year because of player protests over racial issues, the pollster said on Tuesday [10/4/2016].

Colin Kaepernick hosts Black Panther Party-inspired youth camp.  Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who started a movement of kneeling during the national anthem to highlight racial injustices in America, quietly hosted an "I Know My Rights" camp for children of color over the weekend.  Mr. Kaepernick and a small group of his friends had been secretly planning the camp at Impact Hub Oakland in Oakland, California, in the hopes of teaching minority children how to deal with racial discrimination, police brutality and a variety of other social issues, the New York Daily News' Shaun King exclusively reported.

Poll: NFL Ratings Down Due To National Anthem Protests.  There are many reasons why the NFL's ratings are down in 2016.  You may be dismissive of the very idea that the backlash to the national anthem protests, sparked by the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick, has played a role in the NFL's TV ratings, which have dropped by about 12 percent year-over-year.  To continue to dismiss that is to blatantly ignore legitimate data on the subject.

ESPN Loses Subscribers, Colin Kaepernick Can't Understand Why.  Traditionally not strange bedfellows, ESPN and Monday Night Football should make for a nice, natural fit.  However, the bed they made together appears to have caught fire, and the anthem-kneeling, social-justice-warrior love child they created now dumps gasoline on the flames.  Nielsen made their subscriber numbers public, delivering apocalyptic results for both ESPN and the NFL.  ESPN lost 621,000 subscribers in the last month, and ESPN's Monday Night Football fell by 24%.

Fans watching fewer NFL games cite protests as primary reason.  Ratings in the NFL, while still stronger than any other challenger on the television landscape, continue to decline, and a new survey by Yahoo Sports and YouGov discerns several reasons why.  In a survey of 1,136 Americans who identified themselves as NFL fans, 29 percent said they are watching fewer NFL games.

NFL ratings plunge could spell doom for traditional TV.  Football, America's biggest prime-time powerhouse, has been thrust into a crisis this fall, with dwindling ratings sparking questions over whether it can remain a gold mine for television in an age when more Americans are abandoning traditional TV.  Network executives have long used the National Football League's live games as a last line of defense against the rapid growth of "cord-cutting" and on-demand viewing upending the industry.  But now, the NFL is seeing its ratings tumble in the same way that the Olympics, awards shows and other live events have, falling more than 10 percent for the first five weeks of the season compared with the first five weeks of last season.  A continued slide, executives say, could pose an even bigger danger:  If football can't survive the new age of TV, what can?

The Editor says...
Football can survive and thrive again, if the players will keep their left-wing America-hating political opinions to themselves.  Especially if the well-compensated football players complain about how tough their lives are.  On the other hand, maybe it's better in the long run if the popularity of football diminishes greatly.  Football is a mixture of idolatry and vanity.  Football players are not heroes.  They are mercenary gladiators.  The game of football leaves many young players paralyzed every year, and many older players with lifetimes of irreversible brain damage.  If television falls out of favor with the viewing public, that could only be a good thing, unless you work at a television station.

Bills fans chant 'tackle the Muslim!', spear dummy with Colin Kaepernick jersey, afro.  Tough crowd.  As San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick prepared for his first start of the season — and first real action since become the face of a national anthem controversy — Buffalo Bills fans prepared to welcome him to their city.

Colin Kaepernick:  The Flag Is Just A Piece Of Cloth.  San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick believes that the flag of the United States is nothing more than simply a piece of cloth.  "At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth and I am not going to value a piece of cloth over people's lives.  That's just not something I can do, it's not something I feel morally right doing and my character won't allow me to do that," Kaepernick told reporters in response to criticism from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to The Star.

NFL tries to reassure teams as TV ratings drop.  The National Football League has sent a memo to team owners seeking to ease concerns about the ratings decline that has hit football this fall.  Through the first four weeks of the season, NFL viewership has declined 11 percent, and among the crucial adults 18-49 demographic that advertisers covet, ratings are down 12 percent.

FS1's Whitlock: 'Hyper-Progressive Movement That Has Lurched Into Sports' to Blame for Low NFL Ratings.  Thursday [10/6/2016] on Fox Sports 1's "Speak for Yourself," co-host Jason Whitlock blamed "hyper-progressive" sports media for the decline in NFL ratings this year.  Whitlock explained that while sports culture is conservative, progressivism in the media is "leading the conversation" in sports, thus "turning people off."

Ratings Fumble for NFL Surprises Networks, Advertisers.  Once considered immune to the audience erosion plaguing the television industry, ratings for National Football League games have slipped through the first four weeks of the season.

Boycott Leftism.  College athletic departments, which once did not care a hoot about political correctness, now have either cadres of the left as their spokesmen or have utterly cowed and terrified administrators who dare not say a word against the messages of the left.  The college football players who enter the NFL find the same insinuation of leftist cant into every crevice of professional football.  Although the dopey former San Francisco 49ers' insulting behavior during the National Anthem is a conspicuous example of leftist venom, the cringing fear of offending the left seems to terrify everyone in football.  Well, let football be terrified instead of offending those Americans who watch football on television and pay for tickets to football games and buy sporting equipment endorsed by football players.  There is evidence that this is happening.

From Greek tragedy to American therapy.  Second-string San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick apparently assumes that his wealthy team can afford to pay him nearly $20 million a year to sit on the bench, without much caring that he can't be bothered to stand up for the National Anthem.  But victimhood is a good career move. Kaepernick went from being a washed-up quarterback to being a much-publicized social justice warrior — a veritable Noam Chomsky in cleats opining on over two centuries of American criminal justice.  He was once fined for reportedly smearing a fellow NFL player with the N-word, but now as a victim himself, Kaepernick can no longer be a victimizer.

Poll: 32% skip NFL over Black Lives Matter player protests.  The growing number of player protests at National Football League games, driven by the Black Lives Matter movement and San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick, has prompted nearly a third of Americans to turn the games off, according to a new survey.  Rasmussen Reports revealed Tuesday [10/4/2016] that 32 percent of American adults say they are "less likely" to watch a game because of the expanding protests over how blacks are treated, especially by police.

Politics Has Ruined Everything Fun.  [Scroll down]  Before we could kick off the season, a fading star named Colin Kaepernick had some kind of epiphany that he could change the world by sitting out the National Anthem.  The right vs. left media made Colin's sit-out national headlines for weeks — he has the right, 1st Amendment vs. he's an ungrateful millionaire spitting on the country that made him great, and on and on.  But they miss the point:  I don't care.  Whatever these sports icons think, I really and truly don't care.  Just play ball.

Allen West:  Election Is Referendum On Obama's Failures.  Former Congressman Col. Allen West calls the athletes expressing anti-Americanism "deplorable, despicable and disgusting."  Specifically about NFL players, "When I look at these privileged, little, spoiled princes getting multi-million dollar contracts," West wonders "what is it about America that has oppressed you?"  He couldn't help but notice that on the opening day for the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell fined players $6,000 for honoring 9/11 on their cleats, while 49ers player Colin Kaepernick can wear socks depicting police as pigs without sanction.

NFL Ratings Continue to Plunge in Third Week of National Anthem Protests.  For the third consecutive week, ratings for the National Football League (NFL) have plummeted, as players continue anti-American protests during the playing of the national anthem.  This week's drop-off also coincided with the Monday broadcast of the first presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.  Ratings for Sunday Night Football featuring the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys scored a 12.9 Nielsen rating, down from the game's 13.7 rating last week.

America's Versailles Set.  Take the case of Colin Kaepernick, the back-up quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers who makes $19 million a year (or about $20,000 per minute of regular season play).  He has been cited by National Football League officials in the past for his use of the N-word, yet he refuses to stand for the pregame singing of the national anthem because he believes that his country is racist and does not warrant his respect.  His stunt gained a lot of publicity and he now sees himself as a man of the revolutionary barricades.  A number of other NFL athletes, as well as those in other sports, have likewise refused to stand for the national anthem to express solidarity with what they see as modern versions of the oppressed peasantry.  But Kaepernick and his peers make more in one month than many Americans make in an entire lifetime.

Eagles players Malcom Jenkins, Steven Means and Ron Brooks raise fists during national anthem.  Athletes' protests of police brutality during the national anthem continued prior to Monday Night Football between the Eagles and Bears.  Cameras showed Eagles players Malcolm Jenkins, Steven Means and Ron Brooks standing together with their right fists raised in the air during the song.

Clinton's Samantha Bee Problem.  [Scroll down]  It isn't just late-night TV.  Cultural arenas and institutions that were always liberal are being prodded or dragged further to the left.  Awards shows are being pushed to shed their genteel limousine liberalism and embrace the race-gender-sexual identity agenda in full.  Colleges and universities are increasingly acting as indoctrinators for that same agenda, shifting their already-lefty consensus under activist pressure.  Meanwhile, institutions that were seen as outside or sideways to political debate have been enlisted in the culture war.  The tabloid industry gave us the apotheosis of Caitlyn Jenner, and ESPN gave her its Arthur Ashe Award.  The N.B.A., N.C.A.A. and the A.C.C. — nobody's idea of progressive forces, usually — are acting as enforcers on behalf of gay and transgender rights.  Jock culture remains relatively reactionary, but even the N.F.L. is having its Black Lives Matters moment, thanks to Colin Kaepernick.  For the left, these are clear signs of cultural gains, cultural victory.  But the scale and swiftness of those victories have created two distinctive political problems for the Democratic Party.

This man is now pretending to be the victim of the trouble he stirred up:
Kaepernick says he has received death threats.  San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick told reporters on Tuesday [9/20/2016] that he has received death threats in the weeks since he began his national anthem protest.

If You Respect America, Find Something Else to Do Sunday Afternoons.  Kaepernick disease continues to spread.  Thanks to the encouragement of the people in charge, it is completely engulfing the NFL.  Tomorrow night the entire Philadelphia Eagles team is planning to use the national anthem as a pretext to make a spectacle of their contempt of America: [...] To watch these overpaid, hyper-privileged thugs openly display their hostility to everything we revere on the grounds that they are "oppressed," when in any other country they would be scraping by doing manual labor, is too much to swallow.

NFL's $4.6 Billion TV Bounty May Be At Risk Due To Kaepernick Fiasco.  The National Football League will rake in roughly $4.6 billion in television fees from CBS, ESPN, NBC, Fox and DirecTV that it will equally share with its 32 teams this year.  The NFL commands such a rich bounty because advertisers pay up for football's huge ratings.  The television money is a big reason why the average NFL team is worth $2.34 billion.  But the National Anthem protests that began with San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick and has since been copied by other players has angered many fans.  And that anger may be one reason why the television ratings for the first week of NFL games were bad.

James Woods: 'I Will Never Watch the NFL Again'.  Actor James Woods is fed up with the way the NFL has handled Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem protest — so much so that he has vowed never to watch a league game ever again.  The 69-year-old conservative actor ripped the league in an impromptu interview with TMZ this week.

NCAA moving 2016-17 championships from North Carolina.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced Monday [9/12/2016] it will relocate all 2016-17 championship events from North Carolina due to concerns about civil rights protections in the state.  This decision comes after the NCAA Board of Governors in April adopted new requirements for sites that would be hosting or bidding on events in all divisions.  The resulting survey required bidding locations to prove how they would protect athletes, coaches and fans from discrimination.  NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release following the decision that the organization's events need to promote inclusiveness, and current legislation in North Carolina does not guarantee that commitment will be fulfilled.

NCAA to move 7 championships from North Carolina due to HB2 law.  The NCAA announced on Monday [9/12/2016] the relocation of seven previously awarded championship events — including NCAA tournament games in Greensboro — from the state of North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year as a result of the state's controversial House Bill 2.  The law prevents cities and counties from passing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  And public schools must require bathrooms or locker rooms be designated for use only by people based on their biological sex.  The NCAA sent a questionnaire in July concerning discrimination issues to the local organizing groups in cities that have been named to host any NCAA event in any of its three competitive divisions or are interested in staging them.

Seattle Seahawks consider team-wide national anthem protest at NFL opener.  The Seattle Seahawks are considering following Colin Kaepernick and making a protest of their own before their NFL opener against Miami on Sunday.  A number of Seahawks players said they had been discussing their options, and suggested they might be prepared to take a team-wide stand before the weekend's game.  Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane, who sat for the national anthem during the Seahawks-Raiders pre-season game last Thursday, said he will continue not to stand, while receiver Doug Baldwin and linebacker Bobby Wagner said they had discussed a protest in the locker room.

Read more, watch ESPN less.  In a commencement address at the University of Central Florida, [ESPN President John] Skipper bemoaned the fact that, according to a recent survey, the average American spends three hours a day in front of a television and just 19 minutes reading.  "Please watch a little less television," the TV executive implored.  I would modify his plea slightly.  Please watch less ESPN.  Why?  Because [...] ESPN has taken the side of the political left.

Controversy Erupts After NFL Quarterback Converts To Islam and Refuses To Stand for National Anthem.  A controversy has erupted today because San Francisco 49er's Quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand up during the playing of the national anthem. [...] So what exactly is going on.  Well, there's a little more to the story than most are willing to accept.  The media and the NFL will avoid these discussions like the plague, but [...] During the off-season Colin Kaepernick converted to Islam.  Colin Kaepernick is also engaged to Black Lives Matter activist and hip-hop radio personality DJ Nessa Diab.  Black Lives Matter as an activist group is synonymous with promotion of authentic Islam.

NFL quarterback sits during national anthem, calls America racist.  If you can't play, enter the political fray.  That could be the only possible explanation for 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting in protest of the national anthem.  Kaepernick has dominated headlines in the past year for a massive regression in his production, now stuck fighting for a job with Blaine Gabbart.  No serious analyst expects the 49ers to be competitive, despite Kaepernick leading the Niners to the Super Bowl during the 2012 season.  But this time, he's making headlines on purpose for reasons other than football.

NFL quarterback refuses to honor National Anthem because America 'oppresses people of color'.  The 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick says that he refused to stand up during the National Anthem because America is racist. [...] Apparently he's been protesting the oppression of people of color by refusing to play well for a long time too!

49ers fans burn Kaepernick jerseys to the national anthem after the $114 million sport star refused to stand 'to protest black oppression'.  Furious San Francisco 49ers fans are burning Colin Kaepernick jerseys after he refused to stand for the national anthem as part of a racial protest.  One fan even played The Star-Spangled Banner as he set light to the Number 7 shirt, watching with his hand on his chest as it was reduced to ash.  Another, who uploaded a video to Instagram under the handle Nate3914, called the $19million-per-year athlete an 'ignorant son of a b****.'

San Francisco police union demand NFL, 49ers 'denounce' Colin Kaepernick's 'attacks' on cops.  Cops in San Francisco are throwing an all-out blitz at Colin Kaepernick.  The head of the San Francisco Police Officers Association fired off an angry letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and 49ers boss Jed York over the quarterback's "ill-advised statements."  Kaepernick started a national debate over the weekend when he said he was no longer going to stand for the national anthem.  While the cop union understands Kaepernick has the right to sit on the bench while "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays before games, it's his reason for doing so that has San Francisco police demanding an apology.

Colin Kaepernick won't stand for the national anthem anymore.  Fun fact about Kaepernick that I didn't know until this morning:  His Twitter feed is full-bore SJW, with one retweet after another of Black Lives Matter champion Shaun King.  It takes a lot to boost your wokeness quotient when you're already that woke.  But he figured out a way!  This is what would be called a "base strategy" in politics, in that it's bound to impress and catalyze people who already sympathize with him at the expense of alienating literally everyone else.

National Felon League Denies Cowboys Request To Honor Murdered Officers.  The National Football League — sometimes mocked as the "National Felon League" due a rash of violent crimes committed by current and former players in recent years — has denied a request by the Dallas Cowboys to wear a small sticker on the back of their helmets which would honor the five Dallas Police officers murdered by a domestic terrorist affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

NFL Found a Cause They Won't Endorse: the Dallas Police Department.  As written here before, there was never any real expectation that the NFL would allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear the "Arm-in-Arm" decals on their helmets, to show support for the Dallas Police Department during the regular season.  Yet, there was some hope that the league would at least allow the Cowboys to wear the decals during the preseason.  Well, it appears that isn't happening.

The Editor says...
One can easily surmise that if the shooter had been white, and all the murdered cops had been black, female, homosexuals, or former professional athletes, the NFL would have had no objections.  You can bet that if the cause was breast cancer, AIDS, or UN earthquake relief, the NFL would have had no objections.  The NFL has to draw the line somewhere, of course; otherwise, football players will eventually look like NASCAR drivers.  Even so, one must wonder what their criteria are.

New NCAA Rule:  Championship Sites Must Allow Cross-Dressing Men To Use Women's Bathrooms, Showers.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced that all cities and college campuses seeking to host future NCAA championship events must fill out a lengthy, seven-page questionnaire about whether men can use women's bathrooms and waltz into women's locker rooms to take showers.  The NCAA Board of Governors announced its new bathroom-and-locker-room survey on Friday [7/22/2016].

WNBA Stars Angered Over League Fines for 'Black Lives Matter' Protest.  Prominent WNBA players and Black Lives Matter organizers are angered over the league's decision to fine three teams and their players for protesting gun violence.  The Indiana Fever, New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury were fined $5,000 each, and each player was fined $500 for wearing black T-shirts during pre-game warm-ups in the wake of recent shootings by and against police officers.  According to WNBA officials, the shirts violated the league's uniform policy.  According to that policy, all shirts worn during warmups must be the Adidas brand — the league's official outfitter — and may not be altered in any way.

The Editor says...
Just bounce the ball, throw the ball, and catch the ball.  Spare us the political statements.

ESPN Wastes No Time Going Political at ESPYs.  You planned to have a smoke, maybe walk the dog before the ESPYs got in full swing.  Figuring that ESPN would at least recap some of the year in sports before putting on display their craven and gratuitous sellout to radical, racial activism.  Well, you guessed wrong.  NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James derailed the evening of expected jockular festivities, instead redirecting the crazy train that ESPN has become down the tracks of athlete activism.

ESPN Turns ESPY Awards Into Black Lives Matter Rally.  ESPN is a girlish, gay chat channel like Bravo that features slightly less house-flipping and slightly more homoerotic tributes to the physical male ideal.  It's evil, it's stupid, it's a waste of your time, and it's time to block the channel so that you're never tempted to give them your money ever again.

When the NBA went all-out gay.  The NBA just announced it's partnering with GLSEN, the leading gay activist educational organization — an organization whose radical activism dates back more than a decade.  How do the players really feel about this ... especially those with conservative Christian (or Muslim) values?

After Firing Curt Schilling for Transgender Comments, ESPN Hires LGBT Activist Abby Wambach.  Curt Schilling's politics got him fired from ESPN.  Abby Wambach's politics didn't prevent her from getting hired.  And neither did her recent DUI arrest, which resulted in a guilty plea less than a month ago and admissions of past marijuana and cocaine use.  ESPN hired Wambach to analyze soccer at the Olympics, and venture into more contentious matters with "Outside the Lines" and on a planned podcast called "Fearless Conversation with Abby Wambach," a program the AP describes as one in "which she promises won't shy away from controversy."

The Left's Thought-Fascism Hits ESPN.  [Scroll down]  By inclusive, ESPN does not mean ideologically inclusive.  They simply mean that if you do not kowtow to politically correct idiocies about men magically becoming women, you will not be tolerated.  ESPN is the same channel that rewarded Caitlyn Jenner, nee Bruce, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for getting a misguided boob job, facial reconstruction surgeries and hormone treatments that will not solve his underlying mental illness.  Pointing out that Caitlyn is still a man, however, will get you fired from that same network.  Not only that, but you will be memory-holed.

ESPN Erases Curt Schilling From Baseball History.  In the bad old days of the Soviet Union, Stalin, Brezhnev and the rest would literally airbrush out of photographs those who fell out of favor.  Killing them and sending family members to Siberia did not suffice; they had to be erased from collective memory. [...] Now along comes ESPN airbrushing a game played by former Red Sox great Curt Schilling out of a documentary on the 2004 American League Championship Series.  Unless you have been vacationing in Mars, you know that Schilling was until recently an ESPN broadcaster.

ESPN Fires Curt Schilling — What About Liberal Offenders?  About Schilling's firing, the Disney-owned sports cable network said:  "ESPN is an inclusive company.  Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated."  Last summer ESPN suspended Schilling for retweeting a meme likening Muslim extremists to Nazis.  Last month, he no doubt angered management for saying that Hillary Clinton should be "buried under a jail somewhere" for her email scandal.  So Schilling, to ESPN, is a serial offender.  And as a private company, it can terminate an employee for perceived offenses.  OK, so Schilling has to go.  But what are the rules?

The Editor says...
Obviously the management of ESPN operates with an unusual concept of the word inclusive, if the company is inclusive and tolerant of everyone except white guys who don't approve of homosexuality.

Curt Schilling:  ESPN Home to 'Some of the Biggest Racists in Sports Commentating'.  So, Curt Schilling is holding nothing back.  Just over a week after he was fired by ESPN for being a conservative, and deigning to observe that male bathrooms were built for people with male parts, while female bathrooms were built for people with female parts, Schilling told the Breitbart News Patriot Forum that ESPN is home to "some of the biggest racists in sports commentating."

Here are all the sports events California state lawmakers attended for free.  Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León was at the deciding game in Dodgers Stadium thanks to a $556 ticket — half of it paid for by a political consulting group and the other half by a downtown Los Angeles law firm.  Bay Area Assemblyman Rob Bonta got $460 tickets to see the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets and advance to the NBA finals thanks to tickets from the chief executive of an Oakland healthcare company.  Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson) got $800 tickets to the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach from a local law firm — though his form notes he reimbursed the firm $341 "to pay below the gift limit."  After the reimbursement, the total gift was worth $459 — one dollar under the limit for a gift from a single source.

ESPN Has a Right to Fire Curt Schilling.  What Rights Do People of Faith Have?  ESPN has fired Curt Schilling.  The company said that his speech went against company values because ESPN is "an inclusive company."  What's at stake here?  Curt Schilling has a right to say biological men don't belong in women's bathrooms in whatever controversial way he wants.  And ESPN has a right to give Caitlyn Jenner the "Arthur Ashe Courage Award" for being a men's sports icon who now publicly identifies as a woman.  And whether we agree or disagree with Schilling's message or ESPN's isn't the point.  The bigger issue is that ESPN, like any other company, has a right to control its message, which means it should be generally free to make employment decisions based on its values, not Curt Schilling's, and certainly not the government's.

Curt Schilling, ESPN and your God-given plumbing.  There's no question that Curt Schilling has uttered a good number of politically incorrect statements during his career at ESPN.  The former All-Star pitcher has compared radical Muslims to Nazis and most recently suggested that Hillary Clinton "should be buried under a jail somewhere."  But it was something he shared on social media — about transgender bathrooms — that turned out to be the last straw for ESPN.  To be blunt — he was unceremoniously fired because he has a problem with men using the ladies room.

The Editor says...
I worked in the broadcasting business from 1971 to 2019, and I can tell you this:  TV sports personalities are expected to be bombastic, opinionated, and able to extemporaneously expound at great length about the tiniest details of professional sports.  The sports nut / couch potato will little note nor long remember anything that even his favorite sportscaster says.  Therefore, if he (or she) occasionally sheds some light on a politically incorrect topic, that offense should be forgiven; for indeed, that's how live television goes sometimes.  Once in a while, the truth pops out.

The NFL's Bullying of Believers.  Do you think a pastor who's against same-sex marriage should be forced to perform same-sex weddings?  Do you believe that a religious college should be allowed to hire only people who agree with the religious beliefs of the college?  Do you think no one should be forced to attend a wedding he doesn't agree with?  If so, cheers:  The National Football League basically thinks you're a bigot.

NBA may move 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte after anti-LGBT legislation passed in North Carolina.  The NBA issued a statement Thursday [3/24/2016] against the new law in North Carolina barring transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match the gender of their birth certificate.  In the statement, the NBA hinted it could reconsider hosting All-Star Weekend in Charlotte in 2017.  "The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive enviornment for all who attend our games and events.  We are deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect and do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte."

The Editor says...
Does their logic make any sense?  Man, I can't wait to see the All Star Game — and I sure hope there will be a bunch of lesbians in the restrooms.  No, exactly the opposite is more likely what most sports fans are thinking.

NFL says Georgia religious exemptions bill might cost Atlanta Super Bowl bid.  Atlanta is one of the finalists for the next two league title games to be awarded, along with New Orleans, Miami and Tampa.  The city is considered a clear favorite because of its new retractable-roof stadium that is set to open next year.  However, the religious exemptions bill could change all of that.  "NFL policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.  "Whether the laws and regulations of a state and local community are consistent with these policies would be one of many factors NFL owners may use to evaluate potential Super Bowl host sites."

The Editor says...
In other words, the last football game of the season is being used as leverage to promote the left-wing homosexual agenda.  Building a billion-dollar stadium is even less sensible if the Big Game can never be played there — and all because those heartless bigots in Atlanta won't allow men in the women's restrooms.  I've never purchased a ticket to an NFL game, and I can assure you that I never will.

Louisiana Dem Gov. Edwards warns: Agree to proposed tax hikes or LSU football could be sacked.  Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is suggesting the legendary Louisiana State University football team's 2016 season might be canceled — and other doomsday consequences — unless the GOP-led legislature swiftly passes a package of tax increases to help close a looming $940 million budget shortfall. [...] "That means you can say farewell to college football next fall," Edwards said in the address.

The Editor says...
Oh, no.  Not that!  It's easy to use football as a lever to help raise taxes, since football is seen as an indispensible necessity — at any cost!  Sky high taxes, concussions and broken necks are nothing compared to the prospect of a world without football!

The halftime show at the big game is more politicized than ever:
Beyonce gets political at the Super Bowl.  Beyonce issued a strong political statement with her halftime show at Super Bowl 50 on Sunday [2/7/2016] with backing dancers dressed as members of armed rights group the Black Panthers.  The superstar brought the dancers on for her new single Formation which is being widely touted as a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.  At one point during the song, the supporting performers formed an 'X' on the field — thought to reference black rights campaigner Malcolm X — and then raised their arms in the air in a gesture referencing the black power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Fox News slams Beyoncé's 'outrageous' Super Bowl performance.  Fox News wasn't too happy with Beyoncé for her Super Bowl performance.  The 20-time Grammy winner appeared on the field during halftime and performed her new song "Formation" — which has become a "rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement," according to the network — and was joined by backup dancers wearing Black Panthers-style outfits.

Super Bowl Halftime Show Was Black Version of KKK Rally.  The Black Panthers weren't just lunatic moonbats who hated white people.  They were also violent sociopaths who engaged in a wide array of crimes including murder.  Judging by their rhetoric, the New Black Panthers aren't any better. [...] Malcolm X was best known for rejecting the peaceful tactics advocated by MLK in favor of his "by any means necessary" approach to achieving black power. [...] Why can't regular Americans even watch a football game without being told to hate themselves for their race?

Sheriff Clarke on Beyonce's Halftime: Would It Be Acceptable If 'A White Band Came Out In Hoods and White Sheets?  Commenting on Beyonce's halftime show during Super Bowl 50, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke said he did not want to make "a huge deal about it," but since Beyonce and the other dancers were wearing "Black Panther-type uniforms," would it be acceptable if "a white band came out in hoods and white sheets in the same sort of fashion?"  Sheriff Clarke added that "the Black Panthers are a subversive hate group in America."

Update:
Anti-Beyonce Rally Planned For Next Week At NFL Headquarters.  Controversy continues to swirl around Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime show performance.  The pop superstar is being accused of using her performance to attack police officers.  "I think it was outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers, who are the people who protect her and protect us," former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CBS2's Dick Brennan.

ESPN says there is too much patriotism in sports.  There is a natural affinity between sports and the military.  Both unambiguously reward hard work and excellence.  Both teach personal responsibility for success or failure, and celebrate the virtues of courage, earned-pride, and honor.  Sporting events are also among the biggest occasions when Americans come together in their communities to enjoy the fruits of freedom that our service men and women provide.  So I've never found it surprising or objectionable that most sporting events in America start out with the national anthem or that we often take the opportunity of sporting events to honor those who fight for all of us.  But ESPN senior writer Howard Bryant opines in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine that this is all an "uncomfortable change in sports in post-9/11 America."

Proof that the big game is a political lever:
'Rumblings' of Super Bowl Boycott After Houston Equal Rights Measure Rejected.  The controversial measure would have established nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the city, among other groups.  "I fear that this will have stained Houston's reputation as a tolerant, welcoming, global city," Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at an election night watch part in downtown Houston.  "I absolutely fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this ordinance going into defeat and that's sad for Houston."

The Editor says...
Quite the reverse is true:  Tourists aren't going to visit any city where there is no difference between the men's restroom and the ladies' restroom.

Update:
NFL Refuses to Move Super Bowl from Houston After 'Bathroom Ordinance' Rejected.  The NFL will not move the 2017 Super Bowl from Houston after the losers in the so-called "bathroom" ordinance demanded on Wednesday that the league cancel or move the annual event a day after Houston voters overwhelmingly rejected the HERO (Houston Equal Rights Ordinance) proposition.

Senators accuse NFL of 'paid patriotism'.  Two GOP senators accused the NFL and other top sports leagues of making the Pentagon pay for ceremonies honoring troops at games.  Some $6.8 million of taxpayers' money went to leagues and teams for contracts with staged events, including the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, paid $49,000 by the Wisconsin Army National Guard to sponsor the Sunday performances of "God Bless America," and $20,000 to the NFL's New York Jets to honor national guard troops.

The Houston Texans' Uday Aboushi Publicly Supports Terror Attacks on Israel.  NFL football player Oday Aboushi arrived in South Florida this weekend to play against the Miami Dolphins, this time in the uniform of the Houston Texans, as the team he previously played for, the New York Jets, waived him in the offseason.  And while the team he plays for may have changed, his actions as an anti-Israel Muslim extremist remain fully intact.

Leftist propaganda is everywhere:
Every Day, A New Way to Hate.  In channel surfing my way to the British Open, I lit for a moment on the usually sane ESPN show, "Mike and Mike."  Co-host Mike Greenberg was off that morning so 28 year-old sub Ryan Ruocco sat in with regular Mike Golic, a former NFL defensive tackle.  Flaunting his liberal chops for the suits upstairs, Ruocco gushed about the Arthur Ashe Award.  Of course, he did not call the winner "Bruce Jenner."  He refused to even say "Jenner."  It was always "Caitlyn Jenner," over and over.  Those who dared say "Bruce" Ruocco surely would have lumped — in his words — with "the critics who hate."  Bingo!  There it was.  Our progressive friends had discovered the glory of transgenderism about fifteen minutes ago, and they were already prepared to brand critics of any sort as "haters," the collective term for the non-elect in their perverse neo-puritan presbytery.

Army hero slams 'greed' of New York Jets for being paid to salute troops at home games.  It all boils down to Gang Greed.  That was how a hero soldier honored by the Jets reacted to news that the team and 13 other NFL franchises were paid by the National Guard and the Department of Defense to salute the troops at home games.  "I think it's pretty shameful that millionaires and billionaires take money from the service," Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Waiters told The [New York Daily] News.  "It's just greed," said Waiters, an Army medic who served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

Report: Defense Dept. paid NFL millions of taxpayer dollars to salute troops.  The United States Department of Defense paid the National Football League more than $5 million in taxpayer money between 2011 to 2014 to honor U.S. soldiers and veterans at games, an investigation revealed this week. [...] But instead of purely heartfelt salutes to soldiers from hometown football teams, the halftime segments were reportedly part of paid promotions under federal advertising contracts for the military.

Laura Ingraham to St. Louis Rams: 'Shut Up and Play'.  "I don't know about you, but when I watch football, I want to watch football," Van Susteren said at the top of the segment Monday evening [12/1/2014].  "I don't want to watch someone's political agenda shoved down my throat, whether I'm in agreement with it or not."  The host went on to ask why there weren't similar displays in reaction to the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal, asking, "Why ruin football with politics and controversy?  It's just a game."

NFL says it won't discipline Rams players for Ferguson protest.  The NFL will not adhere to a request from the St. Louis Police Officer's Association to discipline St. Louis Rams players who did the "hands up, don't shoot" pose used by protesters in Ferguson, Mo. during pre-game introductions on Sunday. [...] The police officer's association issued a letter late Sunday condemning the players' actions as "tasteless, offensive and inflammatory" given a grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.

Police angry at 'hands up' gesture by St. Louis Rams players.  A group representing police in St. Louis says it's infuriated after five St. Louis Rams players raised their hands Sunday in solidarity with protesters upset at Michael Brown's death.  The St. Louis Police Officers Association says it's "profoundly disappointed" with those football players who sent a silent but strong message before playing Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

St. Louis Police Demand Rams Punish Players for 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Pose.  Before Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders, several St. Louis Rams players entered the field with a "hands up, don't shoot" pose, a reference to the shooting death of Michael Brown, which has roiled nearby Ferguson, MO.  Guess who didn't appreciate that:  the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which is demanding that the team apologize and the players be punished.

Rams players use 'hands up, don't shoot' pose while taking field.  Five St. Louis Rams players took the field for Sunday's [11/30/2014] home game against the Oakland Raiders with a "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" pose that has been used by protestors in Ferguson, Mo., and across the country recently.

St. Louis police group demands punishment for Rams players in Ferguson protest.  A St. Louis police officers' group called on the NFL to punish five Rams players who stood with their hands raised before trotting onto the field for pregame introductions Sunday [11/30/2014].  The St. Louis Police Officers' Association said it was "profoundly disappointed" with what it called a "display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory."  It called for the players involved to be disciplined and for both the league and team to issue a "very public apology."

The Editor says...
I can see how the lowest-class unemployed simpleton in the streets (with nothing to lose) might be drawn into a stunt of this sort, but not a well-paid professional athlete.  The participants in this case can't conceal their identity, and their employer can't be happy about the publicity.

If you owned Babe Ruth's bat, would you let this guy touch it?
Obama swings Babe Ruth's bat at Baseball Hall of Fame.  President Obama turned tourist at the Baseball Hall of Fame Thursday [5/22/2014], employing a time-tested strategy of embracing sports when the going gets tough in politics.  Obama cradled Babe Ruth's bat and examined Joe DiMaggio's glove at the shrine to America's pastime in upstate Cooperstown — while trying to boost his own batting average with the public.

Unionizing College Sports Pits Unions Against Socialist Principles.  The recent controversy over efforts to unionize college athletes rests on the presumption that those who receive scholarship money are in fact employees.  Unions see themselves standing for the little guy against the interests of the rich employer.  However, far from advancing the goals of socialism, unionization of college sports would make the rich richer, and the poor poorer, in the world of college athletics.

Northwestern University football players to receive maternity coverage under Obamacare.  You probably heard by now that the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB), in their infinite wisdom, put the stamp of approval on college football players being treated as full time employees with the right to unionize.  Well, I suppose everything comes with a few unintended consequences, [...]

College Football Unionization Decision Opens a Can of Worms.  A National Labor Relations Board official has given the green light to Northwestern University football players to form a union.  The March 26 decision by the NLRB's Chicago regional director, Peter Sung Ohr, held that scholarship football players are "employees" for purposes of federal labor law. [...] While Ohr's decision makes sense on an intuitive level — players are paid to perform a service and are therefore employees — it leads to more questions than answers.  For example, if players are employees, do their scholarships now constitute taxable income?  Can athletic departments, many of which are organized as non-profit corporations designed to promote amateur athletics, continue to accept tax-deductible donations from alumni?  And will other labor laws, including overtime and worker's compensation, now apply to football players?

NLRB Rules in Favor of Student-Athlete Unionization.  A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Wednesday [3/26/2014] that scholarship athletes should be considered "employees" with rights to unionize under federal law.  The decision stems from an attempt by the Northwestern University football team to form a labor union.

Reports: Northwestern football players overwhelmingly vote to reject unionization.  The regional NLRB's (immediately appealed) March ruling that Northwestern University football players are employees of the school, and are therefore entitled to form a union [...] precipitated today's vote — the official results of which likely won't be known for months, or even years, due to a lengthy anticipated appeals process.  The unionization push has become a hot topic in sports media and a political lightning rod.

NYPD Union To Join Lawsuit Against NFL Gun Ban.  The New York Police Department's Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) will join Minnesota police unions' lawsuit against NFL gun ban.  According to the New York Post, SBA president Edward Mullins said the NFL's policy barring off-duty officers from carrying guns into games "is a violation of any state laws that allow off-duty cops to carry their guns in public places."

Cuban says Mavs wouldn't move to make way for a GOP convention in '16.  The Dallas Mavericks are not willing to relocate potential playoff games from American Airlines Center to make way for the 2016 Republican National Convention, team owner Mark Cuban said Thursday.  Asked by email whether he would be willing to vacate his team's home arena to accommodate the convention, Cuban said:  "No and we won't move."

NFL Fan Blasts Hypocrisy of Rejecting Home Defense Ad by Gun Company.  It seems the Super Bowl has fallen victim to political correctness.  They've decided to ban a pro-Second Amendment — and pro-veteran — Super Bowl ad by Daniel Defense, a company that sells guns, detailing a father who declares that he will protect his family.  "No one has the right to tell me how to defend them," he says.  The banning promoted this epic response from Colion Noir, a football fan, attorney — and NRA News commentator — who destroys the NFL for their hypocrisy.

Anti-Gun NFL: National Frauds' League.  The National Football League's hypocrisy and selective decency standards reek like a post-game locker room.  On the one hand, the organization refuses to run a firearms manufacturer's self-defense Super Bowl ad under the guise of neutrality and taste.  Yet, the professional football conglomerate routinely revels in raunchiness, gratuitous physical violence and anti-gun screeds.

Dems Hold 'Closed-Door Discussion' with NFL, NBA, NHL to Promote Climate Change Agenda.  Climate change alarmists have turned to recruiting sports leagues to promote eco-hysteria.  Democrats in Congress are calling on the major sports leagues to promote climate change regulation and to answer what they are doing to limit greenhouse gases.  Democratic legislators from the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change announced on Nov. 20 that they will host major sports league officials in "a closed-door discussion," Nov. 21.  Representatives from Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA/WNBA, NHL and Olympics are expected to attend.

Senator: Sports Stadiums 'at Risk from... Sea-Level Rise Effects of Climate Change'.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) warns sports stadiums are at risk from the "sea level rise effects of climate change," and that climate change specifically threatens hockey and skiing.  "We see significant sports facilities, the palaces of — of sport that are at risk from the storm, climate, sea-level rise effects of climate change," Sen. Whitehouse said today following a closed-door climate discussion with executives from the NFL, NHL and NBA.

The Editor says...
As I have shown on another nearby page, global warming is blamed for everything, but there have always been storms.  If you think the mean sea level is about to increase dramatically in the next few decades, then don't build a stadium one foot above sea level.

Is the Left taking over sports, too?  "It's funny to listen to sports commentators on the radio who have clearly been brought up through public schools and state university journalism programs talk about class and race and gender like a sociology major from Smith or Dennison," says R.J. Moeller, a conservative who also writes about sports and culture.  "They hate any strong male coaches.  They hate any sort of patriotism associated with the sport.  They're treating sports and holding what goes on in locker rooms to the same standard they would a diversity and social justice mediation seminar on Google's campus."  Moeller's not alone in feeling this way.  Others cite the "feminization" of sports and the liberal tilt of modern sports coverage as cause for concern.

ESPN Commentator: National Anthem a 'War Anthem,' Shouldn't Be Played Before Games.  On ESPN's Around the Horn, frequent guest Kevin Blackistone said that football games should not include the singing of the national anthem beforehand, as that added to the "military symbolism."  He actually called the Star-Spangled Banner a "war anthem."

NFL ban off-duty cops from carrying guns into stadiums.  Off-duty cops are no longer able to carry their weapons to NFL stadiums according to a new policy.  Texas is the only state in which an off-duty cop can carry his gun into the stadium.  When checking in, a cop can use a special gate and inform stadium officials of where they will be seated with their gun.  The head of Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, Bob Cherry, is outraged by the NFL's decision.

NFL Bars Off-Duty Cops from Carrying Guns into Stadiums.  The National Football League has implemented a new stadium policy that would ban off-duty police officers from carrying guns into games.  Cleveland's police union president worried the policy would stop officers from assisting if a dangerous situation arose.

More about gun free zones.

St. Louis Cardinals remove religious symbols from pitcher's mound following fan's complaints.  The St. Louis Cardinals have done away with religion at Busch Stadium after a fan raised hell over Christian symbols on the pitching mound.

Separation of church and baseball — no doubt the courts can find that in the Constitution, too.
Cross written in sand not allowed to honor beloved player.  Political correctness infected the world of sports recently, when the St. Louis Cardinals' management put an end to the recent practice of etching a cross and the number 6 into the pitcher's mound to honor a Cardinal great, the late Stan Musial.  The number and cross only began appearing in recent weeks on the mound, just behind the rubber.

NFLPA selling LGBT pride shirts.  The union that represents NFL players has launched a line of LGBT pride shirts.  The NFL Players Association announced the launch on Wednesday [6/12/2013] in conjunction with LGBT Pride Month, which is June.

Sports Illustrated Names Obama One of the Most Powerful People in Sports.  The media's adoration of Barack Obama knows no bounds.

Why I'm Canceling My SI Subscription.  I am going to let my subscription to Sports Illustrated lapse when it runs out this year.  I hope lots of other people will do the same.  Like too many other publications, the magazine has become dishonest, dishonorable and even occasionally despicable in its conformist, lockstep left-wing bias.  Republican politicians and conservative positions are routinely insulted in articles having nothing to do with either.

Professional football, baseball, and basketball depend heavily on television coverage to maintain the perception that the games are entertaining, and the next best thing to attending in person is to watch the games on television.  Television stations make a lot of money broadcasting weekend sports, without which they would have to make ends meet by showing filler movies and infomercials.

The NFL's Streaming Scheme Makes Watching Football Insufferable And Nearly Impossible.  Like any good American, I prefer to spend my fall and winter weekends watching the best sport of all time.  Thanks to streaming fragmentation, however, tuning into even a few of the biggest and best football games has become a ridiculous, remote-fumbling, and expensive feat.  The problem posed by the splicing and dicing of desirable TV and movie content is certainly not limited to football.  Yet the ramifications of that fracturing are felt most by pigskin fanatics who, between college and professional game schedules, expect to tune into their favorite sport five days a week.

ESPN is becoming a shell.  In an absolute sports media shocker, preeminent NBA writer and podcaster Zach Lowe was laid off from ESPN on Thursday. [...] He's been liberated from a toxic work environment.  Also, getting let go in this manner allows for the unusual experience of being Tom Sawyer at his own funeral. [...] I know Lowe was an expensive employee, but after Sam Ponder got axed, my takeaway was that versatility protects talent at the World Wide Leader.  Apparently not.  If you're pricey, you're vulnerable at an institution that's hemorrhaging money.  ESPN/Disney decided to pay $2.6 billion per year for NBA rights even though NBA viewership has declined over the last decade.  That's a great haul for commissioner Adam Silver but less ideal for those working within the institution paying massive increases.  The $2.6 billion rate is justified (mostly) on the basis of maintaining cable carriage fees, but the short term upshot is "more money spent for less advertising revenue."  The difference has to be made up somewhere.

TV commentators silent on Olympics boxing gender row.  TV viewers were kept in the dark about the mounting Olympic gender row as the Algerian fighter who failed two sex tests felled an Italian opponent with one ferocious punch.  The BBC had chosen not to screen any live footage of the 46-second mismatch, while Eurosport screened the IOC-approved Olympic Broadcasting Services feed, on which the commentary team did not once mention the furore.  IOC attempts to "dial down" scrutiny of Algerian fighter Imane Khelif have prompted inevitable questions about whether the world feed commenter on duty, Hannah Rankin, was told not to mention the row. [...] The BBC, meanwhile, had no live footage of the fight available across its two Olympic channels as the broadcaster instead showed a British rowing medal ceremony on BBC 1 and live badminton on iPlayer.  It did, however, run footage on its online news story that was published at Thursday lunchtime.  That footage featured their own voiceover rather than the IOC-approved commentary.  The Telegraph understands initial delays in covering the story at the BBC were because its editorial team were consulting lawyers.

Report: NBA signs record 11-year TV deal worth $76 billion.  The NBA has agreed to terms on its new media deal, a record 11-year agreement worth $76 billion that assures player salaries will continue rising for the foreseeable future and one that will surely change how some viewers access the game for years to come.  A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that the networks have the terms sheets, with the next step being for the league's board of governors to approve the contracts.

Jury Rules That NFL Must Pay $4.7B In 'Sunday Ticket' Antitrust Lawsuit.  After only two days of deliberation, the jury in the NFL "Sunday Ticket" trial has determined that the NFL violated antitrust laws.  The jury found that the league must pay fans close to $4.7 billion, plus $96 million to bars and pubs that utilized the exclusive service to display games, after they found the NFL guilty of making "Sunday Ticket" accessible only on DirecTV, thus monopolizing prices.  However, in a response statement released, the NFL indicated it would appeal the decision, calling it "baseless and without merit."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defends 'Sunday Ticket' package as a premium product.  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated during testimony in federal court Monday [6/17/2024] that the league's "Sunday Ticket" package, the subject of a class-action lawsuit, is a premium product while also defending the league's broadcast model.  Goodell was called as a witness by the NFL as the trial for the lawsuit filed by "Sunday Ticket" subscribers entered its third week and was on the stand for nearly four hours. [...] The NFL maintains it has the right to sell "Sunday Ticket" under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting.  The plaintiffs say that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.  If the NFL is found liable, a jury could award $7 billion in damages, but that number could balloon to $21 billion because antitrust cases can triple damages.  During the first two weeks of the trial, exhibits by the plaintiffs showed that Fox and CBS have long been concerned about how competition from a more widely distributed "Sunday Ticket" package could affect ratings for locally aired games.

The Editor says...
If your "Sunday Ticket" costs too much, don't buy it.  If your satellite TV service is too expensive, go back to rabbit ears.  If you don't like what you see on TV, turn the thing off and get rid of it.

Caitlin Clark Exposes Media Racism.  There is a little craziness happening in Iowa and with University of Iowa basketball star, Caitlin Clark.  She just set the NCAA all-time women's scoring record and can make even more history this season by passing Hall of Famer Pete Maravich of LSU for the all-time NCAA scoring record set in 1970. With two games remaining in the season, Miss Clark averaging ~30 points a game and just needs 51 points to break Pistol Pete's record that he set during his three seasons in Baton Rouge.  But the leftist media's treatment of Caitlin Clark shows just how corrupt the compromised media really is. [...] The mainstream media purposely avoids the point that Caitlin Clark is doing something no one in the history of women's basketball has ever done.  She is selling out arenas everywhere she goes and is responsible for the biggest television ratings in women's basketball history.  Isn't that newsworthy?  Of course, it is.  So, what is the problem?  The media's problem with Caitlin Clark is that she is White and apparently Black women basketball players resent the accolades and attention the six-footer is getting.  The WNBA can't fill their stadiums.  And the haters in the media and the WNBA are all over it.

Giving Peacock the bird.  As the NFL bread and circuses brigade marches blindly toward Super Bowl Sunday, the league finally tipped its hand when it streamed one of its wildcard playoff games between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins.  Perhaps you were one of the 23 million who flew over that paywall by subscribing to Peacock for the privilege.  Welcome to the future of NFL broadcasting, as network television will soon be washed away by the stream.  As cable continues to bleed subscribers, streaming will fill the gap.  Perhaps lost on the scramble for the almighty dollar is how the NFL's success has been anchored to its longtime availability on free television.  NBCUniversal forked over $110 million for the rights to broadcast the game in an effort to draw more Peacock subscribers to its streaming platform. [...] The NFL remains the seamless event for television.  What other sport has commercials made exclusively for its championship game at record prices — yearly?  The games, however, have devolved into commercials interrupted by football.  Forgotten is how streaming would affect commercials.

NBC Edits "Jesus" from Texan Player CJ Stroud's Post Game Interview.  On Saturday, the Houston Texans beat the Cleveland Browns in the AFC Wild Card Playoffs.  After the game, an NBC reporter interviewed Texans quarterback CJ Stroud on the victory.  At 22, Stroud is the youngest starting quarterback to win an NFL playoff game and has never been shy about his love for God.  He begins most interviews with a statement of faith and gratitude.  Here is the original live clip just after the game:  [Video clip]  When NBC subsequently shared the clip later on social media, however, Stroud's praise of Jesus was edited out of his remarks.  [Video clip]

ESPN [has been] forced to return 37 ill-gotten Emmy awards.  ESPN has been ordered to return 37 Emmy awards the sports network received under false pretenses.  For 13 years, ESPN committed "fraud" by submitting fake names to the credit list for the Emmys, according to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).  "Since at least 2010 ... ESPN took the awards won by some of those imaginary individuals, had them re-engraved, and gave them to on-air personalities," The Athletic reported on Thursday.  ESPN gave some of the re-engraved trophies to front-facing figures on "College GameDay," such as Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler, Desmond Howard, and Sam Ponder.  The report claims the on-air personalities were not aware of the scheme as ESPN higher ups convinced them they had won the awards containing their names.  Eventually, NATAS ordered ESPN to return the ill-gotten Emmys, each of which was intended for a behind-the-scenes employee who does not exist.

The Editor says...
Obviously, NATAS is Satan spelled backwards.  Just a coincidence, right?

We Must Learn to Ignore the Colin Kaepernick Media Narrative.  The news cycle has been full of stories about Colin Kaepernick and the latest speculation of his signing with another football team.  These stories are similar to those that have circulated for the past seven years.  To recap, Colin Kaepernick played quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers until he was benched and released in 2016. He's also known for his protests against the police by kneeling during the National Anthem.  Nothing else has happened for seven years.  Nothing.  The story has not really been about Colin Kaepernick at all.  The story has been (and is) about how the establishment media creates news out of nothing, and keeps the narrative on life support long after the patient has died.  Since 2016, while nothing was happening, we have been bombarded with "news" stories anticipating yet another milestone in Kaepernick's career.  From reading seven years of headlines, a reader would conclude that Kaepernick has actually played football for various teams during that time.  An October story announced "NFL world reacts as Colin Kaepernick makes major move."  But, if one reads the actual story, one would see that there was no "major" anything behind the headline.  The headlines that pop up on our mainstream news (MSN) home pages are designed to plant a seed in the minds of people too busy to click and read the actual story.

The Editor says...
That's why you shoud be able to spot a click-bait headline and ignore it.

Former MLB broadcaster claims he was blacklisted for being a 'white, male Republican'.  Being a white, male conservative today is equivalent to putting a giant "kick me" sign on your back, or at least that's been Ryan Spaeder's experience.  Spaeder has a long list of career achievements.  Perhaps most notable are his contributions to Major League Baseball, specifically as a broadcaster and as a writer.  However, despite his dedication to the sport, he claims he's "been blackballed by Major League Baseball" due to his gender, race, and political views.  "I am not welcome any more," he tells Stu Burguiere.  Despite his ousting, Spaeder refuses to conform for the sake of acceptance.  "I'm not going to bend the knee; it's not me," he says.  But his courage has not been without cost.

Disney's ABC to Air Additional 10 'Monday Night Football' Games as Writers-Actors Strikes Saps Content.  ABC will be airing more "Monday Night Football" games than originally planned.  An additional 10 games originally set to appear only on ESPN will be simulcast on ABC.  The additional games will be on network television because of the ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.  The strikes, which have been going on for months, have delayed most of the upcoming fall television season.

The Editor says...
Nobody will force you to watch football just because no other programming is available.  You have the opportunity to turn off your TV, for once in your life, and go for a walk or read a book.  If a football game is played, and Team X defeats Team Y, how does that affect you anyway?  It doesn't.

Sage Steele leaves ESPN after settling her lawsuit over COVID-19 vaccine comments.  ESPN and host Sage Steele have settled a lawsuit she filed after being disciplined for comments she made about the company's policy requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.  Steele posted on social media Tuesday that she is leaving the Bristol, Connecticut-based company, where she has worked since 2007.

Disney Wrecks College Football.  The big-money era of college sports began in the 1980s after the NCAA lost control over TV rights in a famous court case.  With cable TV millions, ESPN and its broadcast sister, ABC, started signing up every big football and basketball conference.  They also subsidized the proliferation of holiday season bowl games.  But the Disney Corp. bought ESPN/ABC, getting them in bed with the same people who brought you affirmative action and DEI:  the college presidents.  With cable TV money stagnating in the 2000s, even for sports programming, Disney pursued a strategy to weed out all but the highest TV ratings schools from its patronage. (Not unlike how Paul "Bear" Bryant used to over-recruit players, then ruthlessly cut all but the best.  Getting rid of the players he no longer needed was the main reason for his infamous summer "two-a-day" practices)[.]  Disney's ESPN had TV deals with all the "Power 6" conferences 20 years ago, but in my opinion quietly sought to wreck two of them, the Big East and the Big 12, by encouraging other conferences to poach their members.

Virtue-signaling tennis networks erase players' flags.  As I relaxed on my sofa to watch the opening round of the Australian Tennis Open on ESPN+, I noticed that during some of the matches, the score box at the lower left-side of the screen had some blank white boxes that normally displayed the flag of the player's country.  The blank white boxes were next to players from Russia and Belarus.  Then I went on the NBC Sports website to check on scores, and after each name on the brackets the player's country was abbreviated in parentheses — except for players from Russia and Belarus.  I then checked the official Australian Open results page, and all of the players except the Russians and Belarusians had their country's flags displayed next to their names.  And now, Tennis Australia has banned Russian and Belarusian flags at the open.  The Russians and Belarusians at the Melbourne tennis center are apparently players without a country.

The Editor says...
How's that gonna work on the TV coverage of the Olympics?

NFL Completely Annihilates NBA In Christmas TV Ratings.  On Christmas Day, the most-viewed NFL game of the day was the contest between the Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers, pulling in 25.92 million viewers, according to NFL analyst Ari Meirov.  In comparison to the NBA's highest-viewed game, which was between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, it was a blowout with basketball only pulling in a little over six million viewers.

Oh No, How Awful.  Thoughts on the BBC lamenting the English women's football team having too many white players.  [Video clip]

ESPN Loses 10% of Subscribers, Down 8 Million Since 2020.  ESPN continues to lose subscribers at an advanced rate, losing another ten percent in fiscal 2021 which amounts to a loss of eight million subscribers since 2020.  Disney notes in its annual report that Nielsen numbers show the network counted well over 100 million subscribers ten years ago.  But with its latest report, ESPN finds the network only counts 76 million today, according to DEADLINE.  Further, ESPN counted 84 million subscribers at the end of fiscal 2020.  But in its latest report, the cable network only counts 76 million now.

Wheels, women, and watchability.  The 2021-22 version of "March Madness," a.k.a.  NCAA Men's basketball, is swinging into its second week of action with the Sweet Sixteen teams competing to earn a spot in the Final Four and a chance to win the national championship.  For the schools, it's a revenue cash cow because teams or schools earn more money as they navigate their way further into the tournament brackets. [...] The hype, the television exposure, and the billions of dollars the NCAA earns have turned this tournament, which began in 1939 with just eight schools competing, into a monster event that carries on for three weekends of late winter and early spring — hence the moniker and, of course, copyrighted term, "March Madness."  (Note:  The NCAA never leaves money on the table.)  Commercials abound during the games.  While costs per second aren't as high as the Super Bowl, the price for posting an ad on CBS for the title game is still two million dollars.  That's small change compared to Super Bowl commercials but it ain't pocket change either.

Bi-racial ESPN anchor Sage Steele is taken off air after questioning why Obama identifies as black when 'he was raised by white mom and grandma'.  ESPN anchor Sage Steele has been taken off the air after blasting vaccine mandates and questioning Barack Obama's blackness — with network sources claiming she also has COVID.  During a podcast interview, Steele, 48, called her network's coronavirus vaccine mandate 'sick.'  She suggested that female journalists welcome harassment based on the way they dress, and also remarked on how the bi-racial former president was raised by his white mom.  The furor over Steele's appearance on ex-NFL star Jay Cutler's podcast has seen the divorced mom of three announce she is taking a break from her job[,] while also issuing a groveling apology for her remarks.

Al Leiter, John Smoltz won't appear at MLB Network studios after refusing vaccine.  Hall of Famer John Smoltz and former Met and Yankee Al Leiter will no longer appear in-studio for MLB Network after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, The [New York] Post has learned.  MLBN has made it mandatory for all employees to be vaccinated, with the mandate going into effect Sept. 1.  MLBN executives, Smoltz and Leiter made a compromise to keep them on-the-air, but not in the Secaucus studios.  They will both appear remotely for the shows.  Smoltz will also still call a Division Series game on site in October.  The two are regular in-studio analysts for the network.

NBA Ratings Prove The League is in an Undeniable Decline.  The NBA ratings are worse than we thought last month when we found out they were worse than we thought.  Headed into the final week of the 2020-21 season, the NBA has averaged 1.4 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, and TNT, down 13% from last year's disastrous COVID-interrupted, bubble season.  NBA defenders — at ESPN, Bleacher Report, USA Today and every other sports media outlet — are running out of excuses.  "It's the bubble," they yelled last year when the ratings tanked.  Make no mistake, the NBA's declines have undoubtedly reached headquarters.  Coming into the 2020-21 season, NBA games on ABC — the league's most prominent broadcast partner — were down 45% since 2011-12.  Yes, 45%.  Within that same time frame, NBA broadcasts on TNT were down 40%, and ESPN was down 20%.  Come next week, this story will, somehow, read worse.

Proof that nobody watches women's sports on TV:
Men's Tourney Made $864.6M Last Year, Women's Lost $2.8M.  The NCAA Division I men's basketball championship budget for the 2018-19 season was $28 million — almost twice as much as the women's budget.  Information provided by the NCAA to ESPN on Friday shows the men's tournament brought in a total net income of $864.6 million that season, while the women's event lost $2.8 million — the largest loss of any NCAA championship.  The NCAA said its championship budgets are determined and approved each year, but this year's tournament budgets were determined last June but have been completely changed because of the pandemic, ESPN reports.  The NCAA said it won't know the 2021 championship totals until it's over.

The Chinese TV commercial that the NBA doesn't want its players to see.  I would wager that the NBA's management does not want its players to see the following Chinese television commercial in which a Chinese woman shoves a Black man into a washing machine after feeding him a laundry detergent tablet, where the advertised product magically (and violently) washes the blackness out of the man — to the delight of the woman.  He comes out Chinese (not White), of course.  [Video clip]

Clay Travis on the NBA's Collapsing Ratings.  The NBA's ratings collapsed again, this time on Christmas Day.  The average viewership of the five games is down 16.5% from 2019 and a massive 25.3% from 2018.  Above all, the marquee primetime game, Mavs-Lakers, fell an unheard of 32% from two seasons ago.

NFL Ratings Have Tanked And They're Not Coming Back.  The pandemic has been taking a toll on everyone this year and it turns out that professional football isn't exempt from this effect.  Fewer people are tuning in for the games this season than we've seen in a long time.  This isn't just bad news for the league, of course, though it definitely eats into their revenue.  The networks that carry the games are having to adjust their advertising prices downward to make up for the advertisers' anticipated numbers.  In some cases, they're just giving away advertising slots in lieu of other compensation.  And despite most of the games having been played, the audience levels still aren't showing any signs of rebounding with only a few weeks left in the regular season.

Election TV ratings down by 20% despite people being home during coronavirus pandemic.  The numbers are in — for Election Night ratings, that is.  Despite people being stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, viewership of the 2020 presidential election coverage on Tuesday was down by a whopping 20% compared to 2016, according to Nielsen estimates.  About 56.9 million tuned in across 21 networks during the primetime hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.  EDT this year as votes poured in for Joe Biden and President Trump.

ESPN laying off 300 employees in huge pandemic-related cuts.  ESPN informed employees early Thursday [11/5/2020] that it would lay off 300 people across its business, while also not filling 200 currently open positions as the pandemic continues to harshly impact ESPN and its parent company, Disney.  The message was sent from ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro in a company-wide memo that was obtained by The [New York] Post.  The layoffs will not be concentrated in any one department and, according to a source, will be spread across the network.  On-air personnel will mostly be spared at the moment, according to sources, though ESPN has been scrutinizing contracts more fastidiously in recent months, letting some expire.

The Editor says...
Why would a pandemic negatively affect a cable TV network?  With more people staying home, working from home, attending classes from home, wouldn't TV viewership increase?  Rather than the virus hurting ESPN, is it not more likely that they are losing viewers for the same reason that the NFL and NBA are losing fans?  By that I mean the introduction of politics into sports.  The virus is merely a convenient excuse.

See?  It has nothing to do with Coronavirus.
ESPN to Cut 500 Positions to Free Up Money for New Video Ventures.  ESPN's chief said the Disney sports-media division would eliminate 500 positions — 300 employees and 200 posts that are currently unfilled — in a bid to free up resources for streaming, digital and other kinds of video experiences designed for the new ways fans are engaging with sports.  ESPN has already made cuts in recent years as traditional ratings and subscriber numbers have fallen, noted ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro in a memo to employees issued Thursday.  "We have, however, reached an inflection point," he said.

Turned off and tuned out:  Hollywood and pro sports viewerships plummet.  Americans are fed up with millionaire actors and athletes preaching to us about how bad our country is, and evidence for that disgust is everywhere we look. [...] In 2016, the NFL made a conscious decision to condone the politically charged antics of a handful of their employees/players, and their ratings took a hit.  Earlier this year, however, they decided to double down by actively participating in, and indeed ratcheting up, those efforts.  We've seen similar approaches by MLB and the NBA, to the point that we can barely watch any of our team sports without being bombarded by politically tinged virtue signaling.  And while Hollywood has been dominated by leftists for decades, they have taken that domination to new levels recently.  There are few things more American than going to the movies or watching a ballgame, but unfortunately we can now add both to the growing list of traditions that the Left is succeeding in trying to destroy.

How to Save the NFL in Three Easy Steps.  The National Football League stands at the edge of the abyss.  It is about to lose a multi-billion-dollar industry and the awareness of this peril is beginning to seep into the consciousness of its members.  The lack of crowds at the NFL games have gone from worrisome to absolute devastation.  Breitbart journalist Warner Todd Huston has been documenting the empty stands for several years now, and each year the situation grows more dire.  Even before the COVID-19 crisis, millions of fans had stopped watching games.  The viewership numbers get more dismal every game day.  Here's where the problem really started.  Basketball player Charles Barkley said this in a famous 1993 Nike commercial:  "I'm not a role model.  Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids." The attitude of separating good character from athletic ability seeped into professional sports like a poison.  The NFL became blasé about keeping on a wife beating player or one who abused dogs.  As long as the athletes could perform, their personal lives were none of the owner's concerns.  Murder?  Whatever.

American Pro Sports Are Fully Woke and Going Broke.  The TV ratings for the Marxist terrorist-loving, Chinese Communist Party-hugging National Basketball Association continued their historic cratering on Friday night [10/9/2020].  Game 5 of the league's finals series between [checks notes] the Los Angeles Lakers and the [checks notes again] Miami Heat drew less than [one-third] the TV audience that the same game in last year's finals series enjoyed.

Lakers Win, Ratings Tank in Unbelievable Fashion, and the NBA Cries Uncle.  If Lebron James wins his 4th championship but no one watches, did it really happen?  The Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th NBA title last night, defeating the Miami Heat in six games.  People flooded the streets in a manner that will no doubt be ignored because its not a Trump rally, but overall, the ratings for these finals have been so bad as to belabor belief, and we aren't talking a 20-30% drop, which would be damaging enough.  Here are the numbers.  Though we don't have Game 6 numbers yet, Game 5 drew only 5.7 million viewers.  In 2019, that number was an astonishingly higher 18.5 million viewers. [...]

Viewership for NBA Finals Finale Crashes Nearly 70%, Beaten by Random Sunday Night Football Game.  On a night when the NBA broadcast its most important game, you would think that the league would own the night.  That, once again, turned out to not be the case.  The viewership numbers for the sixth and final game of the NBA Finals are in, and they are atrocious.  Game 6 drew, at its peak, 6.028 million viewers.  To put that in perspective, Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, which included a team from Canada and did not include LeBron James, drew 18.34 million viewers.

ESPN May Lay Off Hundreds of Employees as Part of Disney Cost-Cutting.  The economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic that already led Walt Disney to lay off nearly 30,000 employees who worked in the theme park business may soon affect one of the company's other ventures:  ESPN.  The Worldwide Leader could lay off hundreds of employees in the coming weeks, sources told Front Office Sports.  On the high end, 700 employees could be gone.  On the low end, 300.  While the majority of layoffs are expected to affect employees who work behind the camera, some on-air talents are also expected to be let go, especially if they are working with an expiring contract.

The Self-Immolation of Sports Television.  Last week, Max Kellerman decided, yet again, to use a daily sports-talk show to peddle lies about the Black Lives Matter protests that have ignited into violence and destruction across the country. [...] Equipped with a smug grin and a live microphone, Kellerman began his crusade to cover up what any American with a smartphone and a Twitter account has learned this summer:  Black Lives Matter protests have encouraged destruction from behind a deceitful banner of peace.  Kellerman baldly stated that only "7%" of these protests have led to violence and that this minority, however destructive, still belongs under a broad definition of peaceful protest.  "Blocking traffic," he continued, or "responding to police provocation" is what led to these innocent protesters having their marches classed as violent.  "A big percentage of that, that [which] wasn't peaceful," Kellerman said regarding violent protests, "is actually outside agitators, extremist right-wing agitators posing as protestors to make the protests look bad."  Spare me the nonsense.  Kellerman provided no evidence for his claims.

NBA Finals Game 2 Ratings Crash by 68%, Least Watched Finals Game in History.  Both Game 1 and Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the L.A. Lakers and the Miami Heat have suffered the worst ratings crash in the league's entire TV broadcast history.  Despite the matchup including two of the league's biggest stars (LeBron James and Anthony Davis), Game 1 of the Finals on Wednesday was a huge ratings disappointment for the NBA.

Game 1 of NBA Finals sees lowest viewership in recorded ratings history.  A trend of low ratings throughout the NBA postseason has now reached the NBA Finals.  And hit it hard.  Game 1 of the Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat brought in only 7.41 million viewers to ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  That is reportedly the lowest viewership seen for the Finals since at least 1994, when total viewers began to be regularly recorded.  The number is down 45 percent from last year's Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, which had 13.51 million viewers.  This is the fourth straight year Game 1 viewership has gone down compared to the previous season.

NBC's Sunday Night Football Ratings Crash Nearly 30% for Woke Opening Weekend.  The Sunday Night Football clash between the Rams and the Cowboys [9/13/2020] was supposed to halt the ratings crash the NFL has experienced so far in the 2020 season.  Spoiler alert, it most certainly did not halt the ratings crash.

NFL ratings: 'Sunday Night Football' sees sharp decline in initial ratings.  Initial ratings are in for the NFL's Sunday [9/13/2020] slate of games, and the ratings decline evident from Thursday's kickoff continued through to the league's marquee telecast, "Sunday Night Football."  However, Fox Sports recorded its best ratings since 2016 for its Game of the Week.  (Further ratings for other games are not yet available.)  Sunday afternoon's marquee game pitted two of the NFL's most notable players, Tampa Bay's Tom Brady vs. New Orleans' Drew Brees.  They played in an almost exclusive window as only two other games were airing at the time.  The result was a major payoff for Fox.  Saints-Bucs drew a 16.2/35 overnight rating, which was Fox's highest such rating for a Week 1 game since 2016.

Ratings Drop 16 Percent From Last Year For Opening Game Of The NFL Season.  The ratings dropped for the NFL opener between the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans from last year's season opener.  The Thursday night battle where the Chiefs beat the Texans 34-20 saw a 16.1% drop in the ratings when compared to the 2019 opener for the season in the age demographic of 18-49, per Deadline in a piece published Friday [9/11/2020].

NFL ratings plummet in Chiefs-Texans season opener.  The NFL is back.  Spread the word.  Thursday night's [9/10/2020] season-opening matchup between the Chiefs and Texans attracted 19.3 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m.  That marks a 12.3% drop from last year's ratings, which ended with an audience of 22 million.  Deadline noted that the key 18-49 demographic pulled in a 5.2 rating, falling from last year's 12.8 mark.  It is likely that multiple factors played into the drop, including social justice messages, which have been present, while audience sizes have reduced across all sports in recent months.

Beyond the Ratings a New Poll Shows Professional Sports Are in Real Trouble With Americans.  Within a week, MLB, NBA, and the NHL all came back with scheduled games, leading to unexpected results.  League officials and media experts all anticipated pent-up fan interest and the lack of live attendance at games would lead to higher-than-average ratings — except the opposite has proven out.  It is becoming a concern, as the NBA alone has had sharply lower ratings, including a -20% drop for the start of their playoffs.  Expectantly, the insistence of the leagues has been that this is all a result of the pandemic — despite their early promise of rabid fan interest.  The truth is the overt anti-American activism from the athletes, coaches, and even the broadcasters has been the main deterrent.

Will ESPN spoil college football for conservatives?  On Saturday [9/5/2020], I watched football for the first time since February.  The game was Arkansas State vs.  Memphis.  ESPN carried it.  I was having a fine time watching a reasonably well played and closely contested game.  But then, in the second quarter, the announcing team — Bob Wischusen and Dan Orlovsky — suddenly turned away from football to racial politics.  The two began by saying how wonderful it is that college football players have become politically engaged. [...] Are we supposed to care?  The two went on like this for at least five minutes, I think (it seemed even longer).  During that time, there was a considerable amount of action on the field including a turnover, if remember correctly.  Wischusen and Orlovsky largely ignored all of it while they riffed on political activism, racial justice, and their youthful ignorance.

NBA Ratings In Free Fall After Brief Boycott.  The NBA's ratings are in an inexplicable free fall after a brief player-led boycott last week.  Game 5 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers was the least viewed game of the entire series, drawing 2.92 million viewers.  Last year, a showdown between the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs drew 3.49 million viewers in a comparable time slot.

First week of NBA playoff ratings down 20 percent from last season.  The NBA playoffs inside the Orlando bubble averaged 1.875 million viewers for the first week, down 20 percent from last season, per data from RealGM and ShowBuzz Daily.  Industry insiders mostly chalk up the decline in viewership to the abnormal season, with games being played in August and often during the daytime hours, when television viewership is generally down across the board.

ESPN Subscriber Losses Accelerate as Network Returns to Woke Programming.  The subscriptions and revenues for ESPN are plummeting at an increasingly fast rate, as the network has replaced its sports coverage with leftist propaganda.  Analyst Rich Greenfield recently looked at Disney and ESPN's reports and found very troubling numbers for the sport network and its parent company.

CBS Will Pay Tony Romo $17 Million Annually To Commentate NFL Games.  CBS is going to pay Tony Romo a stunning amount of money to commentate NFL games.  Romo, who might be the most popular commentator on TV, has agreed to a $17 million annual salary with CBS, according to Andrew Marchand.

TV Station Accused of Racism for 'Braves Scalped' Headline After MLB Game.  A Bay Area TV station was accused of racism for broadcasting the caption "Braves Scalped," after Wednesday's [10/9/2019] National League Division Series game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Cardinals trounced the Braves in a 13-1 final in Game 5 of the NLDS.  But as soon as the game ended, KTVU broadcast a headline that some found offensive.

ESPN Uses Chinese Propaganda in TV Graphic.  ESPN on Wednesday evening [10/9/2019] showed a graphic recognizing China's erroneous claim to own the South China Sea, despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling against that claim in 2016.  While transitioning to a segment about the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team arriving in Shanghai for their Thursday game, ESPN showed a graphic of China with the so-called Nine-Dash Line.  The dashed lines encircle the South China Sea, marking the large area of it the PRC claims to control.

MLB Announcer Blames Rise in Home Runs on Global Warming.  There's certainly a change in hot air, but it's the hot air coming out of this guy's mouth.  F.P. Santangelo, an announcer for the Washington Nationals, bizarrely attributed a spike in home run totals this season to a variety of reasons, most notably global warming.  It's been fairly well-documented that launch angles, a rise in batters swinging for the fences and accepting the associated strikeouts that come with such actions, and a change in baseballs, have contributed to the astronomical numbers.

If you haven't noticed, global warming is blamed for everything.

TV Ratings for Game 2 of the NBA Finals Down 20%.  TV ratings for game two of the NBA Finals were in the toilet.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ratings for the Warriors win over the Raptors Sunday night were down 20% from the same slot last season.  TVByTheNumbers reported the game got 10.79 million viewers. [...] I think it's safe to say the NBA has a gigantic problem on its hands.  These numbers are atrocious.  I'm honestly not sure they could get much worse at all.

On the other hand...
NBA Finals Game 3 Tickets Sell for $50,507.50 Per Seat.  Tickets to Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors are selling for an absurd amount of cash.  According to Darren Rovell, two tickets were sold Sunday [6/2/2019] for the price of $50,507.50 each.  Another pair was sold for the combined total of $88,388.  This comes on top of some tickets to game four selling for over $80,000.

NFL Network shows slashed, tensions rise after $20M cuts.  The NFL Network is being forced to cut $20 million out of its projected budget and, in the process, already has eliminated at least five shows, including one that featured Deion Sanders, The [New York] Post has learned.  The less-than-hoped-for budget has made negotiations with on-air personnel tense, and there is a feeling some will either not be retained or be forced to take pay cuts, according to sources.  The moves have been made as part of the NFL's overall budget, which includes what is expected to be an amped-up celebration of the NFL's 100th season this year.  NFL Network has apparently absorbed part of the project into its budget.

CBS Cameras Cut Away the Moment Texas Tech Starts Praying.  CBS cameras cut away from the Texas Tech locker room the moment their head coach entered the room and began leading the team in prayer.  The network seemed to have no problem letting their cameras linger, while the announcers filled time and waited for the coach to arrive.  However, moments after the coach Chris Beard arrived, the team began to pray and the cameras cut away to a shot of the announcers.

WaPo Super Bowl ad demonstrates exactly what's wrong with the media.  The Washington Post sponsored an ad during the Super Bowl that may have been the most pretentious, the most exaggerated paean to the religion of journalism ever created.  They call it "Democracy dies in darkness," and it features a grand, sweeping musical score and actor Tom Hanks seriously intoning the importance, the necessity, and the need to worship journalism. [...] The Washington Post spent millions on this ad, and the reviews were decidedly mixed.

Super Bowl LIII was a ratings bust, scoring lowest viewership in 10 years.  The Los Angeles Rams weren't the only losers of Super Bowl LIII.  Sunday's big game was a ratings flop for CBS, with viewership hitting a 10-year low.  Preliminary numbers from Nielsen show a 44.9 rating for the championship, down 5% from last year and the lowest Super Bowl ratings in a decade.

CBS rejects pro-flag, anti-Kaepernick 'Just Stand' Super Bowl ad.  A veteran-owned apparel company's pro-flag Super Bowl TV ad that punches back at Nike's promotion of Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protests has been rejected by CBS.  According to the firm, Nine Line Apparel, CBS was apparently not satisfied the firm could pay for the 45-second ad, despite having annual revenues of$25 million.  A spokesman for Nine Line charged that CBS didn't like the ad's content.

Are You Ready to Stop Watching the Never-Ending Commercial?  [Scroll down]  The point is that television programs are little more than commercials for promiscuity, unfettered immigration, socialized medicine, gay rights, and the rest of the Democrat agenda. [...] For those who seek refuge in sports, the NFL and its broadcasters have surrendered completely to the Democrat platform.  The NFL is unable to stop the National Anthem protests, while the sponsors embrace the protesters.  The athletes make headlines by refusing to attend White House functions during GOP administrations.  The NFL uses its tremendous leverage to bully state and local governments to adopt certain policies.  The NFL refuses to run ads by the Border Patrol during the Super Bowl.  Broadcasters often refuse to say they word "Redskin" for fear of offending someone. [...] The only question is whether you will pay to endure that commercial.  In the past two years, NFL ratings and attendance have declined.  Unless you have developed a gambling addiction through your fantasy football league, there is no reason to devote your Sundays to the NFL instead of joining your fellow consumers in finding something else to do.

ESPN Loses 2 Million Subscribers This Year.  According to Disney's recently released annual report, sports network ESPN has lost 2 million domestic subscribers over the course of 2018.  Disney's report revealed that the company's sports network, ESPN, currently has 86 million subscribers.  This is down two million from the 88 million subscribers to the sports commentary and news station in 2017.

Disney CEO Bob Iger says ESPN has become too political: 'The pendulum may have swung a little bit too far'.  Disney CEO Bob Iger admitted that ESPN has become overly political.  When asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview published Thursday how the sports network has changed over the past year, Iger said that the network is working on reeling in its politics and focusing on sports.

Ratings way down for NFL opener.  The NFL's opening Thursday night game got disappointing TV ratings for a league that is battling perceptions of rapidly declining popularity.  NBC announced a 13.4 overnight rating for the Super Bowl champion Eagles' last-second win over the Falcons.  That was way down from the 14.6 for Chiefs-Patriots last year, which itself was way down from a 16.5 for Panthers-Broncos the year before, which itself was way down from a 17.7 for Steelers-Patriots the year before that.

NFL Kneelers Season Kicks Off with a Whimper: 10 Year Low in Ratings.  The NFL kicked off last night [9/6/2018].  The ratings were at a 10 year low.

ESPN reaches another new low in its Little League coverage.  The crying shame of it all is that ESPN could have been the best thing to happen to American sports.  Instead, it has senselessly, purposefully and relentlessly become the worst.  Consider what ESPN has done with and to the Little League World Series, an event that should be treated softly and simply as per the common sense treatment of kids at play.  Twenty years ago, ESPN began to exploit 12-year-old LLWS participants to ask questions that would produce answers that served as in-game advertising.  Favorite movie?  Favorite TV show?  Favorite sportscaster?  Favorite vacation spot?  If the kid gave a Disney, ABC or ESPN answer, bingo! — it appeared in a graphic.  It was transparently cheap and disgusting, but ESPN was just getting started.

NBC still going for the gold in on-air blunders.  Most recently, sportscaster Dan Hicks [...] covered an Alpine race in which little-known Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic beat Austria's Anna Veith, and won the gold medal.  Ledecka, who ranked No. 43 in the world, was considered to have so little chance to win that Hicks declared Veith the winner and NBC switched away. [...] But the race wasn't over.

NFL Lost $30 Million in Ad revenue Over Cratering TV Ratings.  With the 2017 NFL season now down in the record books as having lost another ten percent in TV ratings, the league has found a $30 million dip in ad revenue, a report says.  As the final numbers for advertisement sales for the season were tallied, the league discovered that its revenue fell 1.2 percent because "makegoods" rose to beat rate increases.  A makegood is a partial repayment of money charged to advertisers because the viewership did not reach the expected numbers to justify the top rate.

Anti-Trump ESPN host Jemele Hill will no longer host 'SportsCenter'.  Outspoken liberal Jemele Hill will no longer host ESPN's flagship "SportsCenter," ESPN insiders have confirmed to Fox News.  She will be re-assigned to a new role at The Undefeated, the company's site that covers the intersections of sports and race, according to Sports Illustrated.  The controversial Hill famously called President Trump a "white supremacist" on Twitter last year.

The Editor says...
If you report from "the intersection of sports and race," you are politicizing sports coverage on television.  The only thing more un-watchable is the use of sports metaphors to describe politics.

Jags-Pats Earn Lowest Early Game Rating Since 2013.  If you're the NFL this morning, looking at the ratings from Sunday's conference championship games, chances are you're mixing something extra strong into that morning coffee.  A regular season trend of declining ratings which then turned into a postseason trend of declining ratings, has culminated into a championship weekend of, you guessed it, declining ratings.

AMVETS says NFL censored its ad against flag protests.  AMVETS officials are decrying "corporate censorship" from the National Football League for their decision not to run an ad in their Super Bowl program which responds to league players' decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest of national equality issues.

NFL TV ratings drop nearly 10 percent during tumultuous season.  National Football League executives looking to stop a ratings skid continued to lose more yardage during the 2016-2017 season, as television viewership fell 9.7 percent across all networks, according to Nielsen data.  An average NFL game was watched by 1.6 million fewer people compared to last year, declining overall from 16.5 million to 14.9 million, ESPN reported.  The ratings slide bulit on an 8 percent drop from the prior season, which had been partially attributed to the hectic 2016 presidential election, the network added.

NFL looking at game plan to recover from record-low TV ratings.  The NFL is approaching the playoffs looking for a ratings turnaround after a year of record-low television numbers.  Outcry over players protesting by taking a knee during the national anthem isn't helping, but it's only one of several reasons fans are turning away from professional football, media analysts say.  Injuries to marquee players such as Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, teams with losing records in the nation's largest media markets such as New York and Chicago, a glut of prime-time games, and viewers with other options have also taken a toll.

Report: ESPN's John Skipper Resigned Due to Sexual Harassment Issues, Not Substance Abuse.  Nearly two weeks ago, ESPN President John Skipper shocked the media world by suddenly resigning from his position at the "Worldwide Leader."  At the time, Skipper said he needed to resign to deal with substance abuse issues. [...] This explanation seemed rather suspicious.  Since Skipper had just signed a major contract extension the month before his resignation.

NBA enjoying ratings surge while NFL flounders.  While the NFL gets socked with ratings declines, the NBA is off to its second-most-watched season ever.  ESPN, which has telecast 30 games since the season's Oct. 17 opener, said Thursday [12/21/2017] that average viewership has soared 18 percent, to 1.8 million a game, from this point last year.  TNT, with 16 NBA telecasts to date, said its average is up 25 percent, to 2.1 million viewers.  Even NBA TV, with 41 telecasts, is up 25 percent, to 365,000.

Why pro football's grown so hard to watch.  Today's league leadership didn't make football a great game.  It inherited one. [...] Current NFL execs had nothing to do with this.  They were bequeathed a sport of tremendous value.  And while the market price of the average NFL team has risen by an order of magnitude over the past generation, the league is destroying the game's true value. [...] The most obvious problem is the replay system, which has spread like a virus all throughout the game.  It seems like every play has to be reviewed, which means the naturally fast-paced nature of the sport is constantly interrupted while the refs reconsider every play in slow motion.

'Thursday Night Football' Ratings Tumble To Season Low With Broncos' Win.  At least with their 25-13 win, the NFL team from the Mile High City snapped an eight-game losing streak on the road in Week 15 of the season.  Not that many were interested, it seems — and we don't just mean all those empty seats in Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday [12/14/2017] in a season sideswiped by protests, controversy and ratings declines.  Snagging a 7.4/13 in metered market results, last night's TNF [Thursday Night Football] was a season low for the broadcast, on both CBS and NBC and simulcast on NFL Network.  Taking a double-digit hit, the December 14 game was obviously down from last week and also the comparable gridiron match-up of last year where the Seattle Seahawks beat the L.A. Rams 24-3.

Cable Coverage Estimate Reveals That ESPN Lost Just Under a Million Homes in 2017.  One would think with the NFL, college football, and the NBA all in action, that it would be a great time to be a sports cable network.  Well, the one who thinks that would be wrong, it's not a great time to be a sports cable network.  Moreover, it's an even worse time if you're ESPN.  While it appeared as though ESPN had at least slowed the bleeding of subscribers this year, a massive loss of households from November to December, essentially put the the Bristol-based sports giant back on the same subscriber loss rate the company had experienced before.

NFL Ratings for 'Monday Night Football' Hit New Season Low.  Just when some industry observers were beginning to think that it couldn't get any worse for the NFL's primetime ratings this year, it gets much, much worse.  The NFL served up the Texans and the Ravens on the week 12 edition of Monday Night Football, and NFL viewers seem to have resoundingly said, "No thank you."

Much Like Their Television Ratings, NFL Merchandise Sales Plummet to New Lows.  The NFL has already received their fair share of bad news this holiday season.  First, the league finds out that all three Thanksgiving games saw double-digit drops in viewership from the previous year.  Now, along with that lump of coal, we learn that the NFL's merchandise sales have crashed as well.

NFL Ratings Slump Continues.  Well, who would have thought that putting out a bad product and spitting on the American flag would be bad for ratings.  The National Football League has seen its week eleven ratings and they're not good: one million fewer viewers from last year.  The NY Post reported that the ongoing battle between Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been the center of NFL coverage.  Goodell has put up insane contract demands of a $50 million salary, along with free flights, and health care for his family — for life.  This coming from a man who has failed miserably to handle the national anthem protests that has engulfed the league in controversy.

The NFL ratings slump is getting worse.  The TV audience for NFL games steepened its slide in Week 11, losing 1 million viewers versus last year's season-to-date average.  The 6.3 percent slump — worsening from comparable declines of 5.6 to 5.7 percent during the previous three weeks — plagued a week whose off-the-field drama made gridiron tackling seem almost tame by comparison.

ESPN Subscribers Drop to 14-Year Low, Putting Pressure on Disney.  ESPN lost 2 million subscribers last fiscal year, underscoring the challenge owner Walt Disney Co. faces attracting young people who don't pay for cable.  The network, one of the most watched on the cable dial, had 88 million U.S. subscribers at the end of September, including people paying for online versions, Disney said in its annual report Wednesday.  That's down from a peak of 100 million in 2010 and marks the lowest total since 2003.  To ensure the long-term future of one of its most profitable businesses, Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger is negotiating to include ESPN in new digital forms of pay TV, such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now.

ESPN Loses $1 Billion, More Layoffs Coming.  It's going to be a very unhappy holiday season for employees at ESPN as reports indicate more layoffs are coming between now and Christmas after massive losses to the anti-Trump sports network.  Somewhere between 60 and 100 employees are slated for the chopping block through the end of the year which represents $80 million in salaries ESPN is trying to salvage to offset an almost $1 billion budget shortfall.

Week 10 NFL Ratings In Freefall.  Imagine a bungee jump without the, eh, cord.  That's the picture in the NFL right now.

Over 100 layoffs expected at ESPN after Thanksgiving, SportsCenter will reportedly be 'hit hard'.  Following a year of layoffs, ESPN is expected to have another round after Thanksgiving.  Over 100 staffers could lose their jobs in the layoffs, including positions on the television side, producers, executives and those in digital and technology, according to Sports Illustrated.  SportsCenter is expected to be "hit hard" and some on-air talent could be out of a job.  ESPN declined to comment to Sports Illustrated about the looming job cuts.  Layoffs have been occurring at ESPN multiple times throughout the last two years.

Vin Scully Refuses to Watch the NFL Due to Player Protests.  Beloved former Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully has said that he will never watch another football game due to the player protests during the national anthem.  The 89-year-old, who broadcasted Dodgers games for almost 70 years, made the remarks at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium during a question and answer session after a speech he gave.  Everyone loves Vin Scully.  It's impossible not to.  I'm a lifelong Cubs fan and Harry Carey will always reign supreme in my heart, but I have no problem saying that Scully was the greatest sports broadcaster ever.

Why ESPN Could Abandon NFL Football.  As it struggles to regain heretofore heroic heights — levels of growth that are probably no longer attainable — ESPN has had to endure a slew of significant workforce layoffs (with more reportedly on the way) and a once-doting Wall Street that has turned a skeptically cold shoulder.  Astonishing increases in earnings, previously viewed as faits accomplis, now seem like fantasies from another world, thanks to the now-familiar combo of cord-cutting and burgeoning rights fees.  With so much of ESPN's universe asunder, it's not outlandish now to entertain a previously unthinkable prospect:  Might ESPN elect to go without rights to NFL games after the expiration of its eight-year deal for Monday Night Football in 2021?!

TV Ratings:  World Series Climbs, Trouncing Sunday Night Football.  Sunday's Game 5 of the World Series — the last to be played in Houston and the second-longest on record — climbed again on Sunday night [10/29/2017], trouncing NBC's typically dominant Sunday Night Football in the process.  Early indicators have the Astros' 13-12 win taking the No. 1 spot for primetime — averaging a 12.8 overnight rating among households.  That's off 16 percent from the comparable Game 5 in 2016 but still the second-biggest Game 5 since 2003.  It also easily ranked as the biggest World Series game of 2017 thus far.

Will the NFL Be the First Legal Monopoly in US History to Fail?  Monday Night Football ratings are down.  NFL ticket sales are down.  Stadiums are half empty.  The NFL may cut 10 Thursday night broadcasts from the lineup.  NFL owners met in New York last week to deal with the kneeling crisis.  Now consider this: the NFL is a private monopoly established by an act of Congress, and it looks like it's going down.  How is such a thing possible?

TV Execs Scramble to Stop Plummeting NFL Ratings, Suggest Canceling Ten 'Thursday Night Football' Games.  Network executives are scrambling to solve the growing problem of crashing ratings for the National Football League, by cutting games to end the perceived "over-saturation" of football on TV.  To put an end to the sliding ratings, the executives are proposing that fewer games may be the ticket to stop that "over-saturation," with one idea being to cut Thursday Night Football by a whopping ten games.

NFL Ratings Continue to Crater As New Numbers Reveal Massive Two-Year Decline.  The NFL used to be the golden goose for television networks, and their ratings.  However, new numbers show that the league has gone from laying golden eggs for the networks, to just laying, well, eggs.  According to Nielsen data obtained by the Sporting News, "League games averaged 15.1 million viewers through Week 7.  That's down 5.1 percent from 15.87 million viewers during the same period last season and off 18.7 percent from 18.35 million viewers during the same period in 2015."

TV Execs Scramble to Stop Plummeting NFL Ratings, Suggest Canceling Ten 'Thursday Night Football' Games.  Network executives are scrambling to solve the growing problem of crashing ratings for the National Football League, by cutting games to end the perceived "over-saturation" of football on TV.  To put an end to the sliding ratings, the executives are proposing that fewer games may be the ticket to stop that "over-saturation," with one idea being to cut Thursday Night Football by a whopping ten games.

NFL Losing Viewers At Alarming Rate But Faces Limits On Its Response.  Last year, the NFL lost about a million regular-season viewers versus the 2013 and 2014 seasons.  It represented about a 6% fall-off — enough to be easily noticed and maybe even cause a little concern, but it could be written off as a one-year blip.  Last year's seepage has turned into a major break in the dam.  The league is now down about three million viewers per game from 2013 and 2014.  When the specific teams appearing, the scope of the telecast and the week of the season are taken into account, the decline is even more dramatic:  more than four million viewers, or in excess of 20%.

NFL cash cow dries up.  Ratings are down 17% at CBS for its NFL games.  Part of this is the disloyalty of the league.  The Baltimore team moved to Indianapolis.  Cleveland's team moved to Baltimore.  Houston's team moved to Tennessee.  Oakland's team moved to Los Angeles.  St. Louis's team moved to Arizona.  One Los Angeles team moved to St. Louis, while the other moved back to Oakland.  Then the St. Louis team that moved in from Los Angeles moved back to Los Angeles, and the San Diego team moved to Los Angeles.  There was no reason for these moves.  The NFL makes about $100 million a year in profits.  That's per team.  More than $3 billion a year.  The NFL allowed teams to move around for a few million more.

Jemele Hill:  How Not to Learn From Experience.  Jemele Hill is an on-air ESPN personality.  In the last few years, ESPN has become notorious for emphasizing politics over sports; Ms. Hill is part of the problem.  Last month, she denounced President Trump as a "white supremacist" after he criticized NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem.  After that incident, she apologized for "letting her colleagues and company down" with the white supremacist tweet.  She did not, however, learn from the experience.

ESPN Suspends Jemele Hill After Calling For NFL Advertiser Boycott.  Liberals aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.  ESPN lives and dies by the NFL so Jemele Hill is telling people to boycott her own network.

Networks Could Lose $200 Million if NFL Ratings Slide Continues.  If NFL fans continue to turn away from football, the TV networks could lose as much as $200 million in earnings, according to a new report.  After ratings for Week Two crashed, adding to the angst already felt by a poor showing in Week 1, industry insiders and analysts are sounding the alarm.  A new report claims that CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC could take a $200 million hit to their estimated $2.5 billion in NFL advertising earnings if fans continue to turn off the TV, the The Hollywood Reporter noted recently.

Kaepernick Tweets Support for ESPN's Jemele Hill After She Called Trump a 'White Supremacist'.  ESPN has come under fire after "SportsCenter" host Jemele Hill tweeted that President Donald Trump is a "white supremacist" who is "unfit and unqualified" to be commander-in-chief.  ESPN's public relations department later tweeted a statement, saying that Hill's comments do not represent the position of the network.  ESPN took no action against Hill for her comments, however, which has led to criticism.

Jason Sehorn says he was told to 'curtail his political aspirations' when he joined ESPN.  ESPN is taking heat from one of its own employees, with former New York Giants cornerback taking issue with the fact that he was asked to avoid any talk of politics when he joined the network in the wake of the recent Jemele Hill controversy.  'I, as a fan and a viewer, tune into ESPN and I don't want politics,' said Sehorn on Wednesday morning [9/13/2017] during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

Fourth and Long for the NFL.  Television ratings declined, last season, for the National Football League's games.  This came as a shock to the Lords of the NFL. Ratings are not supposed to decline.  The NFL's ratings never decline.  This is a law of nature. [...] While football is still supreme among sports, those ratings declines are incontestable.  And not only are fewer people watching, there are measurable declines, also, in the number of young people playing.  This is true even in, of all places, the state of Alabama where football is a kind of secular religion.  Where people will tell you that football isn't life or death... that it is more important than that.  Still, according to the Alabama High School Athletics Association, the number of players there declined by 7% from 2015 to 2016.

Fox Sports to cut commercials to just six seconds during NFL games to try and hold viewers attention.  NFL ratings dropped in 2016, and in an attempt to fix the problem, Fox Sports will reportedly experiment with six-second advertisements alongside their traditional 15- and 30-second spots.  According to a report by The New York Times, Fox Sports is attempting to make the six-second advertisement an 'industry standard'.

Here's why ESPN is imploding.  ESPN's first problem has been the move of TV viewers to cheaper online viewing platforms.  With younger viewers increasingly choosing to forgo expensive cable packages in favor of selective products like Netflix, ESPN has been left with big bills and not enough subscribers.  Making matters worse, ESPN continues to charge existing subscribers an excessive premium for its product.  Why does it do so?  In part, because it must.  After all, ESPN has spent the last few years spending billions of dollars on broadcasting rights for a wide array of tournaments.  Had they negotiated more effectively — perhaps sacrificing one sport to disabuse other sports of their confidence in demanding astronomic broadcast fee payments — ESPN could have reduced their front-end costs and offered lower subscriber rates.

ESPN yanks Robert Lee and becomes a metaphor for everything wrong in media.  Some news stories are so insane that the first reaction has to be disbelief.  That was the case Tuesday night when it was revealed that ESPN had pulled a broadcaster from covering a football game simply because he has a similar name to a Confederate general.  In one ridiculous move, ESPN became a metaphor for everything wrong in media.  Poor Robert Lee, an Asian-American with no relation to Army of Northern Virginia Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, was scheduled to announce the University of Virginia's home opener.  But after the Charlottesville protests ESPN feared that his name might be a "trigger" to its nonexistent audience of social justice warriors, following.

Report: ESPN Removes College Football Announcer From Game Because He's Named 'Robert Lee'.  ESPN confirmed via emailed statement that they did, indeed, take Robert Lee off the UVA game over the fact that his name was close to that of a Confederate general.

ESPN, the worldwide leader in liberal idiocy.  So let me ask, "what if I told you that ESPN decided to pull an Asian-American announcer from calling a University of Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee?"  Your answer would probably be, "you're making it up."  But I'm not.  It is reliably reported that Robert Lee was slated to call Virginia's game on September 2 against William and Mary, but because of events in Charlottesville, which originated with a dispute over removing a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, he has been reassigned.

ESPN Pulls Game Announcer Robert Lee Because His Name Is Too "Triggering".  If ever you doubted that ESPN was the sporting epicenter of liberalism, well, consider this the day you can put those doubts to rest.  In what can only be considered the most ridiculous, over-the-top, example of political correctness running amok ESPN has pulled a college football announcer from the game between William & Mary vs the University of Virginia because his name is Robert Lee.  Seriously, you just can't make this stuff up.  Oh, and Robert Lee is Asian (pictured left) but even his ethnicity couldn't save him from the executive level stupidity and delicate sensibilities of ESPN.

ESPN pulls announcer Robert Lee from covering a Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee.  An announcer by any other name would announce just as sweet.  In what is sure to be a controversial decision, ESPN has decided to pull college football announcer Robert Lee from covering a Virginia football game this season due to the simple fact his name is Robert Lee, the network announced on Tuesday.  Outkick the Coverage's Clay Travis was the first to report the questionable decision.

ESPN Just Took Political Correctness Way Too Far.  In the wake of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, ESPN decided to pull one of its announcers from calling a University of Virginia football game — because his name is Robert Lee.  Lee, an Asian-American sportscaster who started with the network in 2016, was moved to a different game "simply because of the coincidence of his name," ESPN said, referencing the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

ESPN Exec on Robert Lee Controversy: 'No Biggie Until Someone Leaked it to Embarrass Us and Him'.  ESPN is now in full blown damage control mode over what would seem to be one of the more ridiculous self-made controversies in recent times — the decision to pull a broadcaster from a University of Virginia football game telecast because his name happens to be Robert Lee.  With cable news and social media reaction nearly universal in their criticism of ESPN, the Worldwide Leader is looking to calm the outcry from those on the left and the right over the decision.

ESPN Pulls Announcer from UVa Football Game — Because His Name Is Robert Lee.  The man shown to the left is sportscaster Robert Lee.  The man to the right is Confederate General Robert E. Lee.  ESPN was afraid that viewers would mix them up.  Mr. Lee (the one who didn't die in 1870) was scheduled to announce next weekend's University of Virginia football game against William and Mary.  This match-up will be hosted in Charlottesville, which has a statue of Gen. Lee (who never provided NCAA play-by-play).  ESPN decided that this was far too confusing for their viewers to process.

The Name/Statue Game Has Barely Begun!  One of my daughters asks, are Robert Lees across the country scrambling to change their names, lest they be discriminated against by their employers?  Is Robert the new Adolf?  I say, Yes!  And it's only right.  But why stop there?  Think how many Thomas Jacksons and James Stuarts there are in the U.S. Why shouldn't they be discriminated against, too?

Asian Announcer Pulled off VA Football Game Because of His Name.  The cultural totalitarians at ESPN pulled an Asian man off the Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee, the same as Confederate General Robert E. Lee.  These people are crazy.

The Editor says...
Ordinary viewers don't care what sports announcers' names are.  It doesn't matter if the commentator's name is Chuck Roast or Patty O'Furniture:  The names will be forgotten at the end of the broadcast, or about two seconds after the last time the names appear at the bottom of your TV screen.  (And if those names never came up in superimposed text, who would notice?)  I suspect that even the most rabid sports fan can't recall the names of the announcers on any televised sporting event they saw last week.

ESPN's Surrender to Grim New Reality.  With cable TV subscribers fleeing, the sports giant has to look for customers online.  That's not where the money is.

Yankee Stadium attendance falls while TV ratings rise.  The Yankees are the big talk in New York sports right now.  But it's not all good.  Fans are psyched the young team is in first place, Yankee Stadium ticket sales aren't living up to the hype.  "I think people don't show up because it's really a pain to get here," one fan said.  Well, that's one way to look at it.  And it seems many Yankees fans would agree.  "$15 to get over the bridge, $40 to park," another fan said.  "It's still $100, $150 out of your pocket."

Jason Whitlock:  ESPN 'Lost the Culture War' to Left-Wing Deadspin.  The fall of ESPN is still a hot topic in sports media, but former ESPN commentator Jason Whitlock has a unique point to add to the litany of reasons for the famed cable sports network's troubles.  Whitlock says that left-wing sports blog Deadspin caused ESPN to veer left, and that was the seed that caused the network's downfall.  Deadspin, a popular but far-left website that forms part of the Gawker chain of sites, has targeted ESPN for political correction for several years with a long list of posts aimed at forcing ESPN to toe the political line of the extreme progressive left.

Did Too Much Caitlyn Jenner Doom ESPN?  Last week, ESPN, often referred to as the Worldwide Leader in Sports, laid off around 100 employees.  The cuts were painfully public and claimed the jobs of some of the top talent and most familiar faces at the network.  At the heart of the latest downsizing, as with earlier layoffs, is math:  The network has committed billions of dollars to broadcast live sports, and waves of cord-cutters now threaten the cash flow to pay those bills.  But amid the hand-wringing over the cable giant's business outlook, a subplot has begun to dominate the coverage:  ESPN'S politics.  "[The] collapse has been aided by ESPN's absurd decision to turn into MSESPN, a left wing sports network," wrote Clay Travis on Wednesday.  "ESPN made the mistake of trying to make liberal social media losers happy and as a result lost millions of viewers."

ESPN SportsCenter 6 Co-Host Michael Smith:  Every City in America Is Racist.  ESPN's determination to dig its own grave continues to move at high speed.  On Tuesday [5/2/2017], SC6 (short for SportsCenter 6) co-host Michael Smith intensely overreacted to the racist actions of a small contingent fans at a Major League Baseball game at Boston's Fenway Park, using what they did to tag every city in America as "racist."

ESPN Michael Smith:  All Cities in US are Racist.  After racist Boston chowder-heads threw a bag of peanuts with a racial slut at Orioles' player Andrew Jones, ESPN and black racist Michael Smith says all cities in America are racist or something.  I guess that means San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago and New York are also racist cities eh Michael?  And ESPN wonders why they continue to lose viewers.  They axed 100 dirtbags a few days ago.  Why wasn't Michael Smith the racist one of them?

ESPN Loses Millions of Subscribers Since They Became a Left-Wing Political Mouthpiece.  ESPN has been hemorrhaging subscribers.  In two months in last year alone, they lost over a million subscribers.  They lost 621,000 in October, another 555,000 in November.  The bleeding continues and they keep pretending it doesn't matter.  All of ESPN is losing viewers.  ESPN2, according to Nielsen's estimates, lost 595,000 subscribers, and ESPNU — its college sports-focused channel — lost more than 700,000.  It admitted to losing 7 million subscribers between 2011 and 2015, Huff Po reported.  Every single day this year ESPN has lost roughly 10,000 cable and satellite subscribers.

Here come the ESPN firings, worse than we thought.  The mass firings can turn into a blaze.  The 40 to 50 pink slips that ESPN insider Jim Miller expected to be dished out may escalate to about 70 at the Worldwide Leader, according to the Sporting News.  Talent from all over — from front-facing TV personalities to online writers — is in jeopardy as parent company Disney looks to slash costs.  "This could be a bloodbath," one source said, according to the report.  And the carnage is coming soon:  ESPN will start its Bristol-based layoffs as soon as Wednesday [4/26/2017], according to Sports Illustrated.

Report: Massive ESPN Layoffs, Contract Buyouts Expected to Hit Over the Next Month.  The long-reported layoffs at ESPN will reportedly take place over the next month.  That, according to sports media reporter Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.  What hadn't been rumored or reported, until now, is that ESPN will look to actually buy out some talent currently under contract.  That represents a sharp departure from past ESPN policy.  The Bristol-based sports giant typically refrains from buyouts, because like many companies they don't see the sense in paying someone to not work.  The decision to depart from that way of doing business suggests that ESPN wants to have the layoffs and the massive talent shake-up completed quickly.

NBC Sports:  U.S. Flag at Baseball Games Too Political.  Everything is political to the overly sensitive mind of today's leftist.  When the Atlanta Braves unfurled a gigantic flag for the playing of the national anthem, it prompted an ultra sensitive member of the partisan media and his Twitter followers to express a whole host of ridiculous claims.  In a Twitter post this weekend, NBC baseball writer Craig Calcaterra complained that the presentation of Old Glory evoked overly political tones.

Hey ESPN, Here's Why You're Tanking.  ESPN's collapsing ratings has mysteriously occurred concurrently with their increasing venture into injecting leftwing political commentary into their sports programming.  This has not escaped the notice of several concerned shareholders who confronted the CEO of Disney, the network's parent company.

Liberal ESPN is Financially Struggling & About to Begin Big Layoffs.  A few months ago ESPN acknowledged that perhaps they have been a little politically biased.  And the results are now more evident than ever.  They Sports network has become extremely political, with extremely liberal tendencies.  And now, the network is struggling to keep going.

Is ESPN Unraveling?  I don't know, but it's certainly hurting. [...] But don't worry.  You'll be seeing more women in front of the camera.  John Skipper, the left-winger who runs ESPN, has directed that more women appear in "front-facing positions" during NFL coverage.  If he doesn't pay them what the departing males earned, there may be a pay discrimination suit in ESPN's future.  Why is ESPN in so much trouble?  Mainly because people are "cutting the cable."

ESPN Loses Millions of Subscribers After Pushing Left-Wing Politics.  According to reports by Market Watch, in 2011, ESPN had 100.1 million subscribers.  In 2016, that sharply plummeted to 88 million.  This drop was a big hit to Disney, with losses being up to $7 a subscriber. [...] Much of this loss is due to the left-wing politics that ESPN has started to mix into its every day coverage of sports.

Report: ESPN Losing 10,000 Subscribers a Day Over Its Political Left Turn.  Once an indispensable sports powerhouse, cable TV network ESPN has gone from must-see-TV for millions of sports fans to financial boondoggle for owner Disney with the network losing up to 10,000 subscribers a day, a report says.  "A floundering ESPN, with rising costs and declining viewership, continued to sink Disney's financial results during its fiscal first quarter," MarketWatch.com reported.  With the impact of the flailing sports network, Disney's revenue fell 3 percent, and its profits sank 14 percent, the financial site reported.

ESPN posts second-worst 'Monday Night Football' season.  If not for this past Monday night's highly watched NFL game, The Walt Disney Co's ESPN network would have had its smallest audience for "Monday Night Football" in 2016 since the 2006 season. [,...] Monday's Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions game averaged 18.6 million viewers, the most ESPN has garnered for a "Monday Night Football" game since 2014.  That helped ESPN post an average of 11.4 million viewers for its 17 games this season, finishing ahead of only the 2007 season, when it drew 11.2 million, according to Nielsen data provided by ESPN.

Les Moonves of CBS Blames Trump, Manning, Brady for NFL Ratings Collapse.  When trying to explain the NFL's massive ratings drop this year, CBS CEO Les Moonves has a particular culprit in mind when naming the fly in the NFL's ratings ointment.  Moonves blames Donald Trump.  Well, in fairness, he also blames Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.  Moonves addressed reporters and analysts at the UBS 44th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York on Monday.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Moonves said that less-than-stellar ratings for NFL games earlier this season is the fault of Peyton Manning (retired), Tom Brady (suspended for the first four games) and Donald Trump (because too many people preferred his presidential campaign to football).

ESPN hemorrhaging viewers?  ESPN reportedly lost 555,000 subscribers this month, according to sports writer Clay Travis.  The drop in November for the sports media company comes right after its worst-ever month, when it lost an estimated 621,000 subscribers in October.

NFL reviewing options to fix sagging ratings.  Think NFL games are too long?  At least one league executive may agree.  Speaking at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show New York conference Wednesday, NFL Media executive vice president Brian Rolapp said, "we don't blame everything on the election" and cited the need to hold the audience's attention as a significant reason for sagging national television ratings on prime time broadcasts.

ESPN Loses 4 Million Subscribers In Past Year.  In the past five years ESPN has lost 11,346,000 subscribers according to Nielsen data.  If you combine that with ESPN2 and ESPNU subscriber losses this means that ESPN has lost over a billion dollars in cable and satellite revenue just in the past five years, an average of $200 million each year.  That total of a billion dollars hits ESPN in the pocketbook not just on a yearly basis, but for every year going forward.  It's gone forever.

The NFL Has Become Unwatchable.  Based on this year's experience, I have concluded that penalties, along with endless video reviews of plays, have made the game just about impossible to watch.  After every big play, you wait for the flag.  More often than not, it seems, it comes.  While some penalties are obvious, more often they appear to be called randomly, especially on important plays.  It is frequently impossible to say what distinguishes a particular hold, pass interference or unnecessary roughness from similar conduct that occurred a few plays earlier or later.  Given the lack of any apparent pattern in what constitutes a penalty, it is tempting to infer that referees insert them periodically to mold the flow of the game in a predetermined direction.

Thursday Night Football is a menace to American families.  My husband's dish list keeps me busy while he lounges on our couch watching the games.  Some years, I don't get to all of them, and they roll over to the following year.  Some dishes become beloved and therefore frequently repeated.  On Sundays during the football season, my husband doesn't accompany me to the many children's birthday parties that our kids get invited to.  We don't make plans to go out.  My husband isn't responsible for errands.  We don't do any shopping.  I don't engage him in conversation about anything more complicated than "What's the score?" and "So you want more of that?"

The Editor says...
Well, lady, it is obvious that the television has a higher priority than you do.  Perhaps you ignored the warning signs before you married this guy, but now you're stuck with him.  You could convert to his religion (football, that is), or, you could treat his affection for the TV as an addiction, which it is.  If you ask him rational questions to point out the fruitless futility of his hobby, it will only make him angry.  For example, if you ask him how his life is any better or worse on Monday morning because his favorite football team won or lost, he won't have an answer other than "shut up."

A Brawl Breaks Out On The Field After The Michigan-Ohio Game.  Ohio State police say they have launched an investigation into the brawl between Ohio State and Michigan where officers used pepper spray against the players.  After Michigan beat Ohio State, Michigan players planted their flag on the Ohio State logo.  "Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation," Ohio State police said.  [Video clip]

Massive fight breaks out between Michigan and Ohio State players.  A massive brawl broke out on Saturday after unranked Michigan's upset win over rivals Ohio State, with players pepper sprayed by cops in the aftermath.  After the 13-10 Michigan win over the No. 2 Buckeyes, a group of Wolverines players planted their school flag on the field, considered a major sign of disrespect in college football, and Ohio State players physically confronted them.  Several players could be seen attacking each other at midfield, with punches being thrown before things briefly died down.  However, Michigan's Derrick Moore then re-stoked tensions by planting a Michigan flag on the turf once again.

NHL announcer Paul Bissonnette hospitalized, 6 arrested after Ariz. restaurant brawl.  NHL announcer and former player Paul Bissonnette briefly was hospitalized after intervening in a restaurant ruckus Sunday night in Scottsdale, Ariz.  Bissonnette, who played left wing for the Phoenix Coyotes and Pittsburgh Penguins, was dining Sunday night at a Houston's restaurant in Scottsdale when he said he noticed several men at the bar arguing with the restaurant's manager.  "It was a bunch of drunk golfers," Bissonnette said in a video that he posted on X.  "They asked one guy to leave, and then one guy kept getting in the manager's face [and] put his hands on him."  He said the ruckus continued escalating for 30 or 40 seconds before he intervened.

Mexican Soccer Manager Bloodied By Thrown Beer Can.  The Mexican National Soccer Team's manager ended up with a nasty cut on Saturday when a fan chucked a piece of garbage onto the pitch at the end of the team's match against Honduras.  The match was being held at Estadio Francisco Morazán in San Pedro Sula, Honduras and the match was the first leg of a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal.  The Mexican team wound up losing the match 2-0 — a blowout by soccer standards — however, what might be the most memorable part of the match was when Mexico's 65-year-old manager Javier Aguirre was drilled in the head by what certainly looked like a beer can as he was walking across the pitch to shake hands with Honduras.  [Tweet]

Immigration, the Relapse to Barbarism, and the End of Civilization.  European football hooligans are what they are:  socially maladapted individuals with an attraction to the violent group culture surrounding major football clubs.  They may be the sort of people who drink in excess, are challengingly loud, and go out to pick a fight.  What they are definitely not, however, is declared enemies of society.  In particular, they do not pretend to be at odds with — let alone superior to — ordinary compatriots.  To be sure, their street clashes, whether accidental or premeditated, are completely unacceptable in an orderly society; they are a matter for the police.

Nations League clash abandoned following on-pitch brawl.  A Nations League match has been abandoned following a bust-up and supposedly offensive chanting — as one team stormed off in the last minute amid jeers.  Kosovo's stars walked off in the 93rd minute of their trip to Romania after the home fans reportedly chanted about Serbia — who refuse to recognise Kosovo's independence.  UEFA did not explain why the game was cut short but Kosovo players were reportedly upset at hearing the pro-Serbian slogans — with riot police dividing them from the stands.

Sometimes The Fights In The Stands At UFC Fights Are Better Than In The Octogon.  Fighting fans in the stands.  [Video clip]

Horrific Footage Shows Israeli Soccer Fans Attacked by Antisemitic Mobs in Amsterdam.  Multiple outlets are reporting that anti-Israel mobs are chasing down Israelis and savagely beating them on the streets of Amsterdam Thursday following a soccer game between Maccabi Tel Aviv FC and Amsterdam's Ajax.  As of this writing, dozens of extremely disturbing videos are being posted to X depicting violent beatings as individuals are surrounded and then pummeled.

Full Body cam footage released following viral altercations at Florida-Georgia football game.  The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says officers "acted within policy to protect themselves and nearby fans" in two altercations that were caught on camera during Saturday's Georgia-Florida game at EverBank Stadium.  Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters released body-camera footage and details regarding two fights that resulted in viral videos from the rivalry game nicknamed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party."  In the videos officers could be seen striking fans.  One video shows officers struggling with two spectators in the stands.  Surrounding fans could be heard screaming at officers to stop.  A second video shows an argument between a man and two JSO officers escalate into a fight that left the man with his face bloodied and handcuffed after being shot repeatedly with a stun gun.  Neither video showed circumstances that led to the confrontations.  [Video clip]

Every Time Something Major Happens, It Is An Excuse For Rioting, Looting And Violence.  We live at a time when it is expected that chaos will follow virtually every big event.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there was looting.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, there was looting.  The war in the Middle East has sparked wild protests and riots all over the country this year.  And even if something really good happens, many people just consider it to be an excuse for even more rioting, looting and violence.  For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers just won the World Series.  But instead of celebrating peacefully, young men in Los Angeles looted stores and threw fireworks at police. [...] Many of the rioters probably don't even care much about baseball.  But once the Dodgers won, large numbers of people recognized as opportunity to run wild.

LA erupts into chaos following Dodgers' World Series victory with looters raiding Nike store.  Los Angeles descended into chaos Wednesday night as belligerent baseball fans set a bus on fire while others clashed with cops and looters ran amok following the Dodgers' World Series victory.  The Los Angeles Police Department shared footage of a mob of looters running in and out of a boarded-up Nike store carrying merchandise and throwing it into cars parked outside the store about four miles from Dodger Stadium just after 11 p.m.  The LAPD said it was "aware of the looting" and has made arrests but did not disclose how many suspects were taken into custody.

Dodgers World Series celebrations descend into chaos in LA with shops looted and fireworks thrown at cops.  World Series celebrations descended into chaos in the early hours of Thursday morning in Los Angeles, with shops being looted by gangs and fireworks thrown at cops in the street.  The LAPD shared a video of people rushing out of Nike stores stealing boxes, while a bus was burnt down near Dodger Stadium.  Nobody was believed to be hurt.  Police said that arrests had been made but did not immediately reveal how many people had been detained.

The Dodgers Won The World Series And Of Course There Was Violence Afterward.  The smashed bottle to the head was unexpected.  Chaos is a part of championships but being in New York City this year assured a more colorful version of it.  [Video clip]

A Thuggish Baltimore Ravens Fan Goes Hunting For Washington Fans, Beats Two Of Them.  Baltimore police are seeking information about a fan attack that appeared to occur after the Ravens-Commanders game on Sunday.  A video has spread on social media appearing to show a Ravens fan brutally attacking two Commanders fans in Baltimore.  In the video, a man wearing a Lamar Jackson jersey approaches two fans in Commanders jerseys and beats both of them up, as the man recording the video yells, "We've got a straggler!"  [Video clip]

Update:
This Low-Life Who Assaulted Football Fans Turns Himself In, Facing Up To 25 Years Prison.  Ravens fan turns himself in after going viral for assaulting multiple Washington Commanders fans.  24-year-old John Callis is facing 25 years in prison for the violent assault.  The thug is facing multiple charges, including first-degree aggravated assault and three counts of second-degree assault.  [Video clip]

Man Gets Brutally Head Stomped At A Falcons Saints Game, Multiple Women Injured.  Falcons fan throws a Saints fan to the ground and repeatedly stomps on his head during a wild brawl.  Viral footage shows a Falcons fan launching himself over seats to attack another spectator at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  The Falcons fan violently stomps on the other man's head three times before being restrained.  [Video clip]

Wild Brawl At The 49er's Stadium.  A Rams fan knocked down a woman as a chaotic brawl broke out at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.  While the Rams completed a 27-24 comeback to claim victory over the San Francisco 49ers, the fans started trading shoves and punches in the stadium concourse.  In a video posted by a bystander, a Niners fan wearing a George Kittle jersey pointed to his cheek, encouraging the Rams fan to take a swing.  The LA fan — sporting a Cooper Kupp jersey — obliged with a left jab.  The woman, who appears to be with the San Francisco fan, went from trying to defuse the situation to avenging the punch, as she began charging toward the Rams fan.  [Video clip]

Insane Brawl Between Raiders And Chargers Fans Left People Bloodied And Unconscious.  Fan violence has already begun to mar the NFL just one week into the 2024 season as the Las Vegas Raiders' trip to SoFi Stadium saw supporters left bloodied and unconscious.  The Los Angeles Chargers opened their season at home in an AFC West divisional matchup against the Raiders Sunday, but brutal tackles were already being made before the players even took to the field.  [Video clip]

49ers And Raiders Fans Go To War At An In-N-Out Burger In Cali.  A bunch of Raiders and 49ers fans brawl at an In-N-Out in Mountain View, CA.  [Video clip]

Two Thugs Jump A Guy Holding His Beer After The Denver Broncos Game.  A Denver Broncos fan got badly knocked down at the team's preseason game after getting himself in a stir up, as shown in viral footage shared on social media, Sunday.  The wrangle broke out at some point during the Broncos' 38-12 home win over the Arizona Cardinals when a guy holding a Coors Light tall boy started beefing with another supporter.  During their exchange, the guy with the beer faked a move to scare his foe... only to find himself at the receiving end of a nasty punch to the face, as his opponent was dead serious when it came to actually fighting.  [Video clip]

Soccer Brawl Erupts in Rutgers-UMass Women's Match.  A women's college soccer game between Rutgers and UMass turned chaotic on Sunday when a brawl erupted following a foul, resulting in multiple punches being thrown.  The match, held in Amherst, Massachusetts, saw tensions escalate quickly after a whistle was blown for a foul, leading to a physical altercation between players from both teams, as reported by Fox News.

49ers & Raiders Fans Close Out The Preseason With A Bloody Brawl.  The Las Vegas Raiders wrapped up their preseason at home on Friday night against the San Francisco 49ers.  There was plenty of chaos on and off the field.  First let's cover what took place on the field before we head up into the stands where a fan took a folding chair to another fan's face.  The game ended in chaos after a Hail Mary turned into lateral attempts.  The Niners were trying to break a 24-24 tie and steal a win in the last second.  That didn't happen, and the two teams settled for the saddest thing in all of sports; a tie.

San Diego Padres Fan Gets Left A Bloody Mess After Being Popped Like A Balloon With Mike Tyson-Esque Punches.  Major League Baseball continues to deal with the problems of fans getting into fights at games and in the example I have for you today, one fan was left an absolute bloody mess.  Tuesday night, the San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins were squaring off at the former's Petco Park.  Well, during the game, we had another competition — a fighting one — as two fans got into a brawl after an argument broke out, according to a video published on Twitter by @Levi_Leveille.

Fans demand disqualification after Olympic match erupts in mass brawl in the final seconds.  Hockey fans are calling for the Chinese Olympic team to be disqualified after a brawl broke out between the country and Belgium.  When it comes to the Olympics, you can expect a bit of drama... but most weren't prepared for what happened at the end of the Women's Field Hockey semi-final earlier today (August 8).  Belgium and China ended up in a fierce clash that saw athletes from both countries' benches storm the field to break up the two teams.

The Editor says...
When the players on the benches run onto the field after a fight breaks out, it isn't for the purpose of breaking up the fight.

Olympic Runners Have Physical Altercation After Men's 5000m Ends In "Mass Chaos".  Olympic runners George Mills from Great Britain and Hugo Hay from France exchanged elbows during the latest 5000m qualifying heat, resulting in a domino effect that caused four other athletes to fall and the rest to scramble to continue amid the chaos.  Hay remained upright and continued running, but Mills, alongside Thierry Ndikumwenayo from Spain, Dominic Lokinyomo from the Refugee Team, Moh Ahmed from Canada, and Mike Foppen from the Netherlands, fell on the tracks and were thus unable to compete properly.

Nasty Young Black Basketball Player Head Stomps An Asian Kid Scrambling For The Ball During A Tournament In San Fran.  A terrible video showing a black kid head-stomping an Asian kid during a basketball tournament in San Francisco.  The Asian child is seen motionless immediately after the assault.  This is not the first time black youths have attacked Asians during basketball games in the Bay Area.  In May of 2021, a mostly black basketball team was suspended and a black player was permanently banned after a punch followed the alleged use of anti-Asian slurs during a tournament.  [Video clip]

At least 11 illegal migrants among 27 arrested during Copa America chaos as fans rushed Hard Rock Stadium.  At least 11 illegal migrants are among the 27 people arrested and accused of taking part in the melee during the COPA America final in Miami, The [New York] Post can reveal.  Luis Beltran Martinez and Elkin Mayorga, both Colombian nationals, are among the migrants arrested after fans stormed Hard Rock Stadium Sunday during the tournament final between Colombia and Argentina.  They were both charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and trespassing.  Mayorga is also facing charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer with violence.

'Not a good look for the US': Soccer fans riot in Miami, delay start of Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia.  The final for the Copa America soccer tournament was delayed for more than 75 minutes after fans rioted and breached the gates of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.  The final between Argentina and Colombia was the championship match of the Copa America, an international tournament that features teams from South America and North America.  With an intended start time of 8 p.m., the game didn't get underway until about 9:22 p.m; fans caused disturbances by jumping gates, pushing through fences, and even attempting to enter the stadium through ventilation systems.  Police eventually completely closed off the stadium gates, causing ticketed fans to wait outside as police and security attempted to contain the chaos and arrest those busting their way into the stadium.

We had a full-on players-in-the-stands brawl last night after the Copa America semifinal.  Bro, soccer has never been as exciting as this.  Check out the scene after Columbia defeated Uruguay in the Copa America semifinal.  [Tweet with video clip]  Yes, the Uruguay players, a la Ron Artest, made their way into the stands and started fighting Columbia fans.  They did this, they claim, to "defend their familias," though it looked right from the final whistle as if Uruguay was looking for a fight.

CHAOS! Uruguayan Soccer Players Go Into the Stands to Fight Colombian Fans in Shocking Brawl.  Wednesday night's Copa America match between Uruguay and Colombia ended in ugly fashion when Uruguayan players fought Colombia fans in the stands.  Colombia beat Uruguay 1-0 to advance to the final against Argentina on Sunday.  Moments after the final whistle, a number of Uruguayan players could be seen in the stands among a sea of Colombian fans.  The players were all crowded in the aisle between two sections of seats in Charlotte, North Carolina's Bank of America stadium.  A few rows up, a Uruguayan fan was shown on the air fighting with a Colombian fan.  One Colombian fan threw a fan into the crowd of Uruguayan players as several other fans seemed to challenge them to get closer and fight them.

White Sox Fan Takes On The Crowd At Summer Smash.  It was a rough day to be a White Sox supporter on Sunday ... 'cause as the MLB team got smacked by the Diamondbacks — one of their fans got leveled during a fight in a festival pit too.  [Video clip]

Another Day, Another Black WNBA Player Smashing Caitlin Clark During A Game.  WNBA player Angel Reese viciously elbows Caitlin Clark in the head as she goes in for a layup.  Reese could be seen completely missing the ball and making contact with Clark's head instead.  She was called for a flagrant 1.  The move comes as more and more WNBA players are becoming jealous of Clark's fame.  [Video clip]

Insane Fight Between English And Serbian Football Fans In Germany.  Gelsenkirchen police have confirmed that no England fans were arrested before kick-off at England's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia in Germany.  Videos on social media showed violence and supporters throwing tables and chairs at Hirt Steakhouse, a restaurant in the centre of Gelsenkirchen, with hundreds of riot police descending on the scene.  Local police later confirmed that the incident involved Serbian and England fans and that seven arrests were made, of which all were Serbian nationals.  [Video clip]

This Absolute Lunatic Lost His Mind At The French Open.  Andrey Rublev admitted 'I don't remember behaving worse at a Slam ever' after he kicked and screamed his way out of the French Open.  The No 6 seed was beaten 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 by Italian Matteo Arnaldi on Friday and — by no means for the first time in his career — Rublev was the author of his own downfall.  After going two breaks down in the second set, the 26-year-old Muscovite smashed his racket twice into the ground and, as he went to sit down for the changeover, kicked the bench three times.  [Video clip]

Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (And Their Pit Crews) Scrap It Out In Wild Brawl After NASCAR All-Star Race.  After the NASCAR All-Star Race in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, was over, fireworks were poppin' off to celebrate the occasion, but the sparking up didn't stop there.  [Advertisement]  Following the race, Kyle Busch headed over to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while he was over at his truck for a good ol' fashioned confrontation, and this had to do with a wreck that took place during Lap 2.  And well, things didn't go well to say the least.  [Website promo]  Following the wreck, Stenhouse confronted Busch's crew after stopping right in front of his pit stop area, which provoked Busch to go over to Stenhouse's truck.  Talking to reporters following the All-Star Race, Stenhouse Jr. actually predicted a little of what was to come, saying to the media that he was going to "handle it."

It's Not Easy Being A Ref In Da Hood.  They don't teach you how to deal with that in ref school.  [Video clip]

NBA Star Caught on Camera Viciously Pelting Opposing Fans During Playoff Loss: 'He's Gonna Get Suspended'.  The Milwaukee Bucks' season ended on a sour note Thursday as the team lost its first-round series to the Indiana Pacers and guard Patrick Beverley twice threw a basketball at fans.  A video clip showed Beverley interacting with a group of fans with 2:32 left in the fourth quarter and his team down by 20 points.  He tossed a ball that struck a woman in the head and then appeared to call on those around her to return it to him.

Rangers Fan Antagonizes Capitals Fan After They Got Swept In The Playoffs.  Even the DC cops saw this guy looking for trouble and let him have a little.  Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist, and the New York Rangers eliminated the Washington Capitals with a 4-2 win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Capital One Arena on Sunday.  [Video clip]

Brawl breaks out at Aintree.  Ladies Day at Aintree turned ugly today as a brawl broke out between a group of young men who threw punches at each other as shocked racegoers watched on.  Shocking photos from the second day of the event in Liverpool today show a man in a grey suit with blood around his mouth seemingly preparing to punch another racegoer, who holds one hand up in an apparent attempt to dissuade him.  A second image shows the moment another grimacing thug made contact with a rival's left ear, with a third showing a number of men scuffling together in the middle of a huge crowd.

Massive Brawl Breaks Out At The Start Of The NY Rangers And NJ Devils Game.  8 skaters were ejected after a massive fight broke out between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.  Immediately after the game started, all 10 skaters started brawling.  The fight apparently stemmed from an incident earlier in the month when Rangers rookie Matt Rempe hit Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with an elbow.  [Video clip]

Phillies are scrapping $1 hot dog nights following unruly fan behavior.  A statement from the team said the change was made "based on the organization's ongoing commitment to provide a positive experience for all fans in attendance."  What wasn't positive about dollar dog nights?  Armed with projectile frankfurters, some unruly Phillies fans began chucking their favorite Hatfield meat during a game last year, and the dogs soared like cans of corn throughout the stands and onto the field.  The demand for the discount dogs also led to clogged lanes — if not arteries — on the concourse, and the cramped spaces led to security and safety concerns.

Top Duke Basketball Player Injured After Opposing Fans Storm the Court.  Adding injury on top of insult, one of Duke University's star basketball players was hurt Saturday after unranked Wake Forest beat eighth-ranked Duke 83-79.  Kyle Filipowski collided with a fan when the Wake Forest home crowd stormed the court after the game in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, according to CBS Sports.  Video of the incident showed a collision that left Filipowski off balance and needing assistance to get off the court.

We've Got An Insane College Hockey Fight Between Arizona State And Alaska-Fairbanks.  If you said to me, "Yo, where do you think the craziest hockey fight this season will come from?"  I, like most people, would have said the NHL, maybe the AHL.  There's a case to be made for the LNAH where 52-year-old Donald Brashear just threw hands this week.  [Tweet with video clip]

Former NBA Player Matt Barnes Now Becomes Former Broadcaster After Altercation.  Matt Barnes has been given the boot by NBC Sports after getting into an altercation with a high school broadcaster.  The former Sacramento Kings NBA Champion who clearly doesn't have any anger management issues, had recently been doing pre-and-postgame analysis for the Kings games on NBC Sports California.  However, it's what happened during his son's high school basketball game that now has Barnes in search of a job.  [Tweet with video clip]

NBA Suspends Pistons Mad Man Isaiah Stewart 3 Games After Punching Suns Player.  Detroit Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart hit NBA headlines on Valentine's Day after punching Phoenix Suns player Drew Eubanks before their game at Footprint Center.  The NBA responded by suspending Stewart for three games, according to a league announcement on Thursday.  A misdemeanor assault charge issued against Stewart has also been dismissed, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.  The player was arrested and issued a citation.  Stewart will miss the three games without pay.

Women's College Basketball Game Turns Into A Massive Brawl Between Players And Fans.  A massive brawl breaks out at a women's college basketball game resulting in 5 ejections, 3 fans getting booted, and a coach on crutches.  The incident happened between Arkansas State and Southern Miss women's teams after Emma Imevbore and Domonique Davis fought for a rebound.  As the fight broke out, Southern Miss assistant coach Jessica Barber was knocked to the ground.  Three fans also decided to get involved with one putting their hands on a referee while screaming.  [Video clip]

Incarnate Word, Texas A&M-Commerce Players Scrap In Wild College Basketball Fight That Bleeds Into Crowd.  Fists were thrown and people were hurt at a Monday night men's college basketball game between Texas A&M-Commerce and Incarnate Word.  With names like that, it was bound to be a wild fight, and it delivered.  And frankly, while the game had a winner, both teams looked like losers after this barbaric scrap; moments after A&M secured the 76-72 win in overtime, playing at Alice P. McDermott Convocation Center in San Antonio.

Massive Brawl Featuring Molly Whops And Pepper Spray Breaks Out At High School Basketball Game In Georgia.  Absolute chaos reigned during a Friday night high school basketball game in Cairo, Georgia as a massive brawl erupted following an intense overtime between the Westover Patriots and Cairo Syrupmakers.  Leading up to the 77-74 victory for the Syrupmakers (man, I love that name), tensions were at a high, with several technical fouls reportedly getting called.  After the contest, things hit a boiling point as a gargantuan rumble took off.  Absolutely insane video shows a crap load of people — players, coaches, fans, family — scrappin' on the court, with molly whops being tossed and pepper spray being, well, sprayed.

Violent Outburst:  NM State Basketball Player Ejected for Punching Opponent.  Robert Carpenter, a New Mexico State men's basketball player, will miss at least one match after being ejected for punching Shiloh Robertson in the face during Thursday night's overtime win over Liberty.  Carpenter and Robinson were tangled under the net as Carpenter was looking for a bounce in the early part of the first half.  Carpenter appeared to strike Robinson in the face as Robinson turned to go down the court.

Bills Fan Shot Outside Hard Rock Stadium; Second Fatal Incident at Game This Season.  A Buffalo Bills fan was shot to death in Miami after Sunday's AFC East matchup against the Miami Dolphins.  The victim was identified as 30-year-old Dylan Brody Isaacs.  The young man and his friends were reportedly heading back to their vehicle after the Bills' victory when a vehicle approached the group and fired multiple shots, killing Isaacs.  Both sides reportedly had an altercation that preceded the cold-blooded act.  According to the Miami Herald, the scene occurred several blocks away from Hard Rock Stadium.  The suspect opened fire after pulling several maneuvers to intimidate the group.

Idolatry:
Man Jumps The Counter At Starbucks And Steals A Box Of Stanley Cups That Are Selling For Almost 500 Bucks Each On eBay.  A limited-edition Stanley cup released in collaboration with Starbucks is causing mayhem at Target stores[,] with fans lining up overnight and fights breaking out in some locations.  The shimmery pink version of the Stanley Quencher[,] an insulated tumbler that has proved a hit on social media[,] was released Wednesday.  People have flocked to Target stores across the US to get their hands on the $49.95 cup.  The cups are now selling on third party site eBay for as much as $299.99[,] with some users listing the item for as much as $550.  According to videos posted online, there have also been fights breaking out in stores over the tumbler.

Cowboys Fan Gets Blasted by a Nasty Sucker Punch.  I know some of you guys don't like to see disgusting NFL fan fight videos because they're showing an absolutely pathetic side of Americana, but the OutKick Culture Department has a civic duty to show such behavior.  Exposing the behavior is our way of FIGHTING BACK! The OutKick Culture Department will not stand for such nasty behavior as what we saw Sunday night at Fed Ex Field where a scumbag Commanders fan uncorked a haymaker sucker punch on a Cowboys fan who didn't get a chance to defend himself.

2 men charged in death of Patriots fan at Gillette Stadium.  Two men were charged Thursday in connection with the death of a football fan at a New England Patriots game in September.  John Vieira and Justin Mitchell of Rhode Island were charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct in an altercation that allegedly resulted in the death of New Hampshire man Dale Mooney at a Patriots game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

HS basketball player, older brother beat up coach after game for getting benched: police.  A Texas high school basketball player attacked his coach in a parking lot after he was benched for unsportsmanlike conduct during a game earlier that night.  Jevin Allen, 17, and his brother Jarrick Allen, 22, who also allegedly participated in the beating, were arrested Dec. 5 for the assault that left the coach with injuries to his head, neck, face and arms, authorities said.  The coach, who was not identified by name, told the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office that Jevin was benched during the away game "due to his behavior toward an opposing team player" — a disciplinary action that "infuriated" the teen and his family.  Upon returning to their school, Willis High School in Conroe, [Texas,] at around 9:52 p.m. after the game, the coach found the teen and his family were waiting for him in the parking lot, authorities said.  The relatives confronted the coach, and the fight escalated when Jevin allegedly punched him in the face, the sheriff's office said.

Youth coach says 'I'm blessed' after being shot 4 times by parent angry child isn't starting.  A volunteer youth football coach who was shot four times in front of his recreational team of 9- and 10-year-olds in St. Louis, Missouri, by a parent angry that his son was not one of the starting players says he is "blessed" to have survived the attack.  "I am a miracle.  I beat the odds," the coach, Shaquille Latimore, 30, told KSDK.  "A bullet hit me under my left arm, on my left forearm, my leg, and one went through my lower back and out my liver.  All of the bullets went through me," he recalled of the Oct. 10 attack by the parent police have identified as 43-year-old Daryl Clemmons.

Patriots Fan Dies After Brawl In The Stands.  The death of a Patriots fan during a game at Gillette Stadium on Sunday is under investigation by State Police and the Norfolk District Attorney's office.  The man who died has been identified as 53-year-old Dale Mooney of Newmarket, New Hampshire.  Mooney's wife said he was a great dad with a big heart and wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone.  A witness said taunting between fans suddenly turned violent.

12 dead, dozens injured in Madagascar stadium stampede.  At least 12 people are dead and dozens more are injured after getting caught up in a stampede in Madagascar during the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games, officials said.  The stampede occurred as thousands of people scrambled to get inside the main entrance of the Kianja Barea Mahamasina Stadium in the capital city of Antananarivo Friday evening [8/25/2023].

Brawl Breaks Out At Houston Stadium After Mexico/Honduras Soccer Match.  Different videos continue to circulate on social networks in which relative fans of the Mexican National Team have various clashes at the end of the match between Mexico and Honduras in it NRG Stadiumcorresponding to the group stage of the Gold Cup.  Despite the victory of the Mexican team, the attendees did not end up agreeing with each other and decided to lose their temper in different parts of the building.  One of the videos was recorded in a box at the stadium, where the women were the protagonists of the beatings and pulling their hair; security elements tried to intervene, but the incidents did not stop.  [Video clip]

Massive Soccer Riot In Indonesia Leaves At Least 129 Dead.  At least 129 people are dead and about 200 more injured, police say, after chaos and violence erupted late on Saturday following an Indonesian league soccer match between two of the nation's biggest teams.  Supporters of Arema FC and rival Persebaya Surabaya clashed after home team Arema FC was defeated 3-2 at a match in the city of Malang in East Java.  Supporters from the losing team had "invaded" the pitch and police fired tear gas, triggering a stampede which led to cases of suffocation, East Java police chief Nico Afinta said during a press conference following the event.  [Video clip]

At least 174 dead during fan stampede after Indonesian soccer match.  At least 174 people are dead — most of them trampled in a stampede — after violent brawls erupted between opposing fans after a soccer match in Indonesia, local police said.  Numerous fights broke out among rival fans at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java province's Malang city just as Persebaya Surabaya defeated Arema Malang 3-2 in the Indonesian Premier League Match on Sunday.

Yankees Fans Pelt Opponents During Routine Game — Is Civil Society a Thing of the Past?  The breakdown of civil society continues.  Over the last several years, we've seen mass riots, increased violence on airplanes, soaring murder rates, a rise in road rage incidents, and more.  The latest:  New York Yankees fans Saturday pelted Cleveland Guardians players with trash and empty beer cans at the tail end of a routine and frankly unimportant game in New York.  [Tweet]  While the violence didn't approach the level of 2004's Detroit's infamous Malice in the Palace, it was still pretty ugly.

Home Sports Hecklers, boors, brawlers giving youth sports a bad game.  Researchers say the bad sportsmanship, rude behavior and outright violence adults display at youth sporting events has become a national epidemic that sends the wrong message to child athletes and drives referees from playing fields in droves.  In an age when one-sport specialization and thousand-dollar travel tournaments are the norm for many families, success in the game has become such a priority that some parents turn "rabid," said Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials.  "I'd characterize youth sports as sort of the perfect storm where you have the least skillful players and the least skillful coaches and the least skillful referees and almost nonexistent security, and then you have the most rabid fans in all forms," he said.  "And that can be a toxic mix."

Lawsuit is filed in Amalie Arena attack blamed on man who served 46 years for rape.  A woman severely beaten last month at Amalie Arena has filed a lawsuit against the company that manages the venue and the cleaning it service it hired, alleging they were negligent in employing a man released from prison after serving 46 years for rape.

Dodgers fan suffers skull fracture in fight outside stadium, police hunt suspect.  A Dodgers fan was hospitalized with serious injuries after a fight in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium following Friday's [3/29/2019] six-hour game, according to police and the victim's family.  The assault stemmed from a "verbal dispute" between two men outside of the stadium following the Dodgers game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lt. Silvia Sanchez with the Los Angeles Police Department told Fox News.

What a refreshing hobby!
Man bites off golfer's finger to the knuckle at Massachusetts golf club.  An argument between two golfers at a Massachusetts golf club turned bloody Friday when one of the men bit off the other player's finger, reports said. [...] A 47-year-old man, who was not identified, was arrested at the scene and charged with mayhem.

Yay! Our team won!  Let's destroy stuff!  [F]ans in many cities have been known to riot after major sports victories.  Maybe the only difference is that some fans in Philly seem to take pride in it.

Football players beat teammate unconscious at party, authorities say.  The alleged beating of a high school football player — allegedly by four of his teammates — has a small Minnesota town debating the topic of bullying.  The four players at Blue Earth Area High School, ages 16 to 18, face felony charges — including third-degree assault causing substantial bodily harm — and aiding and abetting.

3 high school football players charged with raping teen girl.  Three high school football players have been charged with raping a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint after she left a Pennsylvania town fair.

NFL Players [are] Arrested Every 7 Days On Average.  The National Football League is in a golden age right now:  It's been 23 days since one of its players has been arrested.  The average time between arrests is just seven days, while the record without an arrest is slightly more than two months, at 65 days, according to NFLarrest.com, which "provides an interactive visualized database of National Football League player Arrests & Charges," the site says.  Players get arrested for a variety of crimes: drunk driving, drug offenses, domestic violence, assault and battery, gun violations, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, theft, burglary, rape and even murder.

The NFL Went a Full Month Without an Arrest.  Not a single player in the National Football League was arrested in September, the first month without a reported arrest since July 2009.

Jameis Winston Cleared of Rape Like Every Other College Sports Star.  His accuser was smeared and demeaned, and a star football player was allowed to keep on playing.  This has been going on for too long.

College football player arrested after punching referee.  The Ventura County Star reports that Mount San Antonio freshman offensive linesman Bernard Schirmer was immediately ejected from the game and later arrested on suspicion of battery and taken to Ventura County jail.

Four Jacksonville Jaguars stars involved in 4am London brawl over $60k bar bill.  Three of the four Jacksonville Jaguars involved in an incident at a night club over a bar bill of more than $60,000 have taken to the field less than 24 hours after their release.  Safeties Barry Church, 30, Ronnie Harrison, 21, and Jarrod Wilson, 24, who were detained early Saturday morning [10/27/2018], played Sunday when the Jaguars lost 24-18 to the Philadelphia Eagles at Wembley.  Cornerback DJ Hayden, 28, who was also detained in the incident, was out due to injury.  The Florida American football team confirmed that some of the squad was taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police because they didn't seem to settle payment for the hefty check they racked up before they made their way toward the exit.

Alabama fan shot dead outside football party.  An Alabama fan was shot dead after a fight outside a football-watching party shortly after the Crimson Tide lost in a stunning upset to the Auburn Tigers Saturday [11/30/2013].  Michelle Shepherd was attacked by fellow fans of the University of Alabama after she commented that she didn't care that much that the team had lost, her sister says.

15-year-old Kansas football player's death is blamed on heat.  Outdoor conditioning while a heat advisory was in effect during the humid summer left 15-year-old football player Ovet Gomez Regalado pale and asking for water.  After a 15-minute exercise, he collapsed as he walked to a building at his suburban Kansas City high school and died two days later of heatstroke, the medical examiner's office wrote this month in a report that followed a weeks-long investigation.

Alabama high school football player dies after suffering injury during game.  An Alabama high school football player died Saturday, a day after he was critically injured during a game.  Morgan Academy quarterback Caden Tellier was hurt following a tackle in the third quarter of the school's game Friday night against Southern Academy in Selma, headmaster Bryan Oliver told Al.com.  Tellier, a 16-year-old junior, suffered a brain injury and was flown to the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital Friday night, Oliver said.

Utah State Football Player Suffers Sudden Cardiac Arrest.  Utah State football player Josh Davis, a redshirt freshman wideout, was hospitalized after suffering a cardiac arrest during spring training on Thursday.  Davis was quickly sent to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah, and by Friday was upgraded from critical to fair condition, according to the Utah State football staff, Fox News reported.

Soccer Match Suspended After 25-Year-Old Player Suffers Cardiac Arrest in Middle of Game.  A young player's cardiac arrest led to the suspension of a soccer game Saturday in Cordoba, Spain.  Dragisa Gudelj, 25, who is a native of Serbia, was stricken 11 minutes into a match between Cordoba and Racing-Ferrol, according to The Associated Press.  Gudelj was given CPR on the field, the AP reported.

NFL Star Abruptly Retires at 30, Issues Ominous Warning: 'DO NOT Take the Injections They Give You'.  One of the NFL's premiere cornerbacks appeared to abruptly call it a career on Saturday — and issued an ominous warning in the process.  Miami Dolphins cornerback Byron Jones, a former All-Pro and Pro Bowler, announced via a pair of tweets that he could no longer "run or jump" and seemingly implied that he was stepping away from the game for good. [...] Without outright stating so, it's pretty evident Jones is decrying the NFL's approach to injury management.  Of note, Jones missed the entire 2022 season for the Dolphins due to injury.  While hearing about injections of cortisone or cocktails of painkillers is hardly anything novel in the NFL, Jones's critique of the NFL's pain management philosophy is about as withering as it gets.  Even when star Dallas Cowboy linebacker Micah Parsons recently claimed that "95 percent" of the league pushes players to take painkillers to play through injury, it was largely viewed as more of a passing comment than a scathing critique.

'Did We Win?' Damar Hamlin Communicating With Doctors, Inquired About the Game.  On Thursday, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center gave an update on the medical condition of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.  Hamlin is reportedly responsive physically and neurologically and is communicating with doctors via writing since he cannot speak while intubated.  According to reports, Hamlin asked doctors, "Did we win?"

The Editor says...
I'm pleasantly surprised that Mr. Hamlin is still alive and thinking.  I thought this guy was near death.  But notice that the news coverage presumes that as soon as he leaves the hospital, or as soon as he can, he will start playing football again.

Spectator who caused massive crash at Tour de France missing after fleeing the country.  A spectator at the Tour de France who caused a massive crash involving dozens of cyclists is missing as race authorities plan to sue her.  Tour de France deputy director Pierre-Yves Thouault told the AFP news agency they plan to sue the woman "so that the tiny minority of people who do this don't spoil the show for everyone."  However, French publication Ouest-France reported the woman, who is believed to be German, got on a flight and is untraceable, according to CBS Sports.  Video shows the woman, who held a long banner on the sidelines of the race, stick the banner out a little too far, causing German cyclist Tony Martin to bike right into it.  Martin fell, setting off a domino effect for competitors as cyclists behind him also fell.

French police arrest a woman in Brittany over the Tour de France's worst-ever crash.  A woman facing prison for causing one of the worst crashes in the history of the Tour de France has been arrested after four days on the run.  The suspect — who has not been identified — was on Wednesday in custody in the Brittany town of Landerneau.  Prosecutors launched a criminal inquiry following the collapse of an entire peloton on Saturday, when 21 cyclists including Britain's Chris Froome were seriously hurt.  The woman was filmed standing by the side of the road and grinning at TV cameras while holding up a large sign saying 'Go!  Grandma and Grandpa' in a mixture of French and German.  She had her back to the approaching peloton and was hit in the left arm before spinning around.

French police arrest a woman in Brittany over the Tour de France's worst-ever crash.  A woman facing prison for causing one of the worst crashes in the history of the Tour de France has been arrested after four days on the run.  The suspect — who has not been identified — was arrested today and is now in custody in the small Brittany town of Landerneau.  She lives in the Finistere department of Brittany, in which Landerneau is situated, according to an investigating source.  'She did not have far to travel to get to the race, and clearly knew how to escape after causing so much damage,' he said.  'Numerous witnesses were interviewed, and camera footage was also inspected in order to track the suspect down.[']

Track coach blasts mask rule after runner collapses from 'complete oxygen debt'.  On Wednesday [4/21/2021], a face-masked high school distance runner in Oregon collapsed unconscious on the track a few meters from the finish line — due to what her coach deemed "complete oxygen debt."  According to The Bulletin, despite Summit HS 800-meter star Maggie Williams' fall [...], she slid across the finish recording a blazing time of 2:08.45, a school record.  Maggie suffered a burn to her face along with scraped elbows and knees.  "I was pushing so hard and everything went blurry and I just fell," she said.

UIL pushes start of Texas high school football season back to end of September.  The University Interscholastic League has pushed the first games of the Texas high school football season for its biggest districts to the end of September due to the coronavirus.  The modifications to the 2020-2021 UIL calendar and updated COVID-19 risk mitigation guidelines are set to take effect August 1st.

The Editor says...
Football itself is far more dangerous than the coronavirus.  An average of twelve high school and college football players die every year. [1] [2] [3] If the UIL wanted to save lives, they'd do away with football.

Foul ball officially blamed for killing elderly woman at Dodgers game.  A 79-year-old woman was killed when a foul ball struck her in the head at a Dodgers game during the 2018 season.  Linda Goldbloom died [8/28/2018] from a brain hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report obtained by ESPN.  While Goldbloom's family did not attempt to hide the cause of death — even saying the "end came by a foul ball at [Dodger] Stadium" in an email notification the day she died — the Dodgers made no public mention of the incident, nor did MLB.

Woman, 79, was killed by foul ball at Dodgers game last season: report.  A 79-year-old woman was killed when a foul ball struck her in the head at a Dodgers game during the 2018 season.  Linda Goldbloom died from a brain hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report obtained by ESPN.

Ryder Cup spectator hit by Brooks Koepka's shot blinded in one eye and plans to sue organizers.  The woman hit in the face by a Brooks Koepka shot at the Ryder Cup says she has been left permanently blind in her right eye.  Corine Remande, 49, says her "eyeball exploded" after being caught by the American's drive on the sixth hole on the tournament's opening day on Friday.

California Lawmakers Moving to Ban Tackle Football for Kids.  Joining the trend seen in a handful of other states, California Democrats are preparing to outlaw tackle football for kids under 14.  State Democrats have introduced the "Safe Youth Football Act," and if passed, the bill would make California the first state to ban tackle football for kids.

As Brain Injuries Increase, National Enthusiasm for Football Fades.  The head-injury epidemic in the NFL has changed what was once a beloved pastime into a spectacle that degrades its viewers. [...] Football's kinetic energy — a function of the masses and velocities of the hurtling bodies — has increased dramatically in 50 years.  On Alabama's undefeated 1966 team, only 21 percent of the players weighed more than 200 pounds.  The heaviest weighed 223; the linemen averaged 194.  The quarterback, who weighed 177, was Ken Stabler, who went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career — and to "moderately severe" CTE before death from cancer.  Today, many high-school teams are much beefier than the 1966 Crimson Tide.  Of the 114 members of Alabama's 2016 squad, just 25 weighed less than 200 and 20 weighed more than 300.  In 1980, only three NFL players weighed 300 or more pounds.  Last season, 390 weighed 300 pounds or more, and six topped 350.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  is a degenerative disease found in people who have suffered repeated blows to the head.  A subtype of CTE is dementia pugilistica (DP), i.e. "punch-drunk," as it was initially found in those with a history of boxing.  CTE is most commonly found in professional athletes participating in American football, rugby, ice hockey, boxing, professional wrestling, stunt performing, bull riding, rodeo riding, and other contact sports who have experienced repeated brain trauma, such as concussions and blows to the head that do not produce concussions.  The presence of CTE in domestic violence is also being investigated.  It can affect high-school athletes following just a few years of participation in sports.

Some football positions linked to high blood pressure.  It might not be obvious to those who spend Saturdays cheering on their alma mater on the gridiron, but playing college football is linked to changes that negatively affect the heart.  However, not all players are affected equally — position makes a difference, a new study finds.  In the research, linemen were more likely to develop high blood pressure over the course of a season than players in other positions were, according to the study, published Dec. 5 in the journal JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

South Carolina high school football player dies at practice.  Coroner Helen Fisher said Lewis N. Simpkins, 14, of Lexington, was pronounced dead Wednesday night at Lexington Medical Center.

OSU basketball player dies after team workout.  Junior college transfer Tyrek Coger died Thursday after collapsing following an Oklahoma State basketball team workout, the university announced.

Concussions tied to more school problems than other injuries.  High school and college students who get concussions may struggle more with academics than their peers who get other types of sports injuries, a small U.S. study suggests.  Researchers surveyed 70 students who received emergency treatment for concussions and 108 teens and young adults treated for other injuries.  With a concussion, students took an average of 5.4 days to return to school, compared with 2.8 days for other injuries.

University of California acknowledges negligence in death of football player.  The University of California has acknowledged its negligence was a substantial factor in the death of former California football player Ted Agu.  The 21-year-old defensive lineman from Bakersfield died nearly two years ago after a strenuous team workout.  His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, arguing that Agu had sickle cell trait and should not have been put through an exercise where players sprinted up and down a hill while holding a rope together.

James Naismith Created Basketball to Counter Football's Violence.  This Christmas, Concussion will bring to the big screen the latest saga in football's inherent reckoning with the damage and violence it inflicts upon players.  This sort of condemnation, however, is not new.  Over a century ago, opponents of football charged that the sport was too violent to deserve any reputable sanction in the United States.  The Washington Star newspaper featured an article titled "The Game of Manslaughter" lamenting that the 1897 football season had only just begun and "yet at least three deaths have already occurred as the direct results of" football.

Texas high school football player dies after collapsing during game.  A Texas high school football player died Saturday evening after he reportedly collapsed during a game on Friday [10/16/2015]. [...] [Cam'ron] Matthews is the sixth high-school football player to die since early September, according to USA TODAY.

The Editor says...
You can safely bet that if the schools had gun ranges instead of football fields, and six students died in gun classes in a period of two months, the gun classes would be permanently outlawed.  Why are football-related deaths acceptable?

Louisiana high school football player dies from injury suffered at game.  A Louisiana high school football player has died after suffering an injury during a game Friday night. [...] Johnny Ogden, an investigator with the parish coroner's office, said the player collapsed on the field after impact with another player.  He was transported to the emergency room at Franklin Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.  The coroner's office was still investigating the precise cause of death, Ogden said.

Star HS QB dies after tackle during football game.  The star quarterback on a New Jersey high school football team died after suffering an injury on the field.  Evan Murray, 17, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior, played for Warren Hills Regional High School. During a game Friday night [9/25/2015] at home against Summit he was hit by an opposing player late in the second quarter, the [New York] Daily News reported.

How the NFL leaves players broken — and broke.  "Is There Life After Football?" brings us inside the lives of NFL players to show why so many wind up in dire straits after their time on the field, from depression to debilitating lifelong injuries to catastrophic financial mismanagement.  While much-publicized concussions and head injuries account for some of the problems, they're just one possible hardship of many for those who spend years slamming into each other at full speed.

NCAA takes $70M first steps to helping players with head injuries.  The NCAA agreed on Tuesday to help athletes with head injuries in a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit that college sports' governing body touted as a major step forward but that critics say doesn't go nearly far enough.  The deal, filed in US District Court in Chicago, calls for the NCAA to toughen return-to-play rules for players who receive head blows and create a $70 million fund to pay for thousands of current and former athletes to undergo testing to determine whether they suffered brain trauma while playing football and other contact sports.

Why California banned full-contact football practices.  A new California law bans full-contact football practices for middle and high school students due to concerns over possible concussions.  In Los Angeles, a high school now has mandatory baseline testing for concussions for all students.

The Editor says...
If the public schools (or colleges) had extracurricular firearms training that resulted in concussions, broken bones and paralysis, in addition to a dozen fatalities per year, those programs would be banned in no time.  But if the same injuries and deaths occur while playing football, somehow they are acceptable.

Average 12 high school and college football players die each year.  Researchers from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research studied 243 football deaths recorded between July 1990 and June 2010.  Their study found heart conditions, heat and other non-traumatic causes of death are twice as common as injury-related ones.

Study Reinforces Link Between Head Trauma, Brain Damage.  An extensive Boston University study of head trauma found strong evidence that repeated blows to the head can lead to long-term brain damage.  The study, conducted by the BU Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, looked at the brains of 85 football players, boxers and military veterans.  Sixty-eight of the subjects — or 80 percent — showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Let The WNBA Die Already.  First off, let me say that I am not the target demographic for the WNBA.  Not only am I a man, but I don't enjoy basketball — once you've seen a 7-foot-tall guy slam dunk a basketball one time, you're pretty much seen it every time.  I get the skill, and I don't have the skill, but I also don't really want to have the skill.  There are far too many timeouts, traveling, fouls (called and missed) and seemingly always comes down to the last 2 minutes, which takes as long as the rest of the game had, for me to be interested.  It's like watching an NFL game with a flag-happy referee crew:  it's boring.  That being said, people like it.  The NBA is wildly popular and very profitable.  The WNBA is none of those things.

In Trying To Generate Playoff Drama, NASCAR 'Rigged' Its Championship.  Unlike most other racing leagues, where championships are decided based on points developed throughout an entire season, stock car racing for most of this century has relied upon a "playoff" format to determine champions. [...] This format has also included a "win-and-in" feature, whereby race winners automatically qualify for the playoffs, and playoff drivers who win races in rounds of the playoffs automatically advance to the next round.  The drawbacks of this feature, and the premium it places on winning individual races, became apparent this summer when driver Austin Dillon won a race in Richmond while wrecking two separate cars on the final lap.  Several days after the race, NASCAR determined that Dillon's actions violated the sport's standards for safety and decorum.  While it let Dillon's win stand, the series took away the automatic playoff berth that otherwise would have attached to that win, and he did not advance to the playoffs based on his position in the season standings.

WNBA will lose $40 million this season and its NBA investors are growing impatient.  While the WNBA is getting sellout crowds for the finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, the league's owners will not be making a return on their investment for the foreseeable future, sources close to the situation said.  The NBA owns nearly 60 percent of the league.  When one combines the NBA owners' personal stakes in WNBA teams and the WNBA itself, the amount rises to 75 percent, a source with direct knowledge of the numbers said.

The Editor says...
If your organization loses a lot of money every year, that's because you're pushing a product nobody wants.  Get a clue.  Nobody cares about women's basketball.

Anonymous NFL Player Absolutely Obliterates Steelers' Acrisure Stadium In Poll.  Acrisure Stadium, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, doesn't appear to be very popular with some players in the NFL.  The Athletic conducted a poll that shows multiple NFL players complaining about Pittsburgh and explaining why they don't like visiting there. [...] Despite the Steelers getting the harshest words, however, players actually didn't have Pittsburgh as the lowest rated road trip — that honor belongs to the Green Bay Packers, who landed 16.8% of the votes to put their Lambeau Field as the worst stadium to visit.

Philly Gays:  New 76ers Arena Will Ruin 'Gayborhood' With Influx Of Straight Men.  In a sign of the times, Philadelphia gays are FURIOUS over a proposed downtown arena for the 76ers because it could ruin their 'Gayborhood,' according to a statement released by the Alphabet Mafia.  One of their big concerns is that a new arena would bring in too many straight males to the 'hood.  On Thursday, a group called No Arena Gayborhood (it's called that on Google Maps) said in a statement that it will "deliver signed petitions to city council members underscoring the ways 76 Place would threaten Philadelphia's historic Gayborhood, its residents, businesses, service providers and the Greater Philadelphia LGBTQ+ community."  Is it possible the gays could stop an arena in a massive U.S. city?

NFL Hits Derek Carr With Ridiculous $14,000 Fine For Breaking Out In A Michael Jackson Dance:  Report.  Yes, a Michael Jackson dance.  According to a report Thursday from NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk, the NFL has hit New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr with a $14,000 fine for a touchdown celebration that he did against the Dallas Cowboys where he broke out in a Michael Jackson dance.  And not only that, but it included MJ's famous crotch grab, which is most likely what did him in.

The Editor says...
The root of the problem is that Mr. Carr is not black, and thus he is not authorized to act like Michael Jackson.

Cotton candy burrito, newest food at Arizona Cardinals home games, filled with 'fun'.  One of the newest food items greeting fans of the Arizona Cardinals this season at State Farm Stadium is sure to give dentists a headache:  a cotton candy burrito.  Craft Culinary Creations executive chef Sean Kavanaugh told Fox News Digital the creation was inspired by a similar item he spotted in Las Vegas.  "I wish I could say I invented it, but I saw it in an ice cream shop in Las Vegas," he said in a telephone interview.

Surveillance state!  NFL deploys facial recognition tech at ALL 32 stadiums.  The National Football League is the latest organization to turn to facial authentication to bolster event security, according to an announcement this week.  All 32 NFL stadiums will start using the technology this season, after the league signed a contract with a company that uses facial scans to verify the identity of people entering event venues and other secure spaces.  The facial authentication platform, which counts the Cleveland Browns' owners as investors, will be used to "streamline and secure" entry for thousands of credentialed media, officials, staff and guests so they can easily access restricted areas such as press boxes and locker rooms, Jeff Boehm, the chief operating officer of Wicket, said in a LinkedIn post Monday. [...] Some teams also have extended their use of the technology to scan the faces of ticket holders.  The Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and New York Mets all have used the company's facial authentication software to authenticate fans with tickets, according to Stadium Tech Report.

British Sprinter Blows Race After Stopping Short of the Finish Line.  16-year-old British sprinter Jake Odey-Jordan raced out to a commanding lead in the men's 200m at the European Athletics U18 Championships.  It looked like his victory was assured and it assuredly would have been, had he merely kept running.  However, he did not.  [Video clip]

The Bengals Are Selling Cheap Used TVs Amid Stadium Renovation.  Need a new TV, but you're on a budget?  The Cincinnati Bengals are here to help!  As renovations begin at Paycor Stadium, the organization and the county are selling all the old TVs from the venue's hallways and suites.  In late May, Hamilton County announced in a press release that they were selling five- to seven-year-old "gently used" television sets at a steep discount.  According to WCPO, they already sold 200 TVs during the first round on June 1, and they're set to unload another 150 on Saturday.

US Soccer Is A Victim Of Pure Corruption, And It's Unbelievable How Out In The Open It Is.  When it comes to our sports, we're supposed to be able to have trust in referees to keep themselves invisible and to make sure the game is played fair.  Kevin Ortega (the official currently being slammed with corruption allegations for the USA-Uruguay game), however, ain't playing that nonsense.  The 32-year-old referee from Peru has become the star of the Copa America group stage match for several reasons, and not good ones.  Let's start with that outrageous goal that Uruguay "scored," having a massive asterisk beside it along with their "win:"  [Tweet with video clip]

There's an obvious gambling problem in sports that should cause sports fans to question the legitimacy of every contest.  On Tuesday, news broke that San Diego Padres utility player Tucupita Marcano was facing a lifetime ban for having allegedly bet on baseball, including placing bets on the outcomes of Pittsburgh Pirates games when he played for the team last year.  The investigation is ongoing, and representatives for Marcano, the MLBPA, and MLB are for the moment staying tight-lipped in public, but the widespread expectation seems to be that Marcano will be lucky to escape with any eligibility to return to professional baseball at all.  Marcano, however, is just the latest in an alarming string of athletes who have been implicated in professional gambling scandals.  Nor is the problem limited to baseball.  In April, the NBA announced a lifetime ban for Toronto Raptors reserve player Jontay Porter, who not only was alleged to have bet on games, but also allegedly provided illegal inside information to gamblers in exchange for money and on at least one occasion allegedly faked an illness to limit his own participation in a game in order to ensure that a particular proposition bet paid off.

Should It Be Illegal To Fly an RC Plane Within 3 Miles of a Sports Game?  If you live near a sports stadium and own a remote control toy, you might have committed a federal crime without even realizing it.  After 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned all flights below 3,000 feet within 3 nautical miles (around 3.5 land miles) of certain sports games.  Since then, Congress has made the rule permanent, and the FAA expanded the restriction to all "unmanned aerial systems," including drones and model planes.  Many hobbyists have run afoul of the rule without realizing it, and some have caught serious federal charges.  Now the Drone Advisory Council, an industry association, is pushing the FAA to nix the restriction.  In a paper published last week, the council urged the FAA to exempt unmanned aircraft from the 3-nautical-mile no-fly zone.  The huge radius "makes sense if you're concerned about airspace security from a traditional airliner crashing into the stadium, but not for a drone," the paper says.

Aggers is right: this absurd new woke jargon is ruining sport.  Jonathan Agnew — who is soon to step down as the BBC's chief cricket correspondent — has admitted that he can't bear the sport's recent switch to gender-neutral terminology.  "I hate 'batter'," he says.  "Why can't a man playing a man's game be a 'batsman'?"  Many cricket fans share his irritation.  Of course, if you wanted to annoy them further, you could mischievously argue that the change is logical.  After all, we have bowlers rather than bowlsmen, fielders rather than fieldsmen, and wicketkeepers rather than wicketkeepsmen.  It's perfectly consistent, therefore, to have batters rather than batsmen.  We all know, however, that this change was not made for the sake of consistency.  It was made in a pathetically craven attempt to make a centuries-old sport played primarily by men seem "modern" and "inclusive".  And it's this cravenness that's so annoying.

Why did they wait until the last minute?  Solar eclipses are predicted years in advance.
New York Yankees postpone game Monday due to solar eclipse.  As many of you may already know, Monday will provide millions of Americans with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse as the path of totality streaks across several U.S. states.  One of those states is New York, and it's already prompted one of the state's professional baseball teams to make some changes to their schedule.  The New York Yankees were originally scheduled to face the Miami Marlins Monday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. local time.  But the team announced it has pushed back that start time by four hours because the eclipse is slated to begin just minutes before first pitch.

'Ozempig' remains Minnesota baseball team's mascot despite uproar that name is form of fat-shaming.  For a Minnesota minor league baseball team known for a history of outlandish promotions, the idea of naming its longtime live pig mascot after the weight loss drug Ozempic made perfect sense.  The St. Paul Saints quickly found out that not everyone was amused by the pig's name, Ozempig, or the team's posting of a backstory about the pig's embarrassment at gaining weight and promise to try to remain trim.

Dartmouth University basketball team votes to unionize.  The mens basketball team at the New Hampshire-based Dartmouth University on Tuesday voted to unionize in a 13-2 vote, becoming the first college sports team to form a union.  The university itself will have until March 12 to file their objection with the National Labor Relations Board against the team who are set to join the local 560 chapter of the the Service Employees International Union, also known as SEIU.  Dartmouth called the vote an "isolated circumstance," stating their belief "the students on the men's basketball team are not in any way employed by Dartmouth" and that the university does "not believe unionization is appropriate."

The Editor says...
Here's how to fix this problem overnight:  Eliminate (or indefinitely suspend) the entire basketball program.  Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers, and Dartmouth can get by without a basketball team (and coaches) for a while.

What's With All the Hatred of White Basketball Players?  Sheryl Swoopes, a four-time WNBA champion and three-time WNBA MVP, spoke at length about Caitlin Clark during a recent appearance on the "Gil's Arena" podcast, which is hosted by former NBA star Gilbert Arenas.  Caitlin Clark, for those of you who aren't aware, plays guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes.  She is the NCAA Division I women's all-time leading scorer and is regarded as one of the greatest players in college basketball history.  She is also white, which set Swoopes off.  In spite of all of Clark's accomplishments, Swoopes couldn't contain her jealousy and, rather than congratulate her and say some kind words, allowed her racism to show.

Sports Illustrated To Fire All Staff After Several Controversies.  Sports Illustrated sent an email to all employees alerting them that they are laid off effective immediately, or that they will be fired within 90 days.  This comes after several scandals in recent years, including controversial Swimsuit Edition covers and the uses of Artificial Intelligence to produce content for its website.

All Sports Illustrated Staffers to be Fired.  I have no beef with Sports Illustrated, but they made their bed when they went 'woke' with the transgender swimsuit edition.  It was the most straightforward edition of that publication, and they ruined it.  Many 'Bud Light' comparisons are being made because the magazine announced that virtually all staff will be fired.  The revenue isn't there to sustain the brand, so this Friday was like the Red Wedding for a lot of people.

Is football leading us to hedonism?  I have come to believe that the NFL and the NCAA, driven as they are by greed, are hoping to replace faith in our society.  They want us to exchange faith for hedonistic activities aimed to ensnare as many of us into gambling and other resource-draining activities as possible.  Through clever public relations, they pretend to support the Armed Forces, social justice, and first responders among us, but this is all really clever window dressing to cynically separate sports fans from their incomes.  As a Christian, I suspect that football is encouraging people of faith to violate several of the Ten Commandments.  The most obvious of these is God's call for us to keep the Sabbath day holy. [...] Once upon a time, professional football was a Sunday sport.  Now the NFL plays on Mondays, Thursdays, Sundays, and even Saturdays when college football winds down.  The ever-increasing expansion of football is hard to ignore.  Way back when, NFL games would start after most Christians had returned from morning worship on Sunday.

Pistons suffer 25th straight loss, hear chants of 'sell the team'.  Kelly Olynyk scored 25 points and the short-handed Utah Jazz beat Detroit 119-111 on Thursday night for the Pistons' 25th straight loss, one short of the NBA single-season record.  The 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers share the record at 26.  The 76ers hold the overall mark at 28, a skid that started in the 2014-15 season and carried over into 2015-16.

Sports Illustrated Published AI-Generated Articles Under Fake Names.  Sports Illustrated was once the benchmark for sports content but today the site has been accused of publishing AI-generated content under the names of authors who are also AI-generated.  Case in point, Drew Ortiz who had a photo and an author biography on the site.  ["]Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn't seem to exist.  He has no social media presence and no publishing history.  And even more strangely, his profile photo on Sports Illustrated is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, [...]["]

Why we are sleepwalking into tyranny.  The world is heading quite rapidly toward tyranny.  We are in a revolutionary period that will dramatically change civilization.  Few people understand the gravity of our situation.  Here are some of the reasons why the majority of people seem oblivious to the danger. [...] These are not conspiracy theories.  The evidence is mostly out in the open.  The people who are planning to be your future masters are not worried about stating their plans because the vast majority of people are distracted with their trivial amusements.  They are busy watching ball games and movies and smartphone screens.

University of Wisconsin Women's Basketball Coach Bemoans "Run-of-the-Mill White Kids" on Her Team.  University of Wisconsin Women's basketball coach Marisa Moseley bemoaned "run-of-the-mill" white kids on her team.  "If you look at my team, you know, we're pretty much the United Nations.  I have the first Indian woman to ever play at the Power 5.  I have kids who are Nigerian and kids who are Dominican and kids who are Mexican and kids who are run of the mill white because they're still there too," Moseley said.  As soon as she realized she [said], "My mom is white just so nobody is offended.  My mom is a white woman from the Berkshires.  Very white."

Why Women's Soccer Teams are Overpaid.  The Women's World Cup (soccer) is upon us, and we're in for weeks of mind-numbing commentary by browbeaten weenies who gloss over the ladies' athletic inadequacies, but gush over their strategies. [...] Rarely will you see a missile-like 40-yard cross-field pass precisely executed by the women, only a soft, floating ball that's easily intercepted by a Trans player with average male speed.  Rarely, in women's soccer, will a player drill in a corner kick with vicious velocity, inviting the forward to nod in powerfully past a goalie with anatomical encumbrances that restrict her diving agility, lovely though they are.  Rarely, in women's soccer, will a player muster the foot speed (in the kicking motion) to launch a long-distance shot with such venom that it rattles the net.

NASCAR and the Chicago traffic jam of 2023.  Chicago tried something new this year.  For the first time ever, on the weekend before Independence Day, the city of Chicago hosted a NASCAR street race — yes, in downtown Chicago, one of the best known business, shopping and entertainment districts in the world.  This isn't something that the voters chose consciously; it's a decision made by the last city government, the office of the recently-defeated Mayor Lori Lightfoot.  Chicagoans have been referring to the event as Lightfoot's last attack on the people of Chicago.  Events like this take weeks to set up, so driving barriers and temporary viewing stands have been erected, disrupting traffic for weeks.  Chicago traffic is always a challenge, even worse now than usual with a massive repaving project in process on the Kennedy Expressway (the highway connecting downtown Chicago with O'Hare Airport).  Summer traffic normally swells with tourists already; Chicago hardly needed the added snarl of extensive NASCAR road closures in one of the most congested areas in the country.

Just so you'll know, The Editor does not condone or endorse this idea.
The Enhanced Olympics: Drugs Welcome!  The basic idea: sports without drug testing.  "We believe that science is real and has an important place in supporting human flourishing.  There is no better way to highlight the centrality of science in our modern world than in elite sports," said Aron D'Souza, the president of the Enhanced Games.  Planned for 2024, the Enhanced Games aims to be the first international sports event that fully supports performance enhancements.  Consequently, the Enhanced Games will not adhere to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules with respect to track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports competitions.  As the event plan states, "Athletes will not be tested for performance enhancements, and are under no obligation to declare their enhanced status in order to compete."

Deion Sanders Effect at Colorado Is Evident With Insanely Expensive Tickets for Early Home, Road Games.  The Deion Sanders effect is in full bloom, three months before Colorado takes the field.  Benefitting the most from the excitement for the upcoming season are people who currently have tickets for the Buffaloes' first few games.  Even though Colorado doesn't open the season at home, this hasn't stopped the hype for the 2023 opener at TCU.  The Horned Frogs are coming off a run to the national championship game, so fans were already excited for the 2023 season.  But add in Deion Sanders to the season opener and you've got a recipe for expensive tickets.  According to Ticketmaster, the current get-in price for the opener in Forth Worth is $226 to sit in the upper-deck.

NFL Accelerator Program Returns Next Week and Continues to Apply Brakes on Advancing White Men.  The NFL on Wednesday proudly announced the return of its Accelerator Program, and with it returns the fact NFL owners have a diversity divide issue and the league is trying to address that issue of inclusivity with a program that embraces exclusion.  The Coach Accelerator program will run during the NFL's spring meeting starting Sunday to Tuesday in Minneapolis.  Per the NFL, the program "aims to increase exposure between owners, executives, and diverse coaching talent, providing ample opportunity to develop and build upon their relationships."  The program is designed to change the dynamics of past coach hiring cycles in which white candidates were hired more often than minority candidates.

Commanders sale: Dan Snyder reaches deal to sell franchise to Josh Harris group for $6 billion.  The Washington Commanders have an agreement in principle in place for Josh Harris and his group to purchase the franchise for $6 billion, a source confirmed to CBS Sports.  The deal will set an NFL record for the most expensive sale in league history.  The previous record of $4.65 billion was set last year by the Walton-Penner group when it purchased the Denver Broncos.  Any sale of the team would have to be approved by three-quarters of NFL ownership.  Owners plan to convene in May for a regularly scheduled spring meeting, where a vote on final approval could take place.  Harris' previous bid for the Denver Broncos means the league is familiar with him and his finances, which would help expedite the approval process.

Many Paralympians are faking the severity of their disabilities: former officials.  A "mind-blowing" number of Paralympians are faking the severity of their disabilities to take advantage of the system and win medals, a new investigation revealed.  The former head of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has called for a sweeping reform to save the integrity of the Games after many Paralympians have come forward with stories of exploiting the rules, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Xavier Gonzalez, who led the IPC from 2004 to 2019, said athletes would play up their disabilities to compete in events that they may not actually be qualified to be in.  The IPC is in charge of enforcing the rules of classification, but Gonzalez has called for the formation of a new body that would be more effective at removing possible cheaters.

High school football coach fired for praying with players rehired, awarded nearly $2 million.  After a years-long legal battle, Christian high school assistant football coach Joseph Kennedy has been reinstated to his position and awarded nearly $2 million after he was fired for leading players in prayer after each game.  "Mr. Kennedy will be an assistant football coach for Bremerton High School for the 2023 season," the Bremerton School District in Washington said in a March 6 statement on its website.  "Mr. Kennedy has completed human resources paperwork and we are awaiting the results of his fingerprinting and background check."

The Editor says...
He has already worked for you before.  You're re-hiring him.  Why do you require a background check?

Home-plate umpire suspended indefinitely after atrociously bad call.  These are the kinds of calls that bring the integrity of the official into question (especially with the proliferation of sports betting across America) but you can judge for yourself below:  [Video clip]  That ball appeared to hit the dirt, a clear ball.  When the ump called it a strike, a despondent Mims hopped around before pointing at the divot that the baseball left in the dirt.  It was a bad call and Mims had said his piece.  Surely he would get a fair crack at this unlikely comeback with his next swing of the bat.  That swing never came.  The umpire, operating with the world's most generous strike zone apparently, called a game-ending third strike on a pitch that was so obviously down and out that the announcer began calling it as such [...] Mims followed the umpire, screaming about the missed call, before his catcher ran up and held him back from compounding the situation.  Social media reactions were swift, ranging from people aghast at one of the very worst calls they had ever seen, perhaps ever, to bewildered amusement.  The Southland Conference was not nearly as amused with the horrific calls, and released a statement announcing the suspension of the offending umpire, Reggie Drummer.

Famed Texas Tech Basketball Coach Suspended for 'Racial Insensitivity' after Quoting Bible Passage.  Texas Tech has suspended men's basketball coach Mark Adams for what the school is calling an "inappropriate, unacceptable, and racially insensitive comment."  According to the school, Adams was encouraging a player to be more receptive to coaching and "referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters."  Adams apologized to the team after he found out the player was upset about the use of the Bible verse, a source told ESPN.

MLS breaks attendance records on the opening weekend of the new season.  The new MLS season is off to a bright start with attendances through the roof on opening day, with some stadiums experiencing a better turnout than several NFL venues on average.  On Saturday, Charlotte FC had 69,345 fans at its home opener in a 1-0 loss against the New England Revolution, while Atlanta United's dramatic 2-1 win against the San Jose Earthquakes wasn't far behind with 67,538 supporters watching from the stands of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  That's close to the NFL's per game attendance of 69,442 last year and it's the first time that MLS has had multiple 65,000+ games on the same day, according to the league's Twitter account.

Why the NFL Isn't Going Away.  There is no denying that injuries are a common part of the game.  Fans are used to seeing players being regularly assisted or carted off the field. [...] [K]nee injuries occur most often, but anyone who follows the game knows that head injuries, which occur on a regular basis, raise the greatest concern since they can have devasting long-term consequences.  One survey of retired NFL players found that 9 of 10 had at least one concussion.  At least 10 percent of NFL players will develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE.  The symptoms of the disease have become well known and include aggression, confusion, depression, and lack of impulse control, which can result in interpersonal violence and suicide.  Symptoms often appear after a player has retired, and a recent study found the average life expectancy of NFL players with CTE is 51.  For years the NFL denied there was any connection between concussions and long-term harm and that returning to play did not involve significant risk.  These findings were based on bogus studies authored by an NFL committee.

WNBA Player Demands Private Jets for Entire League.  The WNBA costs about $70 million per year to operate and generates just $60 million in revenue.  The NBA, which makes money because people like to watch it, subsidizes the women's league in the name of equity.  WNBA teams typically travel on commercial airlines to save money.  Chartering private planes for the entire league would cost an estimated $30 million per year.  Liberals complain that WNBA players don't make as much money as their NBA counterparts, which is why Griner, Stewart, and others are forced to play abroad in Russia or Turkey.  Griner and Stewart are among the league's highest-paid players, taking home $228,000 per year (not including bonuses) on top of endorsement deals worth about $1 million.  Former president Barack Obama defined "wealthy" as an individual earning more than $200,000 annually and called for higher taxes on these individuals to pay for government programs.  "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money," he said in 2010.  (Obama and his wife are estimated to have a net worth approaching $100 million.)

Steve Almond's Failed Ambush of Laura Ingraham.  Some people make a name for themselves by building something — a business, a following, an audience.  Others try to make a name for themselves not by building anything but just by trying to tear down what others have built.  Steve Almond has set out to do the latter.  For the past few years he has set out to tear down the National Football League through a book he wants to sell. [...] He appeared on Ingraham's show with a dual agenda.  The first was to push his book, in which he clownishly argues for doing away with football and all of the fun it provides and the jobs and millionaires it creates.  Almond says it's all too risky, but the fact is there are risky jobs everywhere and life is full of risk.

Virginia Tech Soccer Player Receives $100K Settlement After Being Benched for Refusing to Kneel for BLM.  A former Virginia Tech soccer player claims she was benched in 2020 for refusing to kneel for a pre-game unity ceremony supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.  She sued in 2021, and now the school has officially settled with the player, Kiersten Hening, who will receive $100,000.  Neither the school nor the coach, Charles "Chugger" Adair, however, admitted to any wrongdoing.

A great time to be a .279 hitter.  Have you seen the sports headlines lately?  Money is flying fast from teams to players.  I don't want to hear owners in the next union contract negotiations complaining about the cost of doing business.  It's obviously the owners driving up the cost of doing business and higher ticket prices are next.

Time To Apologize To Georgia.  Major League Baseball moved its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta because the Legislature passed an election law that the Democrats and media claimed was designed to suppress the vote, especially that of minorities.  Yet somehow Georgia voters turned out in higher numbers earlier this week than they did in the two previous midterm elections.  MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred owes Atlanta, the entire state of Georgia, the Braves, and, in fact, the entire nation an apology.  On April 2, the day after the 2021 baseball season began, Manfred announced that he had "decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft."  Major League Baseball, Manfred explained, "fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."  Making Manfred's cowardly capitulation to social justice bullies even more infuriating was the fact that the game was moved to Colorado, where voting laws are similar to Georgia's new rules.  Unlike Georgia though, Colorado has a Democratic governor and practices blue state electoral habits.  So it was judged differently.

Report: Augusta National, USGA and PGA of America now included in DOJ's investigation into golf.  Augusta National, the United States Golf Association and the PGA of America are now included in the Justice Department's growing antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The initial investigation stemmed from the Tour's feud with the controversial Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf, which has prompted lawsuits from each league against one another in a lengthy legal battle.  Initially, the DOJ was just looking at the Tour.  However, according to The Wall Street Journal, it now includes Augusta National, the USGA and the PGA of America.

Pro Black Athletes Describe Their Teammates As "Little White Boy" And A "Good Players Despite Being White".  Tucker Carlson provided an accurate assessment of the overt anti-white racism in America that goes not only unchecked, but often praised.  His comparison to Rwanda's eventual genocide doesn't feel that far off when one considers the daily reminders by many prominent media personalities and politicians of the "whiteness" that pervades this country.  So it comes as no surprise that sheltered, entitled, and ignorant professional athletes would share these same anti-white views.  For supposedly being oppressed, there is no shortage of self-esteem among leftist blacks.  If they truly feared for their lives, it goes without saying that they'd hesitate to make such remarks.  This clip pretty much sums up the lack of fear or concern or interest in seeing white people as human beings:  [Video clip]

Idolatry:
Michael Jordan's '98 finals jersey sells for $10.1 million at auction.  Michael Jordan's jersey from the 1998 NBA finals smashed records when it sold for $10.1 million at auction Thursday [9/15/2022].  The red away-game jersey that Jordan wore in Game 1 of the Chicago Bulls' series against the Utah Jazz was the feature of the Sotheby's auction.  It is now the highest-priced item in sports memorabilia history, according to a report.

Where did the NFL get the idea that they should race-norm cognitive tests?  The NFL says it will quit race-norming cognitive tests to determine damages for minorities in cases related to football players' concussions. [...] Where would they ever get the idea that blacks started out with lower scores?  Could it be that they thought if government agencies throughout the country say that minorities start out with lower scores that they should follow their guidance?

Enes Kanter Freedom Tells Tucker Carlson NBA Recordings Show League Is 'Run by the Chinese Dictatorship'.  Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," and his team obtained exclusive recordings of the National Basketball Association (NBA) that indicated the league wanted to put a check on former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom who has been outspoken about the league's ties with China, as well as Turkey and murderous dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Kanter joined "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to speak about the issue.  At the time of Kanter Freedom's comments about the NBA-China ties, in one of the recordings, the NBAPA (Players Association) lawyer, Ron Klempner, said he had recently spoken with the league's counsel.  He wanted to have a "conversation about their concern right now is not so much what you are saying off the court but what it is that you're saying on the court when you step onto the court."

NFL recommends Deshaun Watson be sidelined for at least a year: reports.  The NFL has recommended a season-long suspension for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who recently settled 20 of 24 civil lawsuits filed against him for various sexual misconduct claims.  Hearings started Tuesday [6/28/2022] over what type of disciplinary action the star quarterback should face.  The hearing will consider whether Watson violated the league's personal conduct policy.  USA Today reported on Monday that league officials notified former federal judge Sue L. Robinson, who is serving as the disciplinary officer for the hearing, about its recommendation on Watson's case.  A source also told the newspaper that Robinson plans to review documentation from the league's investigation into the matter as well, adding that she will listen to arguments from attorneys of the league and its player's union, the NFLPA.

The Editor says...
If an employee of (for example) IBM, Frito-Lay, or AT&T had similar accusations against him, he would be swiftly terminated.  (How many of your co-workers have been sued 24 times for misconduct?)  But as long as Mr. Watson can throw the ball, catch the ball, and run with the ball, he gets plenty of leeway.

Nike to Fully Exit Russia, No Plans to Shut Down Chinese Slave Labor Plants.  Nike has decided to fully exit Russia three months after suspending operations in the country due to its invasion of Ukraine, the sportswear giant announced Thursday.  The company has no announced plans to exit China due to that country's gross human rights abuses and organized use of slave labor in making Nike products.  Nike initially suspended operations in Russia on March 3, a week after Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine in an attempt to take over the neighboring nation.  However, Nike seems to have been motivated to leave the country entirely by the prospect of new criminal laws imposed by the Russian government on foreign companies who protested against Moscow's war.

NBA owners 'have a combined $10 billion of exposure in China' beyond league's $5 billion business in the country.  Forty principal owners in the NBA reportedly have more than a combined $10 billion tied up in China — investments that have significant impact on the valuation of the teams.  Between the personal investments and NBA China having grown into a $5 billion business, 'the China value of each of the league's 30 teams [is] an estimated $150 million,' according to ESPN, which commissioned the New York firm Strategy Risks to conduct an assessment.  NBA owners invested in China reportedly include the Charlotte Hornets' Michael Jordan, the Brooklyn Nets' Joe Tsai, and the Miami Heat's Micky Arison.

Mariners Pitcher, Robbie Ray Ruled Out of Blue Jays Series Over Vaxx Status.  Seattle Mariners' left-hand pitcher and reigning Cy Young winner Robbie Ray is expected to sit out the team's three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays this week.  Ray is expected to return to the mound against the Boston Red Sox on Friday.  [Tweet]  While the team did not disclose why Ray is missing the series, it is apparent that Canada's mandatory vaccination rule is playing a role; likely indicating that the star pitcher is unvaccinated.  Ray will be missing out on a significant return to Toronto after winning the Cy Young as part of the Blue Jays in 2021.

Parents find 15-yr-old abducted from Dallas Maverick's game through sex trafficking site, demand answers.  A 15-year-old teenager who went to a Dallas Mavericks game with her dad, became part of a living nightmare when she went to the restroom and never came back, only later to be found through nude advertisements for sex trafficking online in Oklahoma City by her terrified parents.  The North Texas teenager disappeared on April 8th at the American Airlines Center.  The girl was caught on surveillance video leaving with a man.  She was missing for 11 days.

Detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner in Moscow extended by one month.  The lawyer for WNBA star Brittney Griner said Friday her pre-trial detention in Russia has been extended by one month.  Griner's lawyer Alexander Boikov told The Associated Press he believed the relatively short extension of the detention indicated the case would come to trial soon.  Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at the Moscow airport after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

So Much For Being Social Justice Warriors:  NBA Adds Another Authoritarian Government To List Of Friends.  The players, management, and executives of the National Basketball Association care very deeply about social justice issues.  Just ask them, and you're sure to get an earful.  Ask LeBron James about his thoughts on Black Lives Matter and he's certain to go into a lengthy rant about his all-in support for the group and the movement.  Ask league commissioner Adam Silver about his commitment to LGBTQ causes, and you'll likely hear a lengthy lecture about his commitment including that time he pulled the league's All-Star game out of Charlotte to protest North Carolina's reasonable bathroom bill.  The NBA even has a strong opinion on the 2nd Amendment, going so far as to launch an advertising campaign calling for strict gun control.  The NBA is all about speaking their minds and standing up for the oppressed and vulnerable.  So long as those being oppressed are in the United States and provided their support won't cause even a remote bit of financial pain.

Blood Money:  How America's Sports Owners Are in Bed with Communist China.  There is no question that basketball is China's most popular sport.  "Roughly 800 million people in China tuned into an NBA game. ... That's more than twice the population of the United States," NBC News reported in 2019.  That was before Daryl Moray sent his simple tweet, "Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong," in October of 2019 and started a firestorm that would shake the NBA to its core and begin a nearly 18-month-long ban on NBA games aired on Chinese television.  This was also before ESPN exposed Brooklyn Nets Owner Joe Tsai this week, in a report titled "Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai is the face of NBA's uneasy China relationship."  Tsai, who also owns WNBA's New York Liberty and the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League, is worth $8.5 billion, mostly from his Amazon-esque company Alibaba, headquartered in Hangzhou, China, with a revenue of over $700 billion per year.  Tsai is among many owners in the NBA and other sports associations who have shown public support for protest movements that are publicly critical of America's supposed human rights struggles, while at the same time covering up, and in some cases defending, China's abysmal human rights record.

NFL sets meetings between owners and diversity coach, GM talent (white guys not invited).  Pete Carroll said NFL owners should "stop living in their own universe" and get more comfortable with minority coaches that don't look like them during a session at the league's annual meeting in Palm Beach last month and that's exactly what the NFL has mandated will happen.  The league last week sent out a memo to all clubs announcing that 32 "diverse, prospective club-nominated head coach and general manager prospects will have networking opportunities with club and league office executives" at the NFL's spring meeting on May 23 and 24.

NFL's hiring mandate for minority, female coaches prompts legal double-takes.  It's illegal to discriminate based on race, even in the name of increasing diversity, which is why the NFL's newly announced mandate on women and minority coaches is already raising red flags.  The league announced last week at the annual owners meeting that all 32 teams must employ a woman or person of color as an offensive assistant coach, an effort to put diverse candidates in the pipeline for future head coaching positions.  Whether the hiring initiative can pass legal muster is another question, given that it looks at first glance like a "pretty clear racial and gender quota," said Josh Blackman, South Texas College of Law Houston professor.

The NFL goes even woker.  National Football League owners recently approved a new mandate requiring every NFL team to hire one minority offensive assistant coach.  The mandatory hire will be in effect for the upcoming 2022 season and can be a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority.  A statement obtained by United Press International noted that each of the soon-to-be-hired coaches will receive a one-year contract and will "work closely with the head coach and offensive staff to gain experience."  Teams will reportedly be reimbursed for the female and/or minority coaching hires through a league-wide fund that will go toward their salaries.

500 Laps of Dead Silence?  NASCAR Considers Racing Electric Cars.  If Hollywood ever gets around to rebooting (as they're wont to do) the 1990 Tom Cruise NASCAR flick "Days of Thunder," will the new version be called "Days of Moderately Loud High-Pitched Buzzing Noises?" Or maybe just "Days of Silence?"  If they wait long enough, they may have to.  According to reports, the stock-car sanctioning body is considering the role electrification of cars will play going forward, with officials floating at least an "exhibition series" featuring EVs.

Please do not ask for an exemption if you are not a celebrity.
NYC Mayor Announces Vaccine-Mandate Exemption for Professional Athletes, Performers.  Newly elected Mayor Eric Adams declared a special carve-out to New York City's employer vaccine mandate Thursday [3/24/2022] for professional athletes and performers, allowing unvaccinated athletes like Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving back onto his home court.  Adams announced the decision at a press conference at Citi Field this morning.  "Today I signed an emergency executive order expanding the performance exemption to the private employer vaccine mandate," he said.

All the idiocy of Covid and vaccine mandates in one neat package.  In September, as part of his never-ending quest to ruin New York, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio required Covid jabs for adults going to indoor venues like restaurants or gyms.  Including Barclays Center, where the Nets play.  Then, in December, de Blasio extended the mandate to all private workplaces.  The mandates meant that [Kyrie] Irving couldn't play basketball at Barclays.  He was allowed to play outside New York, but in October the Nets said they wouldn't let him do that either if he couldn't play at home.  Irving was due to make $35 million this season, just shy of $400,000 a game (which made him only the third-highest paid player on the Nets, amazing but true).  Thus, every home game he missed cost him $400,000.  And I thought I was committed to staying unvaccinated.  Though the team still had to pay Irving for the road games.

NFL Agrees With NFLPA To Sack All Its COVID-19 Protocols.  The NFL is done with COVID-19.  Well, it's done with COVID-19 protocols.  In a memo sent to all 32 clubs Thursday, the NFL announced it had agreed with the NFL Players Association to lift all protocols it had imposed and amended since March of 2020. [...] That means testing is over, regardless of vaccination status for players, coaches and staff.  That means masks are no longer required in the workplace, regardless of vaccination status.  That means signs within team facilities concerning social distancing and mask wearing can come down.  That means restrictions on weight room and lunch room capacity limits are lifted.

The false doctrines of the Church of Woke.  Here's an example.  Blacks as a whole are 13% of society.  The NBA players are 90% Black men, and the NFL players are 70% Black men.  The overwhelming reason there's such a high percentage of Black men employed professionally in these sports is because of their superiority in playing basketball and football.  That's it.  That's all there is to it.  But a much lower percentage of Blacks are involved in management in these sports.  Under wokism, the management disparity is automatically attributed to racism.  Woke doesn't use racism to explain the selection of the players but does explain the management disparity as racism.  In fact, for various cultural reasons, Black people as a group underperform educationally but outperform in many sports.  There are lots of reasons for these disparities in management besides racism.

Enes Kanter Freedom — NBA player and vocal China critic — suddenly has no team.  Just like he predicted.  Enes Kanter Freedom — the NBA center who's made headlines for criticizing China's human rights record, all while playing for a league that craves the communist country's cash — predicted in an PBS interview that he'd soon be gone from basketball due to his views:  [Tweet]  "Soon" turned out to be 24 hours after his above interview with Margaret Hoover.  On Thursday, Freedom's now-former team, the Boston Celtics, traded him to the Houston Rockets — and with that, the Rockets cut him, Outkick reported.

Let's See if the NFL Really Is Racist.  Diversity only goes in one direction — replacing whiteness with "color."  The reality that African-Americans make up only 13 percent of the American population yet represent over 70 percent of NFL players is clearly a diversity problem.  If the NFL were truly "equitable" (using the progressive definition of equal outcome over equal opportunity), than the league should be roughly 60 percent White, 20 percent Hispanic, 15 percent Black, and 5 percent "other."  Yet there have been no calls for player diversity or accusations of systemic racism operating within the NFL Scouting Combine or player draft.  No one questions the organic process of selecting players based on physical prowess, raw talent, and skill level.  It's collectively understood that those who make it in the NFL are legitimate and deserve to be there.

Former Dolphins coach Flores sues NFL saying league is run 'like a plantation'.  Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing three NFL teams and the league itself, which he claims "is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation".  Flores, who is Black, was surprisingly fired by the Dolphins last month despite leading the team to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2003.  The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, seeks unspecified damages.  In the lawsuit, Flores also depicts a Dolphins team with a troubling culture.  He alleges he was offered a $100,000 bonus for every game his team lost during the 2019 season in order to secure a higher position in the 2020 NFL draft.  When the team won games towards the end of the season, Flores says he was told Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was "mad" that the victories were "compromising [Miami's] draft position."

Nebraska [is] removing mascot's 'OK' hand signal to avoid White supremacy connection.  The "OK" hand signal is no longer OK at the University of Nebraska.  Nebraska has updated the image of its mascot to avoid a connection with White supremacism.  The mascot is now pictured holding up the "No. 1" instead of forming the "OK" signal with his hand.  Herbie Husker, a cartoon mascot for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, had shown the "OK" hand sign for almost 50 years, but the university is making the revision after learning the same gesture has developed a connection in recent years to some far-right extremists.  The change to Herbie Husker was first reported by the Flatwater Free Press on Friday [1/28/2022].  "That hand gesture could, in some circles, represent something that does not represent what Nebraska athletics is about," Nebraska athletics licensing director Lonna Henrichs told the Flatwater Free Press.

17 NBA players make tens of millions off sneakers made with Chinese slave labor cotton.  Enes Kanter Freedom's opposition to China's nefarious labor practices and enslavement of Uyghur Muslims has been a recent narrative covered by the media — courtesy of the player's determination.  Behind the scenes, China's violations of human rights have long been a topic of contention for major U.S. companies and the NBA — making their silent opposition to doing business with China an ongoing two-faced partnership.  Kanter Freedom reposted a report by ESPN that listed a roster of 17 NBA athletes currently dealing with Chinese brands that source their materials in China's Xinjiang region.  The region has been the focus of human rights advocacy.  Reportedly "more than a million Uyghurs and other minorities are held in detention camps" in Xinjian, highlighted by ESPN's Mike Fish and Michael A. Fletcher.

LA Will Give Super Bowl Attendees 5-Layer Face Masks.  If you're planning to attend February 13th's Super Bowl, you might want to get busy coordinating your clothes.  You'll need a team-colored shirt, jacket, hat, socks... and medical mask.  As reported by CNN, this year's stadium shindig will be an anonymous affair:  Everyone's faces will be obscured.  And that's too bad, because the location is the "Land of the Beautiful People."  The event's being held in that haven of iconic American liberty, Los Angeles.  Hence, per LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, vaccination booths will be set up outside — providing first, second, or booster doses of the country's favorite pharmaceutical fix.

At this point in the season, there's too much money at stake to let Covid get in the way.
NFL ends daily COVID-19 testing for all players.  The NFL is curtailing daily testing of all players, vaccinated or unvaccinated, for COVID-19.  In a memo sent to the 32 clubs and obtained by The Associated Press, the league said Friday that medical experts from the NFL and the players' union agreed to the change.  Those doctors have seen enough evidence of a decrease in positive tests in the last month to feel comfortable with dropping daily tests.

Djokovic Leaves Australia After Losing Visa Appeal.  World No. 1-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic departed from Australia after the full federal court on Jan. 16 dismissed his challenge to a government decision revoking his visa on COVID-19-related grounds.  Chief Justice James Allsop said that Djokovic's application to overturn the Australian immigration minister's cancellation of his visa had been dismissed unanimously by himself as part of the court's three-judge panel, alongside Justice Anthony Besanko and Justice David O'Callaghan, after almost eight hours of deliberations.  All costs are to be paid for by Djokovic, who is facing a three-year ban from the country.  The 34-year-old Serbian player went to the airport in Melbourne just hours later.  Federal agents escorted him and his team from the business lounge to the gate, where he boarded an Emirates flight bound for Dubai.  The flight took off shortly before 11 p.m. local time.

Australian Open tennis:  Novak Djokovic loses deportation appeal, leaves country.  Novak Djokovic left Australia on Sunday evening after losing his final bid to avoid deportation and play in the Australian Open despite being unvaccinated for Covid-19.  A court earlier unanimously dismissed the No. 1-ranked tennis player's challenge to cancel his visa.  Djokovic, a 34-year-old from Serbia, said he was "extremely disappointed" by the ruling but respected it.  A masked Djokovic was photographed in an Melbourne airport lounge with two government officials in black uniforms.  He left on an Emirates flight to Dubai, the same United Arab Emirates city he flew to Australia from.

French Tennis Star Tests Positive For COVID-19 For The 250th Time.  French tennis player Benoit Paire has tested positive for COVID-19 just weeks before the Australian Open gets underway on January 17, 2022.  This is the 250th time Paire has gotten a positive test result from a COVID-19 test.  The 32-year-old is now angry and can't "deal with the COVID [...] anymore!"  He has admitted that the regular quarantining required of him has taken a toll on his mental health.

NFL threatens clubs with penalties if they ask recruits about drugs, mothers' prostitution.  A new NFL rule threatens teams with financial penalties and the loss of a draft pick if they ask prospective recruits about personal issues such as their marijuana habits, sexual orientation and whether their mothers have ever been prostitutes.  In a Wednesday [1/5/2022] letter to the league's 32 teams that ESPN obtained, the NFL said clubs will forfeit a draft pick between the first and fourth rounds and receive a minimum $150,000 fine if coaches ask "disrespectful, inappropriate or unprofessional" questions during an interview.  Team representatives also will face individual fines and suspensions over their conduct with draft prospects.  "All clubs should ensure that prospective draft picks are afforded a respectful and professional NFL environment — one that is consistent with state and federal law and our shared commitment to respect, diversity and inclusion," the memo states.

Vaccinated 33 Year Old Italian Football Star Weeps As He Announces His Retirement After He Learns His Heart Is Distroyed.  Argentina and Barcelona star Sergio Aguero has announced his retirement from football just over a month after the 33-year-old was diagnosed with a heart condition.  The former Manchester City player signed a two-year deal with Barcelona this year but made just five appearances, scoring one goal against Real Madrid, before being taken to hospital with "chest pains" after a match at home to Alaves in October.  "I have decided to stop playing professional football," said Aguero at a press conference at Camp Nou on Wednesday [12/15/2021].  [Video clip]

Lessons from the National Football League.  Nobody plays in the NFL because Daddy or Mommy owns the team or serves as a league executive.  Nobody plays because of famous relatives, sports figures or otherwise.  Nobody plays due to race or national origin.  Nobody checks whether any team matches the ethnic proportions of society.  It's all about merit, and it's all voluntary.

Time Magazine Names Simone Biles as 'Athlete of the Year' for Withdrawing from 2020 Olympics.  Time magazine revealed a controversial pick for its "athlete of the year" award on Thursday handing the crown to U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, not because she did well, but because she pulled out of events during the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  Biles had a relatively poor showing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo winning only a silver and bronze medal in two events, compared to the handful of golds she won during the 2016 Olympics.

The Fight for Civic Nationalism.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but here is a statement from the National Basketball Association [link] condemning the verdict.  Two things to note:  Sports teams are owned by billionaire oligarchs, the people who run the country.  Second, the statement is a direct contradiction of observable reality.  Calling self-defense in the midst of a riot "vigilantism" and the riot a "peaceful protest" is deranged.  They are either lying or crazy.  What the Rittenhouse case should do for the civic nationalists, especially the reaction to it from the halls of power, is cause them to wonder if their opponents are fit for a civil society at all.

Enes Kanter Says NBA Officials Threatened To Ban Him For Criticizing China.  Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter was apparently pressured to stop his criticism of China.  The Turkish-born basketball player has become incredibly outspoken against the communist dictatorship in China, and not everyone involved with the league is happy.  During an interview on CNN, Kanter revealed that two unnamed NBA officials borderline begged him to take off his Free Tibet shoes prior to a game and later implied he might be banned for the move.  The Celtics player asked if he was breaking any rules, and the officials admitted he was not.  He added the officials later apologized.  Furthermore, he revealed that he's spoken with commissioner Adam Silver about the situation.  [Video clip]

PETA Urges MLB to Replace 'Bullpen' with 'Arm Barn'.  Animal rights organization PETA has called for Major League Baseball to "strike out" the word "bullpen" in favor of "arm barn" because, as the organization claims, the current term is a reference to a "holding area where terrified bulls are kept before slaughter."  "Words matter, and baseball 'bullpens' devalue talented players and mock the misery of sensitive animals," PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a press release.  "PETA encourages Major League Baseball coaches, announcers, players, and fans to changeup their language and embrace the 'arm barn' instead."

The Editor says...
[#1] If you don't like baseball terminology (or America), don't go to the games.  [#2] The overlap between PETA people and baseball fans is near zero, so the baseball announcers could have a field day with derisive mockery of this suggested destruction of our language and traditions.

The WNBA Had A Parade For Their Champions And Literally No One Showed Up.  A Twitter video of the Chicago Sky WNBA championship parade went viral earlier Wednesday and it really was a sight to see — not in a good way either.  Here [...] you can see the streets of Chicago, or perhaps the suburbs of the city, had no fans lined up to meet the WNBA champs.  Literally no one besides the security, team and buses themselves.

Allison Williams steps away from ESPN over vaccine decision.  Allison Williams, a veteran college football sideline reporter for ESPN, announced on Thursday that she will be opting out of the season because she will not take the COVID-19 vaccine.  "While my work is incredibly important to me, the most important role I have is as a mother," she wrote in a statement on Twitter.  "Throughout our family planning with our doctor, as well as a fertility specialist, I have decided not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at this time while my husband and I try for a second child.

NFL Cancels Grammy Winner Victory Boyd's National Anthem Performance over Her Vaccination Status.  The National Football League has canceled Grammy Award winner Victory Boyd's scheduled National Anthem performance after she refused the coronavirus vaccine for religious reasons.  In an email shared with The Epoch Times, NFL Senior Director for Media and Entertainment Events Seth Dudowsky to Victory's father and manager, John Boyd, on August 31 that her vaccination status will make ineligible to perform the National Anthem.

Bob Boone, father of Yankees manager Aaron Boone, to leave Nationals front office rather than get vaccinated: reports.  Several cranky former baseball players have decided in recent days that avoiding a COVID shot is more important than their post-playing career.  The latest is Bob Boone, a longtime Nationals executive after a decorated playing and managing career.  Boone will be quitting the front office in Washington after the team became one of three (with the Orioles and Astros) to require all non-player employees to be vaccinated.  "Boone has not resigned yet, but does expect to split with the Nationals rather than get the shot," according to the Washington Post.  The Post also reported that the Nats' minor league pitching coordinator was on unpaid leave because he was unvaccinated.

New Orleans Saints Are Selling Tickets for Less than $1 After Team Requires Fans to be Vaccinated or Tested before Games.  The New Orleans Saints are giving away tickets to their game with the Jaguars after implementing their plan to force fans to be vaccinated or provide a negative test prior to the game.  They're giving away tickets online.

Titans Coach Tests Positive For COVID Despite Fully Vaxxed, How Will NFL Handle These Cases?  Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel announced on Sunday [8/22/2021] that he tested positive for COVID-19.  The head coach is fully vaccinated and cited having only "minor symptoms" during a Zoom call with the media.  Vrabel said he is currently quarantined and waiting on a pending test to confirm primary diagnosis.  If positive, he will not return to the Titans facilities for another week.

NBA Game Ball Maker Is Controlled by Chinese Company Accused of Using Slave Labor.  The maker of the NBA's official game balls is owned by a Chinese company accused of using Uyghur slave labor that has threatened to cut ties with the league for supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.  In 2019, the Chinese-owned Anta Sports acquired Amer Sports and its subsidiaries, including the sporting goods maker Wilson.  The NBA inked a deal with Wilson to provide game balls for the upcoming season.  The league has also sold Anta brand shoes on its website.  The NBA has faced a drumbeat of criticism over its silence on China's human rights abuses.  While many of its superstars have defended social justice protests in the United States, the league has been largely quiet regarding China's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and its alleged use of slave labor.

The Generously Proportioned and Guaranteed 100% Simone Biles-Free RedState Sports Report.  The NBA held the first round of its annual draft Thursday evening [7/29/2021].  Given the COVID-driven oddball scheduling of college games played this past season, the eligible players are a bit more on the unknown side to all but the hardest of hardcore collegiate fans than is normally the case.  That, plus the fact most professional-quality players these days already have their bags packed before they set one foot on any given college campus just long enough to strut their stuff and pad their résumé, makes keeping tabs on the talent a challenge for anyone who finds blinking a necessity.

The Cleveland Indians new name [is] already taken.  In announcing the Cleveland Indians will become the Cleveland Guardians, management overlooked one tiny little thing.  There already is a Cleveland Guardians team.  The Cleveland Guardians is a roller derby team.  The Plain Dealer reported, "A spokesman for the Indians said Monday [7/26/2021] that the team could not comment on trademark issues or on any dealings with the roller derby Guardians at this time.  "The Cleveland Guardians roller derby team did not respond to requests for comment."  Indians, Guardians.  Maybe they can call the team the Custodians.  Or the Meridians.  Or in tribute to the quality of the teams in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, they can be known as the Comedians.  Of course, that may apply to the front office now.  However, the Guardians roller derby team seems to have gone out of business a couple of years ago, and its web site seemed dormant until the new buzz surrounding the baseball team's name change.

Rick Dennison out as Vikings offensive line coach after refusing COVID vaccine.  The Vikings and assistant coach Rick Dennison are trying to work it out.  Amid reports Friday [7/23/2021] that the two sides had split over Dennison's refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the Vikings released a statement saying they're continuing to "hold discussions" with the offensive line coach and run game coordinator.  "The Vikings continue to hold discussions with Offensive Line Coach Rick Dennison regarding the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 Protocols for training camp and preseason games," the statement read.  "At this time, Coach Dennison does not have an exemption to the vaccination requirements of those protocols.  We will adhere to the requirements of the protocols and of applicable law."

NFL teams will be forced to forfeit if unvaccinated players cause COVID-19 outbreak.  The NFL has laid out its strongest incentive yet for players to get the vaccine.  According to a memo shared on Twitter by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the league has mandated that a game cannot be rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players — and that team will be forced to forfeit, resulting "in a loss for playoff seeding."  The memo said the league intends to play all of its games within the scheduled 18-week period and a 19th week will not be added to the schedule under any circumstances — an idea that was floated in 2020 amid numerous outbreaks.

European Beach Handball Championships:  Norway hit with 1,500 euros bikini fine.  Norway have been fined 1,500 euros for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms at the European Beach Handball Championships.  The European Handball Federation (EHF) said it had imposed the fine because of a case of "improper clothing".  Norway's players wore shorts instead of bikini bottoms during a bronze medal match against Spain in Varna, Bulgaria.  Norway's Handball Federation (NHF) had already stated it would pay if their players were fined.  An EHF statement said a disciplinary commission had imposed a fine of "150 euros per player, for a total of 1,500 euros".  It added that Norway had played with shorts that are "not according to the athlete uniform regulations defined in the IHF [International Handball Federation] beach handball rules of the game."

Whitlock:  I'm happy NCAA amateurism is dead, but I'm concerned college sports will collapse.  The NCAA's decades-long refusal to reform its amateurism model will likely lead to a massive decline in the popularity of college football and basketball.  State politicians forced the NCAA to adopt the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) athlete marketing structure that went into effect early this week.  College athletes are now free to sell their name, image, and likeness to businesses big and small.  Rapper Master P's son, Hercy Miller, an incoming freshman basketball player at Tennessee State University, reportedly cut a $2 million brand ambassador deal with a tech company.  NIL is going to cause an unprecedented level of chaos within college athletics.  The impossible-to-control influx of cash into college locker rooms will spark acrimony among the players and completely disrupt and negatively redefine player-coach relationships.

College athletes get 'six-figure' endorsement deals after NCAA lifts rules against profiting off name, image, and likeness.  NCAA athletes are wasting little time in capitalizing on new rules allowing them to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), with some high-profile stars expecting to sign six-figure endorsement deals and possibly much more in the near future.  Leigh Steinberg, the famed sports agent who has negotiated deals for NFL legends such as Steve Young and Troy Aikman, told DailyMail.com that a quarterback from a high-profile school 'could rival a pro' in endorsement earnings.  Payouts will vary 'client to client, deal to deal' sports attorney Darren Heitner told DailyMail.com, adding that contracts in excess of $100,000 are 'absolutely' expected before the fall sports season starts in late August.

Nike CEO says sports giant is 'a brand of China and for China' in earnings call.  The CEO of Nike said the company is a 'brand of China' during a recent earnings call, defending the company's position in the country.  The comments come months after the sportswear apparel company was embroiled in controversy over alleged human rights abuses in the country.  This week, CEO John Donahoe conducted his quarterly earnings report for the company.  He was asked about the company's plan in China by an analyst.  'We've been in China for over 40 years, still invested significant time and energy in China in the early days and today we're the largest sport brand there and we're a brand of China and for China,' Donahoe responded, according to a transcript published by Nasdaq.

Nike: 'Of China and For China'.  Nike is between a rock and a hard place — or, rather, between two global powers, one of which is complicit in ongoing crimes against humanity.  After Nike issued a statement tepidly expressing concern about forced labor in China's Xinjiang region earlier this year, nationalistic Chinese consumers boycotted the company, prominent brand sponsors pulled out of deals, and sales in China plummeted.  Nike's troublesome statement was partly a response to the growing mountain of evidence that led the U.S. government, in addition to the parliaments of almost ten Western countries, to call the Chinese Communist Party's conduct there — a sweeping campaign to eradicate Uyghurs through arbitrary mass detention, population-control policies, and other horrors — genocide and crimes against humanity.

Leftists Aghast at Rumors First Openly Gay NFL Player Is a Republican.  Since announcing that he is a homosexual, Carl Nassib, NFL defensive end with the Las Vegas Raiders, has received praise from President Joe Biden and the establishment media.  However, when rumors started to fly that Nassib is a Republican — and could have been a supporter of former President Donald Trump — his newly minted hero status hit a snag.

Carl Nassib Comes out Better Than He Comes After The Other Team's Quarterback.  Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib announced Monday [6/21/2021] via Instagram that he is gay, thus becoming the first NFL player to come out while active in the league.  Looking past the resultant media frenzy and love slathering Nassib, both facts unreported and questions unasked by said media readily come to mind.  The notion of homosexuality and football being somehow intertwined is nothing new.  In 1978, college professor Alan Dundes published Into the Endzone for a Touchdown:  A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American Football, in which he argued, possibly with tongue firmly in cheek, that the sport's inner vernacular branded it as an obvious albeit unspoken male ritual rife with gay overtones.  Dundes quoted fellow professor William Arens in how, by his observation, even the football uniform is "not an expression, but an exaggeration of maleness."

Supreme Court Rules against NCAA in Athlete Compensation Dispute.  The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday [6/21/2021] that the NCAA can no longer bar colleges from offering student-athletes education-related benefits, including free laptops or paid post-graduate internships, in the name of amateurism.  The ruling does not specifically address the question of paying athletes directly, however.  Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote on behalf of the court that the NCAA "seeks immunity from the normal operation of the antitrust laws," adding that the court declines the request because "this suit involves admitted horizontal price fixing in a market where the defendants exercise monopoly control."  Justice Brett Kavanaugh accused the NCAA of "price fixing" in a concurrent opinion.  "The NCAA's business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America," he wrote.

Connecticut schools that use Native American mascots could lose casino revenue.  Connecticut schools that insist on using Native American nicknames and mascots without written consent from tribal leaders could see their budgets on the chopping block.  State senators passed a budget bill Tuesday [6/15/2021] containing a provision that cut districts off from the Mashantucket Pequot/Mohegan Fund, which generates education revenue at the state's Indian-run casinos.  Money would be withheld from schools that don't have permission to use "any name, symbol or image that depicts, refers to or is associated with a state or federally recognized Native American tribe or a Native American individual, custom or tradition, as a mascot, nickname, logo or team name

Police officer sues NFL over 'systemic racism' ad that is 'totally false, defamatory, and unacceptable'.  An Indianapolis police officer filed a lawsuit against the NFL after an advertisement it used last year appeared to suggest the officer contributed to "systemic racism" after he shot a black man.  Guy A. Relford, the lawyer for Indianapolis Metro Police Department Officer De'Joure Mercer, said his client was misrepresented in materials for an ad campaign to "honor victims of systemic racism, victims of police misconduct, and social justice heroes."  The campaign featured 87 black men and women who died during interactions with police, including more notable names such as George Floyd, Eric Gardner, and Freddie Gray.  One of the names was Dreasjon Reed, a man whom Mercer (who is also black) fatally shot after a vehicular chase.  Relford said the ad "gives rise to the inference, implication, and imputation that Mercer committed occupational misconduct and even criminal acts during the May 6 (e)ncounter with Reed, similar to that which were inflicted upon George Floyd."  "This inference, implication, and imputation is false because Mercer committed no such acts," he added.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and American Constitutional Rights Union Take On Major League Baseball in Court.  Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and the American Constitutional Rights Union, of which he is a member of the Board, have filed a hard-hitting amicus brief supporting Job Creators Network in their lawsuit against Major League Baseball.  The Job Creators Network (JCN) is suing Major League Baseball (MLB) to force them to reverse their decision to move the MLB All-Star game from Atlanta.  MLB moved the game to protest Georgia's new election integrity law.  The move will cause major economic consequences to the greater Atlanta community.  This has led to complaints that Major League Baseball is not representing the interests of its owners as it participates in political cancel culture and appears to do the bidding of leftist activists, such as Stacey Abrams, who maintain that measures such as voter identification are racist.  As a result of MLB's decision to suddenly leave Atlanta, Cobb County Travel and Tourism Bureau estimates that local businesses will lose more than $100 million in economic activity.

Major League Baseball Strikes Out Again on Black America.  By moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver because Georgia is protecting peoples' votes, Major League Baseball is hypocritical in its rationale.  MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that the "best way to demonstrate our values as a sport" would be to move the upcoming All-Star Game and its Entry Level Draft out of Georgia.  The decision came after the state's legislature passed and Governor Brian Kemp subsequently signed the "Election Integrity Act of 2021" into law.  Opponents of the new law decried it as racist, oppressive and disenfranchising.  This voter integrity measure has been attacked for allegedly denying persons of color the ability to vote.  It's claimed it will punish those who simply want to offer comforts such as food or water to voters standing in line or those without identification.  But these premises are based on the bigotry to low expectations that blacks cannot obtain identification or get to the polls without the aid and protection of government.  MLB nonetheless abandoned Atlanta, becoming the third league to move an event to exert political pressure.

Leading the Memorial by six strokes, Jon Rahm forced to withdraw after positive COVID-19 diagnosis.  Jon Rahm was rolling in dominant fashion to his second consecutive Memorial Tournament win after an unbelievable 64 on Saturday [6/5/2021] at Muirfield Village.  Things took a devastating turn post-round, however, as he was alerted by the PGA Tour that he tested positive for COVID-19 and would be forced to withdraw from the tournament after three rounds.  Rahm was informed by the PGA Tour on Monday that he was in contact tracing protocol as he was in close proximity to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.  Rahm tested negative throughout the week but a positive test popped up on Saturday while he was on the course.  He was informed shorty after shooting his 64 — one of the best rounds on the PGA Tour all year — and immediately withdrew from the tournament.

The Editor says...
[#1] Golf is an outdoor sport in which the participants are widely spaced.  Even if he had Covid-19, what's the problem?  [#2] A professional athlete is a person who is extremely unlikely to be at risk of serious complications from Covid-19.  [#3] Did Mr. Rahm really have the disease, or just a positive test result — which could easily have been a false positive?  With all that's at stake, especially since he was doing so well, a false positive could easily lead some to suspect tampering with the outcome of the tournament.

What Is 'Race Norming' and Why Is the NFL Just Now Admitting to It?  AP News explains that the practice of "race-norming" is the assumption that Black players have a "lower cognitive function" base, and thus settlements on brain injury claims are calculated by adjusting for race.  The result has been to make it harder for Black players to prove that they have been cognitively injured during the execution of their NFL career.

MLB sued for moving All-Star game out of Atlanta.  Major League Baseball is being sued over its move of next month's All-Star game out of Atlanta.  A 21-page lawsuit by conservative small-business advocacy organization Job Creators Network, filed Monday [5/31/2021] in federal court in New York, demands the immediate return of the game to Atlanta and $100 million in damages to local and state small businesses.  The suit also seeks $1 billion in punitive damages.  MLB, the MLB Players Association, Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark are named as defendants in the suit.

Men booted from Yankee Stadium after displaying 'Trump Won' banner.  Two men were escorted out of Yankee Stadium Thursday [5/27/2021] — one of them apparently in cuffs — after they hung a large pro-Trump banner from the second deck.  Video and photos show two men unveiling a "Trump Won Save America" flag on the first-base side of the stadium which prompted a Bronx cheer of boos from many in the crowd.

Transgender Censorship:  USA Today Erases 'Hurtful' Words From Female Athlete's Op-Ed.  On Saturday [5/22/2021], USA Today published an op-ed written by Chelsea Mitchell, one of three female athletes at the center of a legal challenge to Connecticut's unfair transgender rules that allow biological males to compete against females in women's sports.  Apparently facing some backlash a few days after publication, USA Today altered Mitchell's words and claimed that she had used "hurtful language."  On Tuesday, USA Today slapped an "Editor's Note" at the top of the article.  The note reads, "This column has been updated to reflect USA TODAY's standards and style guidelines.  We regret that hurtful language was used."  What language was so "hurtful" that USA Today altered it three days after publication?  The publication removed every mention of the biological term "male" and replaced it with the indeterminate word "transgender."

Sports Illustrated now only illustrating wokeness.  Sports Illustrated, like nearly all mainstream media, has leaned left for many years, but has just recently completely abandoned all balance and objectivity in an apparently desperate — if puzzling — attempt at virtue-signaling.  The June edition of the magazine featured stories on the WNBA, the NBA, the NFL (about a player who left the league), the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (and its effect on women's sports), and basketball again, with reference to Prince and his song "Purple Rain." [...] I think "Purple Rain" is a very good and emotional song.  But, for the second straight issue, there was no mention of the National Hockey League, though these issues came out just prior to and during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, one of sports most grueling and exhilarating events.  This could not possibly be a simple oversight.  Nor could it be a calculated capitalistic reflection of relative popularity and therefore its effect on the magazine's all important bottom line.  Is the league too white?  Moreover, there was no article on Major League Baseball.  Really?  A June issue with not one feature on the erstwhile "America's Pastime?"

Youth football drill goes viral and causes massive outrage: 'This is child abuse'.  A video of a youth football drill from last year, with a coach who has since been fired, went viral Tuesday [5/11/2021] and sparked outrage on social media, with many wondering whether children should be doing something like this.  The 8-second clip shows a young ball carrier going head-to-head with a would-be tackler.  The ball carrier lowers his helmet and runs over the defender, and it appeared the two connected with each other's helmets.  The defender hit the ground and was a little shaken up, video shows.

Los Angeles Dodgers create section for vaccinated fans; masks still required for ticket holders.  The Los Angeles Dodgers will attempt to incentivize fans to get COVID-19 vaccines by creating a special section for those who are immunized.  Select outfield seats will be open to fans this Saturday [4/24/2021] when the team takes on the San Diego Padres.  Details regarding the seats, which are in sections 166LG and 168LG in the loge level, include the following:
  •   Negative tests must be provided for children under 2 years old.
  •   Ticket holders must have received shots at least two weeks prior to attending the game.
  •   Children between 2 [and] 15 years old must have a virus test within 72 hours of admission.
  •   Masks must be worn unless ticket holders are eating and drinking.
A news release by the team notes that social distancing rules will not be enforced in the section.

The Editor says...
[#1] The outfield seats?  Is that the best incentive they can offer?  [#2] Children under 16 are the least likely to spread Covid-19.  [#3] If they can require you to wear a mask in the outfield, they could soon require you to wear a baseball glove.  Just in case.  For your safety.  We're all in this game together!  [#4] I can confidently predict that I will never attend a professional sports event again.  You go ahead.  Come for the BLM ceremony, stay for the game.

Dear Red States:  You Don't Need the NCAA.  A few short months ago, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota was a rising star in the Republican Party, due largely to her deft handling of the pandemic.  Unlike so many elected officials, even on our side, she refused to sanction lockdown orders or mask mandates in her state.  Then she caved to the "transgender" lobby, declining to sign a bill that banned males from participating in women's sports — legislation she had earlier promised to back.  Overnight, she went from being a likely future Vice President of the United States, and possibly even President one day, to being a future former governor of South Dakota.  Memo to the other 26 Republican governors:  Don't be like Kristi Noem.  The reason for Noem's reversal, she said, was a threat from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to withdraw tournament games and other sporting events from states that do not affirm "transgender rights." [...] Anyone can see what's going on here.  It's basically a form of extortion.  The Left has never cared about sports, per se, except as an instrument of "social change."

Supreme Court case could change the nature of college sports.  A Supreme Court case being argued this week amid March Madness could erode the difference between elite college athletes and professional sports stars.  If the former college athletes who brought the case win, colleges could end up competing for talented student athletes by offering over-the-top education benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars.  And that could change the nature of college sports.

General Motors' Official SUV of NCAA 'March Madness' Is Made in China.  The official SUV, produced by General Motors (GM), of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) annual "March Madness" tournament is made in China.  Last week, Buick — a division of GM — announced its 2021 Buick Envision is the official SUV of March Madness. [...] The Buick Envision is built in China and imported to the U.S. market to sell.

NCAA apologizes for disparities between women's and men's facilities.  The NCAA is promising to bring better resources to the Women's Division I Basketball Tournament after videos and images of the women's facilities sparked outrage among fans and athletes online.  Ahead of March Madness, student-athletes and coaches shared comparisons between the men's training facilities and a single rack of dumbbells and one stationary bike for the women.  The NCAA initially blamed the lack of space and vowed to improve the conditions.  Lynn Holzman, the NCAA's women's basketball VP, said the plan was to provide more space and equipment to teams that further advanced in the tournament.  "We want to be responsive to the needs of our participating teams, and we are actively working to enhance existing resources at practice courts, including additional weight training equipment," Holzman said in a statement Thursday [3/18/2021].

Washington state HS coach fired over post-game prayers loses Ninth Circuit court round.  A former high school football coach in Washington state who is fighting a school district's ban on post-game prayers with his players that cost him his job, has lost his latest court battle.  In the decision, a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco appeared to accuse former Bremerton High School coach Joe Kennedy of seeking publicity rather than divine intervention.  "Kennedy's attempts to draw nationwide attention to his challenge to the District showed that he was not engaging in private prayer," Judge Milan Smith wrote, according to Q13 FOX in Seattle.

Pittsburgh Penguins are under fire for photoshopping masks onto fans' faces in stands to hide COVID safety violations.  The Pittsburgh Penguins have come under fire for photoshopping masks onto fans' faces during the team's first game in front of home supporters for nearly a year.  The scandal first unfolded on Twitter on Wednesday when the Penguins' official page tweeted an image showing a group of fans all appearing to be properly wearing face coverings as they watched their team take on the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday [3/2/2021].  'We just had to say this again ... thanks for the continued support, Penguins fans,' the post read.  'We can't wait to see you tomorrow night.'

Kyrie Irving Demands NBA To Change Its Logo: 'Black Kings Built The League'.  Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving isn't afraid to speak his mind.  And like many others across the league, Irving wants to see change when it comes to the NBA logo.  Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West has been the symbol of the league since 1969, but Irving believes that the league should do whatever it takes to make the late Kobe Bryant the new logo.

The Editor says...
If the NBA logo shows the white silhouette of an obscure player from decades ago, or the white silhouette of this year's most overpaid black player, or the white silhouette of The Editor tripping over his own feet while trying to bounce the ball and run at the same time, what difference does it make?

New York's Plans to Reopen Arenas Won't Come Cheap for Fans Looking to Attend Games.  New York City will soon take a massive step on the road to recovery, with arenas and stadiums being allowed to reopen their doors for fans.  But anyone looking to see a game in person will have a very different experience than what they're used to — and will have to dole out a lot more cash.  Barclays Center is set to host the first game played with fans in New York in about 11 months, with the Brooklyn Nets taking on the Sacramento Kings.  Those looking to catch the Nets' big three of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden will have to agree to take two COVID tests before even stepping foot inside the arena.

The Editor says...
If almost nobody can attend professional sports events in person, and everyone watches online (if at all), there is no longer any need to build billion-dollar arenas.  The games can be played in a big TV studio somewhere.  In the absence of any fans, the athletes will learn how pointless their jobs are.  When viewing the games at home by themselves, the fans will eventually realize what a waste of time it is.  Throw the ball.  Bounce the ball.  Catch the ball.  Who cares?

Valparaiso to Drop 'Crusaders' as Team Name Because Term Is Embraced by Hate Groups.  Valparaiso University announced Thursday [2/11/2021] that is dropping the team name Crusaders, the school mascot and all logos associated with the term that it says has been embraced by hate groups.  The decision comes after a decades-long debate that had intensified recently because groups such as the Ku Klux Klan began using the symbols and words.  The school's faculty and student senates each passed resolutions calling for the change and the university's alumni board of directors supported reassessing the appropriateness of the team name.

The public sector purge is beginning.  Dawson Buchanan, a young Trump supporter, left a very disturbing thread on Twitter.  He asserts that he was all set to begin working for a company called Private Jet Services.  However, shortly before he was to begin, PJS fired him.  He finally learned from the owner that PJS had a contract with the National Hockey League.  When the NHL learned that PJS had hired someone who had worked for the Trump company, the NHL said PJS had a choice:  Buchanan or the NHL.  PJS opted for the company that helps pay its bills.

Buffalo Bills' plan for testing fans could be the new normal for events.  There will be fans on the stands at the upcoming Buffalo Bills playoff game, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at his press briefing Wednesday, joined by Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula.  "We're all so excited about the Bills," Cuomo said.  It's the football team's first home playoff game in over two decades, and 6,700 fans will be allowed inside the outdoor stadium to take part in a pilot test.

Penguins, valued at $650M, received $4.82M COVID loan.  There are 123 teams among the Big Four North American Men's Sports Leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL).  Only one of them received a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program.  That team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who received a loan of $4.82 million through the program authorized by the CARES Act.  According to the Small Business Administration's website, "The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll."

The Editor says...
The term small business should be defined somewhere.  The definition is probably in this incomprehensible document, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to hunt it down.  Whatever the definition may be, I doubt if the Pittsburgh Penguins qualifies as a small business.

Cleveland Indians Surrender On Name Change.  First, we had the arrival of the "Washington Football Team."  Are we now about to see the birth of the "Cleveland Baseball Team," or will they actually manage to come up with a permanent name and a new mascot?  We should know soon enough because the Cleveland, Ohio franchise announced that they will be doing away with the "Indians" name they've had for more than a century.  And like virtually everything else in the current era, it's all about the racism.

Cleveland to drop 'Indians' moniker:  Report.  "Cleveland Indians" will reportedly go the way of "Washington Redskins."  The New York Times reported Sunday evening [12/13/2020], citing "three people familiar with the decision" that the Indians could announce the change as early as this week, though the team plans to keep its current moniker for the 2021 season.  According to the Times, it wasn't immediately clear what the team's exact time frame and plans are.

Should we build football fields around our churches?  Nothing illustrates the absurdity of COVID rules and regulations more than college football.  As coaches and players make a mockery of the "scientific" and idolatrous government ritual of mask-wearing, maybe we should ask if healthy young men who play a game in which brain injuries, broken bones, and joint dislocations frequently occur should really be concerned about COVID-19.  A Google search of "athletes who have been hospitalized or died with COVID" finds only one, a 20-year-old, 6'3", overweight (355lb) football player.  Even in this tragedy, it is unclear from official reports if this young man died from or with COVID.  What is clear is that virus policies that allow players to go maskless as they huddle on the field but require masks when they huddle on the sidelines have little to do with saving lives.  COVID's purpose is to create a fearful and obedient American population and to destroy America as we know it.

How Liberals Can Destroy Football with COVID, and Why They'd Want To.  Football has always been reviled by the left.  It is quintessentially American:  invented in this country; played by high-testosterone, masculine men; and operating almost entirely as a super-competitive meritocracy — i.e., the test of whether someone gets to play in the NFL is whether he can play, and play better than the other guy.  In the NFL in 2020, there's no time to humor racism or any other "ism" in fielding a winning team; there's only the all-defining imperative priority to put the best players on the field and "coach 'em up" to play the game well.  All of those attributes of the sport are precisely why it has been so popular in America; it has been aligned with American cultural norms and preferences for decades.  The sport's popularity is in fact proof that America as a whole is not racist — systemically or otherwise.  Americans don't root for their team or watch the NFL in huge numbers based on a team's compliance with racial hiring quotas; they root and watch because they appreciate the best playing the best using talents that most of us don't have, and deciding on a level playing field who wins a competitive game and who loses.

Steelers players furious after NFL postpones Thanksgiving game against Raven.  The NFL thought it made the right move by postponing Thursday's Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens game, but not everyone agreed with the league's decision.  A number of Steelers players expressed rage and frustration on Twitter on Wednesday [11/25/2020] [...]

First all-Black NFL officiating crew to work Monday Night Football game.  The NFL has assembled an all-Black officiating crew for the first time to work Monday night's game between the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, citing the opportunity to recognize the league's history and recent practices in diversifying its officiating department.

The Editor says...
If you really care what color the officials are at a football game, you might be a racist.

Vegas Oddsmaker Says, "The Fix Was In, Trump was Robbed, This Election Was Stolen".  I've been a Las Vegas oddsmaker and sports gaming expert for four decades — long before I became known as a nationally syndicated conservative talk show host.  I understand odds and gambling in a way that no other conservative media personality, host, or politician in this country could.  And I can tell you something is very wrong with this presidential election.  It reminds me of a fixed football game.  Remember the famous fixed 1978 game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.  The Giants quarterback handed the ball off.  The running back didn't want it.  It fell on the ground.  Herm Edwards of the Eagles picked it up and ran it into the end zone with seconds left for a last second victory.  Every bettor in the world knows that game was fixed.

NBA Reportedly Facing Billions in Losses, Steep Decline in Player Salaries.  For obvious reasons, 2020 has been a bizarre year for sports.  The stark lack of fans at games, the various "bubble" environments to try and mitigate the spread of coronavirus, and the awkward rescheduling forcing leagues to play much later in the year than normal have all contributed to a sports year that fans won't soon forget.  But one major aspect of 2020 professional sports that fans might want to try and forget is the deluge of "woke" social justice protests that have proliferated the major three North American professional sports leagues.

MLB's debt at $8.3 billion after shortened 2020 season during coronavirus pandemic.  There was a lot of money lost for Major League Baseball in 2020.  MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told Sportico in an exclusive interview that the 30 MLB teams are $8.3 billion in debt from their different lenders, and they are expected to post between $2.8-$3 billion in operational losses this year.  "We are going to be at historic high levels of debt," Manfred told the website.  "And it's going to be difficult for the industry to weather another year where we don't have fans in the ballpark and have other limitations on how much we can't play and how we can play."

The Editor says...
I don't own a television, and don't care about politicized sports, so I was unaware until this morning [10/28/2020] that the World Series was played in the new billion-dollar baseball arena in Arlington, which is less than an hour from here.  (Plus another 30 minutes to find a parking spot.)

Is China Now In Control of Our Flow of Information?  Prior to the outbreak of the virus, those few sport figures, who stood up for the thousands of Hong Kong demonstrators marching in the street begging to be free, were quickly admonished and told to stand down by team owners who sought to appease their Chinese overlords.  LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick proudly took a knee and denounced our flag and their teammates in unison followed suit.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman Caught Slamming Flyovers During Pandemic on Hot Mic.  Military flyovers are a time-honored tradition that are greeted with roars from throngs of patriotic fans at NFL stadiums all over the country.  However, given that there are virtually no fans at any NFL stadiums during the pandemic, flyovers over near empty stadiums don't make a ton of sense.  That fact was grasped, discussed, and recorded — unknowingly — by Fox broadcasters Troy Aikman and Joe Buck on Sunday [10/18/2020] as the pair were caught panning the flyovers on a hot mic.  The moment of honesty and truth came at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, an arena that was only filled to 25% capacity due to Covid restrictions.  Buck and Aikman did not understand why the flyovers continued despite the diminished capacity, and they discussed it.  Aikman:  "That's a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover."  Buck:  "That's your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work."  Aikman:  "That stuff ain't happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket, I'll tell you that right now partner."

The Unapologetic Bias of the American Left.  [Scroll down]  The new defiance and the glee that comes from open bias have now saturated our culture, as if the liberated Left in today's globalized market has no need of half the U.S. population — the supposed loser, unwoke half.  The NBA intensifies both its worship of the Chinese Communist Party and its utter disdain for American democratic culture.  When revenues crash from eroding viewership and public criticism of collaboration with a government that institutionalized concentration camps, democracy destruction, and state-sponsored racism and murder, the woke players fire back in defense of China, with "So what?" certainty.

NASCAR has become a microcosm of the Democratic Party.  NASCAR, founded in 1948, was content to sanction races for seventy years.  Then, on October 1, 2018, it appointed Steve Phelps as its president.  Of the appointment, Matt Weaver, Autoweek columnist, wrote, "And for the first time since the decline of NASCAR's mainstream popularity began, the sanctioning body is publicly admitting what Phelps is calling a headwind — the challenges major league stock car racing will face as it looks to discover its place in modern American pop culture."  It has become obvious what Phelps's answer is to NASCAR's "headwind," to its looking "to discover its place in modern American pop culture."  Play the race card — no, not the auto race card, the human race card.  Racism and racial inequality are thinking characteristic of the country.  As the cited commercial illustrates, NASCAR has clearly become an ideologue because it has "an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology (a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture)."

Mark Cuban admits he's fine with doing business with China.  Mark Cuban has condemned human rights violations, but defended doing business with China, saying 'we have to pick our battles'.  The billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner appeared on former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly's new podcast The Megyn Kelly Show for an hour-long episode that aired on Monday [10/12/2020] to discuss the NBA Finals, foreign business deals and the Black Lives Matter movement, among several other topics.  At one point during the heated conversation, Kelly referenced the NBA's dealings with China, a market that is reportedly worth $4 billion to the league, and pointed out the country's controversial history of human rights violations.

Mark Cuban On The NBA's Support For BLM And China.  Mark Cuban appeared on Megyn Kelly's podcast which was posted today.  The entire interview was 50 minutes long and Kelly spent a significant amount of time pressing him on the NBA's support for both Black Lives Matter and China.  Kellly pointed out that BLM was founded by a group of Marxists and supports some fairly extreme views about things like the nuclear family and defunding the police.  Cuban argued that the NBA supports "the movement" not the official BLM organization which he referred to as "BLM.com." [...] "To pretend that Black Lives Matter, dot com or otherwise, is not about defunding the police is to be dishonest," Kelly argued.  "And the basketball players who have spoken about this have made clear that they support that.  They've talked about how they want to defund and dismantle the police force," she added.  "Individual players can have their opinions, right?" Cuban said.  The argument goes on like this for several more minutes.

How esports is quietly spawning a whole new generation of problem gamblers.  Most large sports events came to an abrupt halt during the pandemic, but one category was not only unaffected but enjoyed accelerated growth:  esports.  Esports is the competitive playing of video games such as League of Legends, Fortnite and Fifa Football.  The audiences for the biggest titles are now enormous.  Fortnite alone has around 78 million monthly players and professional tournaments draw in many millions of online spectators.  League of Legends World Championship attracted over 100 million viewers in 2019 with a peak of 44 million.  In comparison, the Wimbledon men's final 2019 peaked at around 9 million viewers.

Obama Crashes NBA Finals to Push Democrat Party Propaganda.  On Wednesday night [9/30/2020], the NBA held a 'More Than A Vote' campaign during the first game of the NBA finals — because the NBA is now a political arm for the DNC first and a basketball league second.  President Obama crashed the party to push for the Democrat cause — during the NBA finals!  What a complete turnoff.  During the NBA Finals the NBA worked in tandem with radical liberals of the Democrat Party in an effort to get out the vote.

American cyclist suspended by team after pro-Trump comments.  American cyclist Quinn Simmons was suspended by the Trek-Segafredo team on Thursday after posting antagonistic comments on social media in support of President Donald Trump.  The 2019 junior road race world champion replied to a journalist from the Netherlands who had criticized Trump on Twitter.  "Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons made statements online that we feel are divisive, incendiary, and detrimental to the team, professional cycling, its fans, and the positive future we hope to help create for the sport," Trek-Segafredo said in a statement.  "(He) will not be racing for Trek-Segafredo until further notice."

College football coach leaves 'All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ' note, quits team.  An Illinois State football coach abruptly quit the team Thursday, leaving a note on the door while exiting the facility.  Kurt Beathard, who was the Redbirds' offensive coordinator, told The Pantagraph he let a note that said "All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ" before he left.  Officials told the newspaper Wednesday he was no longer a part of the team and declined to comment on why he abruptly left.  His departure apparently followed an incident involving a "Black Lives Matter" poster in the locker room.